Reindeer Royale: Slot Overview

Stockholm-based software provider ELK Studios has jumped on the annual Xmas refresh trend with Reindeer Royale, a slot reworked from the bunny-riddled 2023 title Rabbit Royale. If the earlier game felt a bit cruel, the remake goes further: Rudolf the legend is dead, and his buddies aren’t exactly thrilled to see his head mounted on the wall like a trophy, so they’re after payback. Fueled by unhinged rage, the reindeer here drive the money symbol collection action, taking cash from one another, triggering respins, free spins, and more.

The rabbits may be gone, but the bleak, cut-off vibe of Rabbit Royale returns in Reindeer Royale. This time the setting is a creaky wooden shack that looks like it barely keeps the cold out. And cold is everywhere in this pine-filled, mountainous landscape, with the background doing plenty to amplify the icy mood. Two deranged human characters join the equally deranged reindeer, tearing around in the middle of nowhere, where both humanity and sanity feel long gone.

Running on a 5×5 game grid, Reindeer Royale uses a connector ways payout system with 259 ways to win. It’s also volatile, with ELK Studios rating it at 9 out of 10, and despite the seasonal angle, the RTP sits at 94%. Opening the X-iter bonus buy menu gives players 5 options, while the base bet range starts at 10 c and goes up to $/€100.

For some reason, symbol payouts have dropped compared to Rabbit Royale, so 5 matching low symbols (darts, traps maybe, bottles, and grabbers) pay just 0.3 times the bet. On the premium end, Reindeer Royale features a vehicle, a meat mincer, a guy with a gun, and a guy with a knife, paying 1 to 3 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wild symbols can reveal ammunition caches (more on that shortly) and substitute for any regular paying symbol. A full line of wilds pays the same as the top-paying symbol.

Reindeer Royale: Slot Features

Reindeer Royale comes loaded with mechanics like ammunition reveals, Reindeer Respins, a Ghost feature, free spins, and X-iter bonus buys.

Ammunition Reveals, Reindeer, and Reindeer Respins

Ammunition cache symbols can land naturally or appear when a wild helps form a win, in which case it reveals an ammunition cache with a random value. This reveal happens after the payline win, and only when at least one reindeer symbol is visible. Ammunition cache symbols act as blockers showing cash values. After payline wins, all reindeer symbols on the screen collect the values from the ammunition caches. Collecting ammunition caches triggers a respin.

Reindeer symbols are also blockers, and their role is to collect ammunition cache values from the reels. They also collect other reindeer symbol values when they are vertically and horizontally adjacent. This happens after the ammunition cache collection. Any collect triggers a respin, and reindeer symbols can move to new positions. If a reindeer lands during a respin when there are no ammunition caches, 1 respin is awarded.

Ghost Feature

The ghost feature triggers randomly on a respin or free spin when there are at least 2 reindeer in view. It starts a face-off involving a random number of the visible reindeer, played out over spinning reels where the chosen reindeer sit. The reindeer don’t have to be next to each other.

Free Spins

In the base game, hitting 3 scatters grants 3 free spins with 1 reindeer on the first spin. Landing 4 scatter symbols grants 4 free spins with 2 reindeer on the first free spins, while 5 scatters award 5 free spins with 3 reindeer on the first free spin. During the feature, landing 3 or more scatter symbols retriggers extra free spins and reindeer, calculated the same way as on the initial trigger. Any reindeer on the triggering base game spin are carried over into the bonus, on top of the reindeer awarded by the scatter trigger, up to a maximum of 5 reindeer. All reindeer remain sticky in free spins, their collected values persistent, and respins do not consume free spins.

X-iter

Reindeer Royale’s X-iter includes multiple bonus buy options: Bonus Hunt (2x the bet) – purchases one spin with triple the chance to trigger free spins, Oh Deer! (10x the bet) – purchases one game round with a reindeer symbol, It’s Reining Deers (25x the bet) – purchases a game round with 2 reindeer and a wild symbol, Bonus (100x the bet), or Super Bonus (500x the bet) – 5 free spins and 3 reindeer.

Reindeer Royale: Slot Verdict

Reindeer Royale doesn’t drown you in tinsel, ornaments, or Santas, so it’s not a classic white Christmas slot, but there are enough nods—reindeer everywhere and one named Rudolf—to place it broadly in the Xmas category. That also helps explain why ELK has essentially reskinned Rabbit Royale, something plenty of studios do for the holiday period. Still, the makeover works, with ELK Studios showing off its art, audio, and intensity to build a darkly entertaining atmosphere of desolate violence carried out by a pack of manic reindeer.

The Ghost Collect feature is a newly named addition, for one, and the symbol values have been reduced, which could make Reindeer Royale’s base game feel harsher than Rabbit Royale, especially since it seemed to deliver lots of dead spins. On the other hand, the lower symbol payouts may mean more of the modest RTP has been shifted into the reindeer symbol collection mechanic. That would be a plus, because things only really came alive when reindeer and ammunition cache symbols showed up. At that point the game can get genuinely lively, with the music ramping up hard, the violence escalating, and the opportunity to scoop up some cash. Like its predecessor, the standout appeal in Reindeer Royale is how adjacent reindeer symbols steal each other’s cash values and stack them onto their own. Watching two reindeer swap values can be fun; seeing 5 could be chaos. They’d need to be truly insane to come close to Reindeer Royale’s 25,000x the bet max win. Without multipliers, it’s not easy to imagine it happening. Still, with a planet-sized dose of luck and a ton of reindeer value swapping, it does at least look technically achievable.

Overall, Reindeer Royale isn’t among ELK Studios’ very best, largely because it feels like a second pass. Even so, it was an enjoyable title to review, thanks to the developer’s strong visuals and sound design, backed up by features that are just as enticing (when they actually kick in).