Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Overview

It’s amusing how slot studios can come across like real people. Some feel distant and clinical, churning out titles from on high and keeping a firm wall between themselves and the audience they’re meant to entertain. Others, like Slotmill, give off the opposite vibe—more like a crowd-surfing band that actually wants to be in the thick of it, listening to players and figuring out what they enjoy.

That approach shows up clearly in the game featured here. It’s called Sands of Eternity 2, and as anyone familiar with the earlier release will have worked out instantly, it follows on from the 2021 slot Sands of Eternity, which seems to have been a real win for the studio. With that success, the team took on board player feedback and calls for a follow-up, then went back to the drawing board to build Part 2. If you had a wishlist of improvements for the original, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to start ticking items off now.

If “more room to play” was on that list, consider it done: Sands of Eternity 2 runs on a 6-reel, 7-row layout, giving it an extra row compared to the previous game. The stone block symbols and corner stone feature symbols are back, but the win potential in terms of combinations now ranges from 729 to 117,749 ways to win. The presentation has also been upgraded for Sands of Eternity 2, including a fresh setting for the bonus round, which is a welcome touch.

Volatility has been toned down slightly and is now classed as medium-high, while RTP has slipped to 96.1%. That figure applies when staking 20 c to $/€60 per base game spin, although the return changes when purchasing options via Fast Track. It also shifts when enabling the Xtra-Bet to 96.17%. Turning on Xtra-Bet makes it 2.8 times more likely to trigger free spins at an extra spin cost of 50%. There’s also Burst Mode for anyone who wants Sands of Eternity 2 to fly by even quicker—like sand draining through an hourglass.

Sands of Eternity 2 pays left to right starting from the leftmost reel and includes 12 standard paying symbols. The 4 low pays are animal shapes carved into blocks, the 4 mid pays are gems on blocks, and the 5 high pays resemble stylised Ancient Egyptian gods. Landing a 6 OAK low-pay way returns 0.25-0.3x the bet, the mids pay 0.5-0.6x, and the highs award 1.5-3.5x.

Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Features

Sands of Eternity 2 opens with its avalanche feature. All winning symbols, along with any stone blocks directly next to those winners (up, down, left, or right), explode off the reels. The remaining symbols on the reel strips then drop down to plug the empty spaces, creating fresh opportunities to land more wins. Stone blocks don’t drop, as they stay locked in fixed positions even if gaps appear underneath them. Avalanches continue until no further win is formed.

Special Stone Blocks

The blocks in each corner of the grid contain special modifiers. When one of these corner stone blocks explodes, its linked feature activates. These special stone blocks can also appear during free spins.

• Wild Scarab – when exploded, a wild symbol appears in its place
• Shift of Thoth – in the rightmost top corner is the Shift of Thoth. When exploded, Shift of Thoth triggers. When no more wins occur, the Shift of Thoth feature picks a random amount of symbols and transforms them into another symbol.
• Rays of Ra – in the rightmost bottom corner is the Rays or Ra stone block. When exploded, the Rays of Ra feature triggers. When there are no more wins in a game round, the Rays of Ra feature adds wild symbols.

Random Expansion

The Random Expansion feature may trigger randomly in the base game on any spin. When it kicks in, it removes a random number of non-special stone blocks, which boosts the number of ways you can win.

Free Spins Bonus

Whenever a scatter symbol lands, it explodes, removing the neighbouring stone blocks, and the scatter is added to a collect meter. Once 3 scatters are collected, the game awards 8 free spins. During each free spin, additional special stone blocks are placed onto the reels in random stone block positions:

• Multiplier Stone Block – exploding this block adds a win multiplier. The multiplier stays for the duration of the free spins round, and it can be increased if additional multiplier stone blocks explode.
• Extra Free Spin Stone Block – grants 1 extra free spin when exploded.

Super Mode

Super Mode can trigger randomly at the start of the free spins bonus. While Super Mode is active, every win increases the win multiplier by +1.

Fast Track

Slotmill’s feature buy option, Fast Track, lets players purchase the following:

• Expand – 15x to guarantee a game round triggering the Random Expansion. RTP 96.15%.
• Free Spins Bonus – 100x the bet. RTP 96.36%.
• Super Mode Bonus – 300x the bet. RTP 96.4%.

Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Verdict

To start with, it’s worth noting that Slotmill’s tweaks in Sands of Eternity 2 haven’t turned it into something totally unfamiliar. That’s a positive, because the original wasn’t exactly lacking in the first place. Instead, the framework—and plenty of the substance—stays closely aligned with the first game. In other words, it keeps the spirit of the debut intact, and that’s hardly a bad outcome. On top of that, the updates Slotmill has added this time are largely beneficial, with each change helping Sands of Eternity 2 feel like a larger, more complete experience.

As a slight side note, one key ingredient in any stone-block-smashing avalanche slot is how good the destruction feels. It might sound minor, but when it’s done well, watching repeated avalanche wins tear through blocks, open up more space, chain into extra wins, and set off features becomes genuinely satisfying. Thankfully, Sands of Eternity 2 delivers on that front. When everything is cascading and bursting in rhythm, it’s oddly soothing—like seeing neat, even lines appear as you mow a lawn. It scratches that deep itch for order and balance. Relax Gaming is famous for nailing that tumbling-crush sensation, and Slotmill is right there keeping close pace.

Even better, the features in Sands of Eternity 2 are every bit as rewarding as the visuals—arguably more so—and while the upgrades aren’t drastic reinventions, they do elevate what was already strong. A larger grid, massively increased ways to win, doubled top potential at 15,000x the bet, feature refinements, and the tempting possibility of avalanching into the new Super Mode Bonus combine to make this Ancient Egyptian return hard to ignore.