With its sixth and final April title, Pragmatic Play has launched North Guardians, a Viking-themed video slot that utilizes a pattern-based feature similar to the “wild patterns” used in the recently released Eye of Cleopatra, while also including additional mechanics to help realize the game’s 5,000x max win potential.
Playable on all devices, a 5×5 game grid is set atop a snowy backdrop, where, starting from the leftmost reel 11 regular symbols pay from left to right on adjacent reels. Five differently colored runic objects serve as the highly volatile, 50-payline game’s lower value symbols, which are worth 0.48 to 0.8 times the stake, while axes, shields, a Gjallarhorn, and gold coins pay from 1.2 to 3.6 times the bet for landing five-of-a-kind.
Included in the six higher paying symbols are a female and a male Viking warrior that are valued at 6-10 times the stake for five-of-a-kind. The game’s Wild is represented by the one-eyed All-Father, Odin, who appears on all reels and substitutes for regular pay symbols. If you’re lucky enough to land five wilds on a line, it’ll pay 15x the bet.
Game Features:
During the base game, two halves of what is referred to as a “marking rectangle” appear on the screen, moving across the reels underneath the regular symbols. These Viking rune halves change positions on each spin, and if they happen to stop on the same position, joining together to form a full rectangle, the Wild reel located to the right of the game grid unlocks and spins.
The wheel will either land on “Level UP,” spinning again at the next level, or it could land on a pattern. When the wheel stops on a pattern, Wild symbols are added to the game grid according to the shapes and number of Wilds in the pattern, in a random position. There are five levels on the wheel, and the higher the level the better the pattern. Each of the reels can be filled with wilds.
Landing three or more scatter symbols during base gameplay unlocks the bonus round. While in this round, the wheel triggers on each spin and landing on the Level Up feature will award additional spins. As in the base game, moving up a level on the wild wheel will also unlock even more of these symbols that are added to the game grid. This mechanic is key to unlocking the game’s 5,000x max win.
Buy Free Spins Option:
Furthermore, depending on the jurisdiction, players can choose to Buy Free Spins, which instantly takes them to the bonus round. The cost of doing this is 100 times the total bet.
Innovative Additions:
Commenting on the interesting pattern-based game,?Yossi Barzely, Chief Business Development Officer for Pragmatic Play, said…
“Players enjoyed the addition of wild patterns in recent release Eye of Cleopatra™, soincluding this feature in North Guardians™ while also adding additional mechanics and an upgradable pattern system within a popular Viking theme has created a standout hit.
“North Guardians™?has the ability to award players huge wins up to 5,000x and this along with the innovative wild wheel system is sure to be an instant draw for players.”
Recently Launched & Next Up:
The new release closely follows other recently launched hits like Spirit of Adventure from studio partner Reel Kingdom, Clover Gold, and the ancient Egyptian-themed Eye of Cleopatra, each of which is home within Pragmatic Play’s rapidly expanding portfolio?of more than 200 HTML5 titles.
Fans can expect the multi-product content provider to drop its next title, Fire Strike 2, which is the sequel to the original released in 2019, on May 5th.