Le Pharoah: Slot Overview

What’s a raccoon supposed to do when they’re tired of causing trouble in the backstreets of Paris and want a fresh start? Apparently, head to Egypt and start hustling tourists while dressed as a pharaoh. It’s a bizarre career pivot, but in online slots, every path seems to end up at Giza sooner or later. That’s exactly where Hacksaw Gaming’s lovable rogue Smokey has landed, trading his bandit hat and crowbar for a pharaoh hat and crook. Along the way, some mechanics have been reshuffled while the familiar core idea remains: mark winning spots, load them with coins, and let special symbols influence the outcome. Still, there are notable tweaks this time around. Let’s break them down.

The original, Le Bandit, launched almost exactly a year ago and became a major success for the studio. In Le Pharaoh, Smokey returns looking as grumpy as ever. What’s got him so angry? A breakup with a lady raccoon, a rough upbringing, or just a bad attitude? Whatever the reason, he’s clearly in Egypt, with palm trees and pyramids setting the scene. And since Egyptian tourist hotspots are famous for relentless vendors, Smokey should have plenty of chances to run his scams on unsuspecting visitors.

Le Pharoah keeps the same 6-reel, 5-row setup as before, using 19 paylines to calculate standard line wins. Like last time, the math model sits at 3 out of 5, putting it in the medium volatile bracket, while the top RTP is listed at 96.18%-96.21%, depending on which bonus is selected when triggered naturally. That’s slightly lower than the previous game. Betting is also familiar, running from 10 c to $/€100.

The paytable contains ten regular symbols, made up of 10-A card royals plus 5 themed icons. Five matching royals pay 0.5-0.7 times the bet, while five of the premium symbols return 1.3 to 4 times the bet. Wilds can appear on any reel, replace all paying symbols, and pay 3x the bet for 5 OAK.

Le Pharoah: Slot Features

This section feels partly like a return to Le Bandit, but with several fresh additions, as the feature set includes Sticky Redrops, Golden Riches, two bonus game choices, plus a super bonus version of each, a Rainbow Over The Pyramids round, and bonus buys.

Sticky Redrops

Any symbols in winning combinations stick, and a redrop is triggered. Every stuck pay symbol creates a Golden Square on its position. During the redrop, any new pay symbols that increase the win or form a new win also stick, causing another redrop. This loop continues until the win no longer improves or no new wins are formed. Rainbow symbols and FS symbols that land alongside sticking wins also stick, but do not generate Golden Squares.

Golden Riches

Once a Sticky Redrop sequence ends, if a Rainbow symbol is visible, it activates the Golden Riches feature. When triggered, all Golden Squares reveal either Bronze, Silver, or Gold Coins or show a special Pot Of Gold, Green Clover, or Golden Clover symbol. Bronze Coins pay 0.2x to 4x, Silver Coins pay 5x to 20x, and Gold Coins pay 25x to 500x.

After every Coin and special symbol is revealed, any Clover symbols activate. Green Clovers multiply Coins or Pot Of Gold symbols on neighboring squares by x2 to x20. Golden Clovers multiply all Coins or Pot Of Gold symbols by x2 to x20.

Once the Clovers have applied their effects, Pot Of Gold symbols activate by collecting the values of all Coins and other Pot Of Gold symbols on the grid, top to bottom, left to right, saving the combined total. After Pot Of Gold symbols finish collecting, all other Golden Squares activate again, revealing fresh symbols, and the cycle repeats. When it’s over, all Coin values and Pot Of Gold totals are awarded.

Bonus Choice

Landing 3 or 4 FS symbols together in the base game opens the Bonus Choice menu. With 3 scatters, players can pick Luck Of The Pharaoh or the Lost Treasures games. With 4 scatters, players can pick Super Luck Of The Pharaoh or the Super Lost Treasures games.

