Avalon 3

What is Avalon III?

Let’s set the scene with a look back to the past and the very first iGaming conference I attended all the way back in February 2014, the London Affiliate Conference (the precursor of iGB London) .  Back then, all the talk was of the soon to be released Avalon II slot game from Microgaming.

Fast forward to 2025 and sequels are huge – just look at all the Big Bass games, for instance, or the recently released Tome of Dead and Immortal Romance Vein Of Gold slots.

But in the world of the 2020s it’s also acceptable to wait a long, long time for a sequel (we can blame George R R Martin for that!)  And so now, more than 10 years after Avalon II and nearly 20 years after the release of the original Avalon slot in 2006, Stormcraft Studios bring us Avalon III.

Is it worth the wait? Maybe – as we shall see, there’s a lot going on in this game but it’s very different from its predecessors.  There’s really only the Arthurian theme to tie them together.

How To Play Avalon III

Avalon III is played on a 5×4 reels array with just 20 paylines (quite unlike Avalon II which was a 243 way).  It has that modern invention, a cash collect mechanic.

The scoring symbols in Avalon III are the commonly seen playing card symbols 10, J, Q, K, A plus higher scoring symbols based on Arthurian legend including Camelot and the island of Avalon itself.  King Arthur is the wild symbol, often appearing stacked, and he’s also depicted standing next to the reels, reacting when you spin up something of note.

There’s also three types of special symbols each associated with a different bonus feature. As well as triggering bonus symbols, three or more special symbols can form winning combos of their own in spins where no bonus or feature is triggered.

Magic Orbs

Orb symbols are purple (and are the cash collect symbols in the game.  The orbs with cash values and multipliers do nothing in the base game unless they form a winning combo in which case the associated prizes are awarded.  The Magic Orbs symbol, which appears on reel 3 only, can trigger the Magic Orbs bonus.

When it appears it increments the number of Magic Orbs held in the chest at the top right of the play area by one. When you first start to play the game, you’ll have 5 Magic Orbs; the maximum number you can hold is 50.

If the Magic Orbs bonus is triggered, the figure of King Arthur next to the reels is replaced with that of Merlin, who casts all of the Magic Orbs from the chest on to the reels (this means that the longer you wait for the bonus, the higher its potential).

Magic Orbs don’t always land on a vacant spot on the reels – they can land on top of an earlier Orb and in that case, the value of the new Orb is added to the older one. The prizes on the orbs are cash values of up to 6x your bet, Mini, Midi and Minor jackpots and multipliers of 2x or 3x (which are applied to all prizes at the end of the bonus).

After the bonus has played through, your held Magic Orbs are reset to 5.

Jackpot Bonus

Avalon 3 has 5 jackpots.  The Mini, Minor and Midi jackpots are fixed at 8x, 15x and 40x spin value respectively.  The Maxi jackpot starts at 100x spin value and the Mega jackpot at 1000x spin value and these slowly increase during play as long as you stick to the same spin value; the maximum values they can reach are 1000x for the Maxi and 5000x (the maximum win in the game) for the Mega.

Jackpot Bonus symbols are red and appear on reels 2, 3 and 4 only.  When one lands, it increases the value of the Maxi or Mega jackpot and can randomly trigger the Jackpot Bonus.  It’s a pick-me bonus in which you turn over coins until you reveal three the same, and win that jackpot.  The Maxi and Mega jackpots can only be won during the Jackpot Bonus; the other three jackpots can be won during Magic Orbs.

Free Spins

The free spins bonus round can be triggered randomly whenever a Free Spins Bonus symbol lands on the reels.  They are yellow, appear on reels 2, 3 and 4 and land quite often, but only rarely trigger the bonus.

In the bonus round, you start with 8 free spins (and a Magic Orb count of 5). As you collect an extra 3 free spins every time a Free Spins symbol appears, you’ll usually end up with quite a few more than that.

Should a Magic Orb Bonus be triggered during your free spins, the number of held Magic Orbs doesn’t reset after the bonus plays, but remains at the current value.

Avalon III Stake Values & Return To Player

Avalon III can be played from 10p a spin and has Return To Player of 92.30%, 94.30% or 96.30%.  To find out which RTP applies at the casino you’re playing at, you’ll need to check the game help files.

Due to UK Gambling Commission regulations, the UK version of the game has a maximum stake of £5 (£2 if you’re under 25) and is missing features such as bonus buy, autoplay and quick spin that are present in international versions.

Our Verdict

Part of the appeal of Avalon II was that (much like the original Immortal Romance slot) it had 8 different bonus features that were gradually unlocked through play, so if you wanted to collect them all you would keep returning to the game.

With Avalon 3, there’s certainly an incentive to go on playing until you trigger the Magic Orb feature, but once your Magic Orbs reset to 5 there’s an obvious break point.  Nevertheless, it’s visually entertaining and a lot more fun to play than most cash collect type games.

Where To Play Avalon III

Avalon 3 is not as widely available at UK online casinos as you might think given the popularity of earlier games in the series, and at most of the casinos that do have it the Return To Player is set at one of the lower rates.  Slots Temple (below) has it with the best RTP of 96.30%.