Cluster Kingdom: Slot Overview

The saying “they don’t make ’em like they used to” feels oddly fitting when you’re talking about castles. Many of these old fortresses have stood for centuries, watching human fortunes rise and fall around them. Online slots, on the other hand, tend to come and go quickly in a constant stream of new releases. One studio that regularly creates games with more staying power is ELK Studios, and the team has delivered the medieval-themed online slot Cluster Kingdom.

Cluster Kingdom’s grid sits on a tabletop surrounded by gold and silver coins stamped with the king and queen. The whole setup looks like an old-time card-and-dice game that’s been laid out, with a hefty pile of money at stake. It’s easy to feel like you’ve stepped back hundreds of years to join the local entertainment—until booming heavy metal erupts during big win sequences. Rather than breaking the mood, it ramps up the excitement, which is something ELK Studios’ audio work often does well.

Each spin turns over 5 reels worth of cards to show 25 symbols. Living up to the title, Cluster Kingdom pays when clusters of 5 or more matching symbols touch each other. Winning symbols, plus any non-winning symbols of the same type as the winners, are removed from the grid and replaced with fresh ones, but they don’t tumble down in a cascade. This process can create repeat wins until no further win appears. Bets range from 20 c to $/€100, with a theoretical return of 94% and a medium/high volatile math model.

There are five pay symbols in Cluster Kingdom: wheat, trees, windmills, houses, and castles. A 5 OAK cluster returns 0.1 to 1 times the bet, while a 20+ cluster win pays 25 to 250 times the bet. A win made up entirely of wilds pays at the level of the top-value pay symbol.

Cluster Kingdom: Slot Features

Beyond standard cluster payouts, Cluster Kingdom includes sticky redrops, wilds, multiplier wilds, 3 feature symbols, a mini bonus, a regular bonus, a super bonus, and bonus buys.

Sticky Redrops

When it lands, the sticky redrop symbol selects one pay symbol. Every matching pay symbol on the reels turns sticky, while the rest redrop. If one or more new matching symbols land, a further redrop is granted, and wins are paid once no more matching symbols appear. Wilds and wild multipliers remain persistent during sticky redrops. Feature symbols do not activate until the sticky redrops sequence ends.

Wild Symbols

Wilds and multiplier wilds can replace any standard pay symbol. Multiplier wilds apply their multiplier to any winning combinations they help form and stay sticky until the end of the game round. When multiplier wilds land next to each other, they multiply their values and then add the total onto one of the multiplier wild symbols. The other multiplier symbol is reduced to a standard wild.

Feature Symbols

The three feature symbols—Princess, King, and Queen—activate their respective feature whenever they appear on the reels.

• The Princess feature adds 1 to 4 wild symbols to the grid. If the King symbol is showing, the Princess moves one step towards it after each win and before a refill.
• The King feature selects the lowest pay symbol type next to the king and upgrades those symbols into the highest adjacent symbol.
• The Queen symbol shuffles vertically and horizontally adjacent symbols. When the King is visible, the Queen moves one step towards the King after each win and before refills.

Bonus Games

• Bonus Game – When the King and Queen connect next to each other vertically or horizontally, 6 free spins are awarded. Multipliers transfer into the bonus round and stay persistent between free spins. The bonus game begins with a fresh set of symbols.
• Special Bonus Game – To trigger the super bonus games, the Queen, Princess, and King must be vertically or horizontally adjacent. In the super bonus game, players receive 6 free spins with increasing persistent multiplier wild symbols.
• Mini Bonus Game – When the Princess and the King are adjacent, the mini-bonus game is awarded. In this feature, players get 3 free spins and increasing persistent multiplier wild symbols.

In the super bonus and the mini bonus game, the increasing multiplier wild symbols increase the multiplier by +1 when they are part of one or more winning combos. Bonus games can be retriggered.

X-iter

Cluster Kingdom’s X-iter section has these buys to choose from: Bonus Hunt – purchase a game round with more than triple the chance of triggering the bonus game for 3x the bet, Sticky Redrops – buy a spin featuring sticky redrops for 10x the bet, Mini Bonus – 50x the bet, Bonus Game – 100x the bet and Super Bonus Game – 500x the bet.

Cluster Kingdom: Slot Verdict

ELK Studios clearly understands how to build a release that doesn’t blend into the crowd, and Cluster Kingdom is a good example of that. It isn’t entirely without comparisons—more like a ruler with close rivals than a lone king at the very top. Throughout this Cluster Kingdom review, echoes of Print Studios’ slot Tarasque kept appearing, with Holy Hand Grenade also coming to mind now and then. The strong medieval flourishes, the slightly Monty Python-esque flavour, and the sense of playing something genuinely smart all contribute. Tarasque still takes the crown for being the more original and more intricately constructed title, but Cluster Kingdom has plenty going for it as well.

And it’s not only the theme that shines—the mechanics hold up too. As you’d expect, the more “high-ranking” the feature, the more rewarding it can be. Still, the lower-tier action is far from dull, since multiplier wilds and sticky redrops keep the base game lively. At times, it felt like a cluster pays slot might have benefited from symbols dropping before refills, but the current approach still creates lots of chances to chain repeat wins together. It can be aggravating, sure, yet Cluster Kingdom provides several ivy-covered routes to putting together thrilling outcomes—up to a maximum of 10,000x the bet.

From beginning to end, Cluster Kingdom comes across as a polished release. ELK Studios captures a rich medieval vibe throughout, punches it up with well-timed heavy metal bursts, and backs it with a strong set of features that can spin an engaging story of kings and queens when things fall into place.