Vikings Go To Hell

Our Slot of the Month for May 2018 is Vikings Go To Hell by Yggdrasil.  It is a new release with a 5 x 4 reels array, 25 paylines running from left to right only and RTP of 96.1%.

Vikings Go To Hell is the third in the series of Vikings slots – the earlier titles were Vikings Go Wild (August 2015) and Vikings Go Berzerk (November 2016).   Yggdrasil only obtained a UK licence in December 2015 and initially their games were live with just a few UK facing operators.  They are now much more widespread at UK slot and casino sites bringing Vikings Go To Hell to a considerably larger audience than the earlier games.

All three of the Vikings slots share some special features.  The Viking symbols have a chance to turn into sticky wilds during the bonus round via a fight with some kind of a monster (hence the name of the original slot Vikings Go Wild), and they also all have the Treasure Chest that randomly appears on reel 5.

Vikings Go Berserk introduced a further special feature, the Berserk feature which allows players to collect Rage as they play in order eventually to trigger an enhanced version of the bonus round with one of the vikings always going wild, and this also appears in Vikings Go To Hell.

So how does Vikings Go To Hell differ from the other two games?  For a start, the graphics are much improved – the four vikings who appear as the higher scoring symbols look great!  The game runs on Yggdrasil’s new iSENSE 2.0+ platform and looks even better on mobile.

Vikings Go To Hell extends and enhances the bonus round (if you’re lucky, that is), increases the chance of the Treasure Chest appearing and also adds an extra way for the Vikings to go wild in the base game, the respin feature.  This comes at the price of much higher volatility than in the other two games.  In the base game,  most spins lose – and this includes spins where the respin feature is triggered.

The respin feature is triggered when exactly two Free Spin symbols land on the reels.  This triggers a demon fight; all Viking symbols on the reels fight the demon and the ones that win, turn to wilds.  These become sticky for a respin which takes place after any wins from the initial spin have been evaluated.  Each time a Viking goes wild, that Viking collects 1 Rage towards the berzerk feature.  The Rage Meters are saved between sessions of play and across different devices; on desktop, they appear to the side of the reels and on mobile, below.

The bonus round proper can be triggered in one of four ways.

1. 3 or more Free Spin symbols on the reels. 3 Free Spin symbols award 7 free spins, 4 symbols award 12 free spins and 5 symbols award 16 free spins (all Level 1)
2. A Viking’s Rage Meter reaches 100.  This awards 7 Level 1 free spins in Berserk mode (that Viking always goes wild/wins fights)
3. Level 1 free spins can be directly won from a Treasure Chest (7 from a Good stone tablet and 12 or 16 from an Epic stone tablet)
4. Rage Points which are won from a Treasure Chest can cause a Viking’s Rage Meter to pass 100, triggering 7 Level 1 free spins in Berserk mode.  This can happen with more than one Viking at a time – the Good version of the reward is 30 Rage Points for one Viking and the Epic version is 30 Rage points for all 4 Vikings.

Level 1 free spins cannot be retriggered as there is no Free Spins symbol on the reels during the free spins, but 2 or 3 extra spins can be won from a Treasure Chest if one appears (the other possible Treasure Chest rewards during the bonus round are 2 random sticky wilds (Good) or a sticky wild reel which can be any reel apart from 5 (Epic)).

Every Viking symbol that lands on the reels during the free spins fights a demon, turning wild and collecting a Rage Point if they win.  The resulting wilds are sticky for the remainder of the free spins.  After each spin, if there are any Vikings on the reels one of them is randomly selected to fight the level boss – the Lord of Chains.  The Lord of Chains has 3 health points and each successful fight against him wipes out one of them.

If the Lord of Chains is not beaten before the player runs out of free spins the bonus round ends.  If he IS beaten, the following things happen:

• The remaining Level 1 spins play out with the addition of two extra random sticky wilds and all Vikings that subsequently land on the reels automatically go wild.
• Level 2 free spins then begin.  The player starts with 7 fresh spins and the sticky wilds from Level 1 are removed.

The boss in Level 2 free spins is called Lucifir.  Like the Lord of Chains, he requires 3 hits to kill but this time each hit (including the last one) awards a random sticky wild.  If Lucifir is beaten before the free spins end, the remaining spins play out with all Vikings automatically going wild and a 3x multiplier is applied to all of the bonus round winnings.

This all makes for the possibility of a very exciting – and lucrative – bonus round if the Vikings defeat both bosses, but in most cases the round will end after the Level 1 free spins and depending on the number and position of winning Vikings it can be somewhat disappointing.

There is arguably more entertainment value in Vikings Go To Hell than in the previous games in the series where one could be waiting a long time for the bonus round with nothing but the occasional chest to break it up.  The respin feature fills that gap very nicely.  Some players, though, may prefer the bonus round from Vikings Go Berserk where one of 5 bonus features (including Ragnarok Free Spins where all four Vikings go wild every time) is applied before the free spins start.

Where to Play