Empire Shields

Empire Shields Review

With the Empire Shields slot, developer GONG Gaming Technologies steps into the world of fantasy slots, taking players on an exciting reel adventure to a fictional realm to hunt for epic rewards of over 12,000x the stake. Produced in cooperation with Microgaming, Empire Shields is packed with outstanding features that won't let you have a dull moment during the gameplay. Here, players will benefit from random modifiers on each base game spin, as well as from the rewarding Free Spins bonus round where modifiers work at full capacity.

Empire Shields - Slot Outlook

The GONG Gaming Technologies studio has already proven to be quite effective when it comes to game design, and its new Empire Shields also looks stunning on the surface. The background image showcases a gloomy castle with massive warrior statues at the gateway, while the animated raging sky complements the dark atmosphere. Symbols on the reels are sharp and all looking lovely, and the soundtrack is also on spot, capturing the essential epic vibe. Anyway, the actions take place at a standard 5x3 reel set with an all-ways pay system, producing 243 ways to play. There's also a horizontal reel above the main grid where only shield icons can appear. Those play into the modifiers and help you achieve wins, plus can expand the reels to 5x6 in size with a staggering 7,776 paylines.

Empire Shields Slot - Reel Screen

Playable on any device that supports HTML5, the Empire Shields slot comes with a betting range of £0.2 to £20 per spin, which is rather common and should appeal to most players. The volatility is high, and the RTP is solid well above average at 96.19%. What's most impressive is the game's winning potential since a top prize of 12,150x the bet is surely worth the risk involved. The probability of a max win is 0.000000000008939% though, for those who are interested.

The pay symbols in the Empire Shields slot include a variety of 12 symbols that are split into three categories. On the lower side, we see classic A-9 royals, while the mids include two pieces of jewelry. The latter lot is made up of four character symbols, namely an angel, a demon, the queen, and the king. You'll need to land at least 3 matching symbols adjacently anywhere on the reels starting from the leftmost to score a payout, and 5-of-a-kind wins are worth from 1.5x to 15x your bet. There's also a Wild symbol included that substitutes for any other regular symbols, and it pays up to 15x the stake for line wins.

Empire Shields - Bonus Features

As alluded to earlier, Empire Shields relies heavily on the reel modifiers that appear above the main reels. Those modifiers are called Toppers, and they shift one spin to the left on each spin. Four different features are available, and they charge randomly with energies according to a predefined probability. They start at 0 energy as they appear, and each Topper requires a different number of energies to activate the feature. Once triggered, Toppers will be available from the triggering spin until they reach the leftmost reel and leave the grid.

Empire Shields Slot - Feature Toppers

• Double Reel - charges with 4 energies. When activated, the height of the reel below is doubled up to 6 symbols, and the number of paylines is also increased. With 5 Double Reel Toppers activated, the maximum number of ways reached 7,776.

• Multiplier - charges with 5 energies. Displays a random Multiplier of either 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, or 10x that is applied to all wins that include symbols from the reel below. The Multiplier changes to a different one on each shift. Multiple Multiplier Toppers sum up and produce bigger multipliers.

• Wild - charges with 6 energies. A Wild symbol is placed in a random position on the reel below.

• Expanding Wild - charges with 7 energies. All symbol positions on the reel below turn into Wild.

Look out for Scatter symbols in the base game, which can appear anywhere on the reels. Landing 3, 4, or 5 in view awards the Free Spins feature, which is preceded by a mini Pick Bonus game. Players will be presented with 20 shields to pick from, where each shield can reveal a random Topper. Once 5 are selected, those will become constant for the feature, and players will proceed to the free games with 10 spins to start with.

During the Free Spins, Toppers charge with the same level of energies as in the base game, and they stay active for the remainder of the bonus. On the 10th spin, all features become activated in case you haven't managed to do so, and you can win additional free games by landing 3 or more Scatters anywhere in view during the bonus game, which will award +10 extra spins.

Empire Shields - Slot Verdict

With a variety of modifiers available on each spin, Empire Shields is certainly a fun game to play. All those random multipliers, Wilds, Expanding Wilds, and grid expansions can result in solid wins on any base game spin, and that is only getting better in the Free Spins. GONG Gaming Technologies has also put a lot of effort into the design and math, so Empire Shields is gorgeous both on the surface and under. All up, it's a decent slot, and those into the fantasy genre are likely to get stuck into it.