Viking Forge: Slot Overview

The Vikings may have once swept across Europe and further afield through conquest and raids, but few would have guessed they’d also end up ruling a big chunk of the online slots scene. Picture an ancient seer glimpsing a glowing screen filled with quirky, cartoonish icons spinning nonstop, while oddly dressed people feed in cash hoping to pull out more than they put in. For another chance to do exactly that with a tough-as-nails historical theme, developer Pragmatic Play created the online slot Viking Forge.

A powerful Viking setting welcomes players as they step into Viking Forge. Despite the name, there isn’t much actual forging on display—no hammering metal into fearsome weapons or anything similar. Maybe “forge” is meant in the sense of shaping grit and resolve, tested by a demanding slot. Maybe. Either way, the presentation is up to Pragmatic Play’s usual standards: polished visuals and an almost legendary landscape where players can take their chances.

Volatility is also high, coming in at 5 out of 5, and the default RTP is 96.05%. At least, that’s the return figure when staking 20 p/c to $/$240 per spin, shifting to 96% when using the ante bet or 96.06% when purchasing free spins. Switching on the ante bet increases the stake by 25% while increasing the chance of triggering free spins.

Viking Forge runs on a 6-reel, 5-row grid and uses a scatter pays system to award wins. Whenever at least 8 matching pay symbols land anywhere on the board, a payout is triggered. The tumble feature then clears the winning symbols after a scatter win forms. New symbols fall into the empty spaces, and if another win appears, the tumble feature activates again. This continues until no further wins are created. Low-paying symbols are Viking-styled 10 to A card royals, while the higher pays include a mug, a sword, a hammer, and a Viking fellow. Landing 8-9 of-a-kind returns 0.3 to 10 times the bet, rising to 3 to 100 times the bet for a 12+ sized scatter win. For Viking Forge, Pragmatic Play has not included a wild symbol.

Viking Forge: Slot Features

On the feature side, Viking Forge brings a sturdy mix of tumbling wins, coin collecting, and free spins.

Coin Collection

Coin overlay symbols can show up randomly on any symbol type except scatters. When Coins land, they carry either direct money values of 0.1 to 20 times the bet or multiplier values of x2, x3, x5, or x10. If a symbol with a Coin overlay is included in a winning combination, the Coin’s value is added to a meter. Direct cash values increase the meter, while multiplier values boost the meter by multiplication. Once the spin and tumbles finish, the final meter amount is paid out.

Free Spins

Landing 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols in the base game awards 10, 20, or 30 free spins along with a payout of 3x, 5x, or 100x the bet, respectively. In the free spins round, Coin values feed into the meter, which lasts until the feature ends, allowing values to build up or be multiplied throughout. Hitting 3 or more scatters during the feature grants an extra +5 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

For instant access to the free spins round, the feature can be purchased for 100 times the bet. When buying free spins, 4, 5, or 6 scatters will drop in at random to activate it.

Viking Forge: Slot Verdict

So there it is, warriors: a fairly no-nonsense release from Pragmatic Play built around a scatter pays win system. It’s clearly a format the studio enjoys, having produced plenty of examples already, from Sweet Bonanza to Gates of Olympus and more. Some feel fresh, some are close to reskins, and others tweak the core formula just a little. Viking Forge fits more into that last category, offering something a bit less typical for fans of the studio’s scatter pays slots, without reaching full berserker levels of originality.

The newer elements work well enough too—they’re simple to understand and can be exciting if the meter climbs to a chunky total. As usual, the mechanic can pay off in the base game, but it gets a major boost in free spins because the meter carries over, ideally growing in value until the feature finishes. It didn’t exactly go wild during testing, and the 10,000x the bet, while eye-catching, came across as somewhat hopeful. Still, Coins don’t just add to the meter; some also multiply it. If you can land a few multipliers onto the meter, the outcome could be pretty decent.

All told, Pragmatic Play adds yet another scatter pays slot to its already huge catalogue, continuing to dominate that corner of the market. Like many of its relatives, Viking Forge is a solid, well-produced entry in this style of game. The absence of the huge win multipliers seen in other similar titles, such as the relevant Gates games, may put some players off a bit, but coins are always appealing—and collecting them could be exactly what others want from this kind of slot.