Valley of the Dead OnlyWins Slot Review

As you would expect from a recent release, the Valley of the Dead OnlyWins slot has plenty of features to keep you well entertained. There is the inclusion of Yggdrasils’ ‘OnlyWins’ mechanic where players can increase their wager for a guaranteed winning spin, but it is unclear yet if this is permitted in regions where bonus buy and autoplay features are disallowed such as the UK.

Respins

Every time you hit a winning combination in Valley of the Dead you will set off a respin. These respins last as long as you keep coming upon winning combos. The bet used by the respins matches the initial spin that launched them. This is why the initialm symbol values of the slot seem lower than the norm, as like Megaways games, multiple wins are possible from a single spin.

Blocker Symbols

Despite being an Ancient-Greek themed slot the Blocker symbols have a more Egyptian vibe as they are Scarab bettles in various colours. Every winning spin you land releases a golden scarab that removes one of these obstacles. Should you be able to remove all the obstacles, the golden scarabs become either red or blue scarabs, which are then gathered for use during the bonus feature awarding multipliers and extra lives. At the end of any respins achieved, if you have not triggered the bonus feature, the blockers will return to their original positions.

Red and Blue Scarab Respins Feature

You get one more life once you clear all the barriers. Red Scarabs count towards the Extra Lives feature and every five Scarabs collected will provide an additional life.  As long as you keep collecting scarabs, you will be collecting lives. Should you land a losing spin, the Extra Lives feature offers a respin. One life is utilised each time this respin occurs. When you land a losing spin and have no more lives remaining.

Blue Scarabs contribute to the Win Multiplier feature activated once all the blockers have been removed. Your multiplier increases by one for every five blue scarabs you gather. As long as you are gathering scarabs, your multiplier will keep increasing. Any further multipliers from respins are added to the counter after the current spins win has been awarded. Showed in the orb on the left or at the top (in mobile portrait mode), the multiplier presented will then apply to the next respin.

OnlyWins

This is similar to a bonus buy feature, but instead of guaranteeing bonus feature activation for 4.4x your stake you can guarantee your next spin will be a winner and for 44x your total stake you can ensure the next 10 spins have winning outcomes; and as only 12 combinations are required to trigger the Respins bonus feature, this puts players in pretty good stead to activate it; though, of course, nothing is guaranteed.

Valley of the Dead OnlyWins is a slot that gives me mixed feelings. There is a lot to love about this slot, with its exciting and innovative take on respins and reel expansion. However, just like the tale of Persephone, where there is light, there is also darkness. In this slot, the bad manifests itself in the RTP of the game which sits at a dismal 94%. While the 5,800x jackpot is good, it is not the progressive jackpot seen in games that most commonly have lower RTPs. The medium-to-high volatility rating does mitigate the RTP a little, but not enough for this to count as a serious downside of the slot.

However, if you are not the type of player to worry too much about the statistics and want a unique game set to entertain then you will enjoy what the Valley of the Dead OnlyWins slot has to offer. For this reason, I rate the Valley of the Dead OnlyWins slot at a respectable 7.5/10.

Rating: 7.5