Luck Of The Pharaoh & Super Luck Of The Pharaoh

This bonus includes Sticky Redrops and the Golden mechanics. It starts with 10 free spins, and Golden Squares remain highlighted until the round ends, even after a Rainbow symbol activates them. Landing 2 FS scatters grants +2 free spins, while landing 3 FS scatters grants +4 free spins.

The “Super” version follows the same rules as the standard version, but begins with 12 free spins and offers a better chance of hitting higher-value Coins and Pot Of Gold symbols. On top of that, a Clover is guaranteed to be revealed whenever Golden Riches triggers. Retriggers work the same way as in the regular round.

Lost Treasures & Super Lost Treasures

This bonus begins with 3 refilling lives, and the grid can receive dead symbols, Coins, Green Clovers, Golden Clover, Pot Of Gold, and 2 different Stone Tablets. Each spin uses up one life. Any time a non-dead symbol lands and activates, lives return to 3. The feature ends after 3 spins without a refill or once the grid is full.

All Coin symbols and Pot Of Gold symbols that land become sticky until collected by a Pot Of Gold or until the bonus finishes. Any Stone Tablets that appear are also sticky until the feature ends. The Adding Stone Tablet adds 1x to 500x to one random Coin each spin. The Multiplying Stone Tablet multiplies one random Coin each spin by x2 to x20. When the round ends, all visible values are paid out.

Super Lost Treasures uses the same rules as Lost Treasures, with the addition that an Adding Stone Tablet is guaranteed to land on the first spin. There are also better chances of landing higher-value Coins and Pot Of Gold symbols.

Rainbow Over The Pyramids

Landing 5 FS symbols simultaneously in the base game awards 12 free spins in the Rainbow Over The Pyramids feature. This mode uses the Sticky Redrops and Golden Riches mechanics from the base game. Throughout the bonus, all Golden Squares remain highlighted until the feature ends, even after being activated by a Rainbow symbol. On top of that, a Rainbow symbol is guaranteed to land on each spin. Landing 2 FS scatters grants +2 free spins, while landing 3 FS scatters grants +4 free spins.

Bonus Buy

Rainbow Over The Pyramids can’t be purchased in Le Pharoah, but the following options are available:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game for 3x the bet.
• Rainbow FeatureSpins – each spin guarantees at least 1 Rainbow symbol lands with a winning combination for 60x the bet.
• You Must Choose… – Luck Of The Pharaohs or Lost Treasures for 100x.
• …But Choose Wisely – Super Luck Of The Pharaohs or Super Lost Treasures for 250x.

Le Pharoah: Slot Verdict

This ended up being more substantial than it first appeared. The knee-jerk response might be “okay, it’s an Egyptian reskin of Le Bandit,” but like stepping into a freshly uncovered tomb and finding chamber after chamber, Le Pharoah keeps revealing more and more. Fans of Le Bandit will be glad that the position-marking that uncovers Coins, the Pot Of Golds, and the Clovers is still intact, since the Golden Riches setup remains the foundation of Le Pharoah just as it was in the previous title. Only one of the foundations, though, because there’s plenty of new material to take in too.

In the base game, the big shift is that Sticky Redrops replace cluster wins as the method for creating standard wins and, crucially, for marking the grid spaces underneath them. From there, if a Rainbow symbol is also present, the Golden Riches chain that follows can be just as exciting as it was before. Clover symbols are now divided into two types: one that affects adjacent symbols and another, much more valuable one, that affects everything. That’s a meaningful change.

The bonus modes have also been heavily redesigned. For starters, in both Luck Of The Pharaoh bonuses, Golden Squares stay highlighted until the feature ends, even when activated by a Rainbow symbol. The standout addition is the new Lost Treasures features. They’re strong, and Hacksaw Gaming has smartly fused Golden Riches-style mechanics into a hold ‘n win format that echoes Slotmill’s Money Jar games.

Across all modes, Le Pharoah can still reach its 15,000x the bet win cap. Players familiar with the first game will notice this is 50% higher than Le Bandit‘s, making it a solid extra incentive to jump into Le Pharoah—though the expanded feature set already does a lot of the selling.