Merlin: Journey of Flame: Slot Overview

Wands, blades, and spellbooks at the ready: Play’n GO invites players into a dose of fantasy with the online slot Merlin: Journey of Flame. How much truth sits behind the Arthurian Legends is up for debate, so maybe Merlin: Journey of Flame is a small step toward history too—then again, there’s a dragon involved, so… Either way, what’s certain is that Merlin: Journey of Flame is a clone of Play’n GO’s Scroll of Dead. That means you’re getting classic expanding special symbol gameplay in the spirit of Book of Ra, only wrapped in a medieval fantasy theme.

Over the years, Play’n GO has produced a large catalogue of Arthur-inspired titles as well as plenty of ‘Book of’ style slots, refining its approach with each release. Merlin: Journey of Flame is a fairly bold-looking entry set in a vast cavern filled with jagged rock formations and what might be glowing fireflies—possibly a dragon’s den. It may not be Play’n GO’s most jaw-dropping visual effort, but Merlin: Journey of Flame still feels polished, with the kind of confident finishing touches you’d expect from a studio experienced in this genre.

One thing you notice immediately in Merlin: Journey of Flame is the locked sixth reel. Until it comes into play during free spins, Merlin: Journey of Flame runs on a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 10 paylines used to calculate wins. Rated 9 out of 10, Merlin: Journey of Flame is a highly volatile slot with multiple RTP setups, where 96.28% is the highest option. Before setting off, players choose their approach by selecting a stake from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin.

Standard line wins in Merlin: Journey of Flame pay from the leftmost reel across neighbouring reels—expanded symbol wins work differently, as covered next. At the lower end of the paytable sit green, blue, red, orange, and yellow rune-marked stones, followed by a bottle, book, staff, and Merlin as the 4 premium symbols. A 5 OAK low-symbol hit returns 10 to 12.5 times the bet, while 5 matching premium symbols pay 50 to 500 times the bet. Things become more exciting once the sixth reel is unlocked. At that point, a 6-symbol low win is worth 15 to 20 times the bet, and a 6 symbol premium win pays 100 to 750 times the bet.

Merlin: Journey of Flame: Slot Features

There are two main mechanics to cover here: a free spins bonus and a gamble option. Central to both is the Dragon Egg symbol, which acts as a wild (substituting for any pay symbol) and also serves as the game’s scatter.

Free Spins

Hit 3, 4, or 5 Dragon Egg Wild scatter symbols in the base game to win 8 free spins plus a payout of 2x, 20x, or 200x the bet, respectively. Once free spins begin, the sixth reel unlocks, allowing extra symbols to land. In addition, when the bonus triggers, one symbol is randomly chosen as the special expanding symbol. Whenever expanding symbols can create a win, they expand to cover all positions on their reels. Expanded symbols pay on all active paylines and don’t need to sit next to each other—meaning they can pay from any position. You can extend the feature by landing 3 or more Hatched Dragon Egg Wild scatters, which award an extra 8 free spins. There is no stated cap on how often this can happen.

Gamble Feature

Somewhat old-school by modern standards, Merlin: Journey of Flame also includes an optional Gamble feature. Available in the main game, it allows players to try to double or quadruple (or nothing) a win by correctly predicting the colour or suit of a face-down playing card. The Gamble is restricted to 5 times max, up to 250x the bet.

Merlin: Journey of Flame: Slot Verdict

If Play’n GO has two clear favourites, they’re Arthurian Legends and ‘Book of’ format slots. Merlin: Journey of Flame strengthens that idea by combining both in one package. And when it comes to how it plays, Merlin: Journey of Flame owes its existence to Play’n GO’s earlier title Scroll of Dead. The reason is simple: Merlin: Journey of Flame is essentially a direct reskin, carrying over the same stats, features, and overall gameplay that Scroll of Dead launched with. That said, credit goes to Play’n GO’s art team for building a moody Arthurian atmosphere that helps soften the usual downsides that can come with cloning and reskinning.

As for the action, Merlin: Journey of Flame performs just as well as Scroll of Dead ever did. Its standout ‘Book of’ hook is the sixth reel, teased in the base game and then released during the free spins bonus. It’s visually appealing, and more importantly, that extra reel meaningfully boosts Merlin: Journey of Flame’s potential to pay. It would have been disappointing if Play’n GO had heavily reduced symbol values to balance the added reel, but it largely hasn’t. As a result, five-reel full-screen wins still top out at the familiar 5,000x the bet, rising to 7,500x for a six-reel full-screen hit.

On the downside, an Arthurian-themed clone of a ‘Book of’ slot isn’t exactly the most imaginative concept a studio could deliver—particularly one as capable as Play’n GO. Still, setting that criticism aside, Merlin: Journey of Flame is an attractive expanding pay-anywhere symbol slot that can deliver stronger performance than many ‘book’ games, making it a solid pick for fans of the format.