Power of Merlin Megaways: Slot Overview

King Arthur’s companion, the enigmatic wizard Merlin, materialises on the reels yet again in Pragmatic Play’s online slot Power of Merlin Megaways. A staple of books, TV, film, and naturally iGaming, the name Merlin instantly calls up ideas of sorcery, fantasy, and ancient legend. That’s very much the vibe during a session with Power of Merlin Megaways, though the practical side is driven by tumbles, Lighting Bolt wild transformations, and free spins paired with a win multiplier that keeps climbing.

Power of Merlin Megaways leans hard into its mystical tone by dropping players into a thick, moss-covered forest—somewhere you can almost feel the enchantment hanging in the air. It’s the sort of place that seems like it once supported a settlement, only for it to fade away and be swallowed by the wilderness over time. Forgotten by everyone, perhaps, except Merlin, whose knowledge has brought the location back to light. Maybe the game’s atmosphere is doing its job a little too well, but it certainly creates an appealing setting for anyone who enjoys an arcane theme and the idea of sharing a wild, natural backdrop with one of history’s most famous wizards. Onward…

Now for the less mystical, more measurable details. Power of Merlin Megaways runs on a highly volatile model and offers three RTP settings, with 96.09% being the one you’ll want. Stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€100, and on each spin 2 to 7 symbols can appear on each of the 6 reels (including the top 4 cell row). As a result, the number of ways to win shifts from spin to spin, topping out at 117,649 when every reel is fully stacked.

Whenever a winning combination lands, the symbols involved are removed and replaced by new ones dropping in via the tumbling mechanic. If the tumble creates another win, the process repeats. Once the tumble chain ends, the combined payout is credited. A single 6 OAK hit pays 0.6 to 1.5 times the bet with the low-value 9 to A royals, or 2 to 20 times the bet with the higher-paying potion bottle, staff, owl, or Merlin symbol. Assisting along the way is the red orb wild, which can substitute for any standard paying symbol. Wilds can land on every reel except the leftmost one.

Power of Merlin Megaways: Slot Features

Merlin’s reputation is built on wisdom and clever solutions. Power of Merlin Megaways brings a few smart touches of its own. They’re not especially groundbreaking, but they work well.

Lightning Bolt

One of the standout mechanics is the Lightning Bolt symbol. When a Lightning Bolt lands on the tracker reel at the top, it randomly picks one of the pay symbol types. After that, every matching symbol on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 transform into wilds. If a tumble causes the Lightning Bolt to shift position, the effect activates again.

Free Spins

The burning book is the game’s scatter, and it can appear on any reel. Landing 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 scatters awards 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, or 30 free spins. After that, players get the option to gamble on a prize wheel to try to boost the number of free spins they’ve been given. Winning the gamble adds extra spins (up to 30), while losing it wipes the spins entirely. The wheel can be a quick way to get frustrated, so only take the risk if you’re comfortable stepping away. During free spins, a win multiplier starts at x1. After each winning tumble, the multiplier increases by 1 and does not reset until the feature ends. Lightning Bolts can also appear in the bonus, and hitting at least 3 scatter symbols awards +4 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

Using the bonus buy option, players can purchase the feature for 150 times the bet. The highest RTP when doing so is 96.08%

Power of Merlin Megaways: Slot Verdict

Power of Merlin Megaways is undeniably solid, though it could have felt fresher if this formula hadn’t shown up so often before. And it’s not only the Merlin-and-magic theme, which is already well represented. The bigger issue is that Power of Merlin Megaways plays extremely similarly to other Pragmatic Play titles such as Power of Thor Megaways, Spin & Score Megaways, Legend of Heroes Megaways, or Lucky Fishing Megaways. Mechanically, they’re cut from the same cloth: a wild transformation feature in both the base game and bonus, plus free spins with an escalating win multiplier—something that’s become a standard Megaways staple.

Where Power of Merlin Megaways separates itself is in how it handles the pay-symbol-to-wild conversion. In many of the earlier games, a special wild appears on the top reel (a Fishing Boat, for example) and turns everything beneath it into wilds—no random selection involved. Here, the process is different: it’s more targeted in choosing the symbol type, yet more spread out in where the changes happen. Rather than transforming the symbols directly under the trigger, any of the middle four reels can be affected, assuming they match the selected symbol type. The other major departure is the headline max win. Maybe it really is Merlin’s influence; maybe Power of Merlin Megaways was a passion project for someone high up at Pragmatic play. Either way, it dwarfs its relatives with a 40,000x the bet max win, and that’s the game’s biggest hook.

Of course, huge figures aren’t everything in an online slot, but they can be a tempting bonus. The benzoic sulfimide of a game, if you like. If that’s the case, Power of Merlin Megaways may be the most enticing of Pragmatic Play’s wild transformation Megaways releases. And even if massive potential doesn’t sway you, the rest of what Power of Merlin Megaways offers still makes it worth trying if you enjoyed the earlier entries in this style.