Treasures of Lion City (Pulse 8 Studios): Overview

The real-world Lion City comes with a fascinating backstory. Established sometime between 25 – 200AD, it grew into one of Eastern China’s key political and economic hubs. Then, roughly 1700 years later in the 1950s, the Communist government at the time opted to construct a massive dam to supply a power station for the surrounding area. To achieve this, an entire valley was inundated to form the required lake. As a result, Lion City ended up fully submerged. This enigmatic ancient settlement still remains below the surface, with its arches, streets, homes, and temples preserved under 130 feet of water. It’s been dubbed the Atlantis of the East ever since, and that drowned metropolis makes an unusual backdrop for a slot. As Pulse 8 Studios, a Microgaming partner, puts it, treasure is waiting for players to uncover.

Staying true to the underwater theme, the game’s 5×3 grid and 25 fixed paylines sit beneath the lake’s still, crystal-clear waters. On either side of the reels stand two stone lion statues in a traditional Chinese style, adding a strong Asian flavour. Above the reels you’ll find a win meter featuring 3 symbols and 3 multipliers, which remain greyed out when inactive. More details on these follow below. The default bet is $/€2.50, though you can drop it to 25 c/p or push it up to $/€50 per spin. It’s not an enormous ceiling, but it should suit a decent spread of budgets and staking preferences.

Apart from the low-paying J – A royals, the symbol set sticks closely to the theme. The premium icons include two crystals, a warrior’s helmet, an elixir for immortality, and a gold chest – the best-paying base game symbol, awarding 18 times the stake for five of a kind. Overall, the pay values are fairly average, without anything especially thrilling or disappointing. What’s likely to bother many players, though, are the figures underpinning the game’s payout model: a notably low RTP of just 94.20% alongside medium volatility. That RTP alone will be an instant deal-breaker for plenty of slot fans. Do the added features do enough to compensate?

Treasures of Lion City (Pulse 8 Studios): Features

Treasures of Lion City doesn’t include a bonus game, so there’s no scatter, but it does feature multiple wilds. The regular wild appears as a golden lion and can replace any other symbol to complete winning lines. It also pays when it least two of a kind land, ranging from 0.4x – 20x the stake, which makes it the highest-value symbol in the game.

Most of the excitement in Treasures of Lion City is delivered through the Rolling Reels mechanic. Rolling Reels activate after every win, removing the winning symbols and allowing new ones to fall into the gaps. This can trigger back-to-back Rolling Reels and stack multiple wins from a single spin. As the chain of wins builds, the win meter above the reels illuminates and the game shifts accordingly:

• 1st cascade – the elixir for immortality symbols turn wild.
• 3rd cascade – the warrior’s helmet symbols become wild.
• 5th cascade – the gold chest symbols become wild.
• 7th cascade – a x3 multiplier comes into play.
• 9th cascade – the multiplier increases to x9.
• 11th cascade – the multiplier maxes out at x27.

A few important notes apply. When no further wins appear, the progressive Rolling Reels sequence ends and any symbols that had turned wild switch back to normal. In addition, only the top multiplier is used; they don’t combine beyond the highest highlighted value. Lastly, multipliers take effect on the next spin, not on the spin that triggers them.

Treasures of Lion City (Pulse 8 Studios): Verdict

We wondered whether the extra features could rescue Treasures of Lion City from its brutal RTP/volatility pairing. Unfortunately, not really, and it serves as a good reminder that players should always study a game’s paytable carefully. The play style also feels a bit familiar, featuring a symbol-to-wild mechanic similar to what we saw in Pulse 8’s earlier release Relic Seekers. It’s a shame Pulse 8 didn’t bolster Treasures of Lion City with scatters and free spins as they did there, though they do deserve some credit for attempting something a little different.

In terms of potential, it’s reasonable to assume the biggest payout is achievable at the maximum bet. That puts the max return at roughly 2,600 times the stake. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t do enough to offset the game’s other weak numbers. Lion City is pitched as a thrilling, profitable journey packed with mystery and surprises. Yet the real puzzle is why Pulse 8 reduced the volatility while also lowering the RTP.

So, who is Treasures of Lion City actually aimed at? Two figures stand out as the main hooks: the x27 multiplier and the top theoretical prize of $/€130,000. Those might impress some casino visitors, but they’re unlikely to win over more selective players once the rest of the package is considered. It’s a shame, because the idea itself is strong. There are plenty of Atlantis-style slots, including Fortunes of Atlantis and Treasures of Atlantis, but few with an Eastern setting. With a handful of adjustments and added depth to the core gameplay, Treasures of Lion City could have been a far more compelling slot.