Pub Kings: Slot Overview

Would being crowned the king of a pub count as a slightly questionable accolade? You’d assume it involves putting away an unhealthy amount of booze, or fighting your way to the top in a barroom scrap, or something similar. In Pub Kings from developer Pragmatic Play, it can easily hint at both – and then some. Pub Kings is a Viking-themed slot that leans into what Vikings (at least some of them) likely got up to when they weren’t sailing the seas to raid settlements or relieve the clergy of valuable artefacts. Namely, knocking back a few cold drinks at the pub after a tough day as some of the Middle Ages’ most feared warriors.

That said, Pub Kings isn’t aiming for historical accuracy. Instead, it’s a brightly coloured, upbeat scene showing a particularly charming corner of Viking land on an unusually pleasant day. The sun is shining, the sky is mostly clear, and a solid stone Viking Pub sits invitingly atop a breezy crag. If you were already feeling parched, the loading screen – where a progress bar fills with fizzy amber liquid – could be the final push. Overall, the game lands with a cosy, feel-good atmosphere, like sharing a favourite drink with friends at the weekend. In general, Pragmatic Play has delivered one of the more cheerful titles we’ve covered from them in a while.

Cracking open Pub Kings and looking under the hood reveals the key stats. The game runs on a highly volatile math model and offers 96.08% return to player, or 96.05% when buying free spins. As is often the case with Pragmatic, lower RTP versions exist as well. Stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€240 per spin, and if you choose to buy the bonus round, it costs 100 times the stake.

Pub Kings plays out on a 5×4 grid with 20 paylines. Winning combinations pay left to right and must begin on the leftmost reel to count. There are ten symbols in total – 5 low-paying card ranks (10-A) and 5 Viking character symbols as the premium pays. A 5-symbol line returns 5 to 15 times the bet with royals, or 25 to 150 times the bet with picture symbols. Pub Kings doesn’t include a wild symbol, though it does feature a scatter, which appears on reels 1, 3, and 5.

Pub Kings: Slot Features

The scatter isn’t only required to activate free spins; it also ties into the Random Awards feature. When exactly 2 scatters land, a random award from levels 1 to 5 can be won. The paytable states it happens whenever 2 scatters appear, but in the demo it felt random rather than guaranteed. When it does trigger, the 2 scatters choose a reel, and each reel has its own set of potential prizes:

• Reel 1 – Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 awards 10x, 25x, 125x, 250x, 600x, 1,000x, or 5,000x the bet, respectively.
• Reel 2 – Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 awards 6x, 15x, 45x, 200x, 400x, 800x, or 2,5000x the bet, respectively.
• Reel 3 – Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 awards 4x, 10x, 30x, 150x, 300x, 600x, or 1,500x the bet, respectively.
• Reel 4 – Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 awards 3x, 8x, 25x, 60x, 150x, 300x, or 750x the bet, respectively.
• Reel 5 – Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 awards 2x, 6x, 20x, 50x, 125x, 250x, or 500x the bet, respectively.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters awards 10 free spins. In the free spins round, each of the 5 high pay symbols is associated with a reel. After every free spin, all instances of the high-pay symbols are collected on their linked reel. Collecting 6 of the same symbol enables Level 1 on the respective reel, and collecting 3 more of that symbol thereafter increases the Level up to 7.

At the end of the round, the symbol with the most collected beers awards the payout it has built up during the feature. If there’s a tie, the highest value wins. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Pub Kings: Slot Verdict

Pragmatic Play is known for releasing slots at a relentless pace. Honestly, it can feel like every other title we run into comes straight off the Pragmatic Play conveyor belt. It’s easy to assume that speed means quality takes a hit, but those two things don’t always clash. Pub Kings is a good example. It isn’t an especially complicated game packed with intricate systems you need to untangle to understand, yet it still delivers a smart set of features across both the base game and the bonus, keeping the action moving while also creating moments of genuine suspense.

That suspense is most noticeable in free spins, though the Random Awards feature can also produce decent base-game hits, meaning that when 2 scatters land – if the feature activates – the reel selection and prize reveal can be a fun moment. Still, free spins is where Pub Kings really turns into a collector-focused treat. There’s effectively a two-part race: collecting enough high-pay symbols to climb levels, while also gathering beers to determine which reel ends up on top. You won’t know the winner until the final spin lands. Until then, the feature can swing back and forth as characters level up and their rewards grow, all the way as the game works toward its win cap of 5,000x the bet.

Even if Pub Kings doesn’t have the sheer punch or depth to feel like an essential release, it was an enjoyable one to take for a spin. For the right audience, there’s clear entertainment here in a lively mix of collection mechanics, Vikings, and gleaming amber liquid.