Game of the Week – Serpent Shrine

We often come across online pokies whose themes we don’t quite understand. That’s the case with Serpent Shrine. It is the latest variable Ways to Win pokie from Fantasma Games. If you’ve never heard of the company, you’re not alone. The company is a developer partner with Relax Gaming.

While the theme is a little unusual, it does have some nice features that will help you win up to 10,000x your initial bet.

Mime Your Way to Treasure in the Serpent Shrine

The theme on this game seems a bit unusual. It appears that you’re a group of skeletons that are mining in a shrine to serpents. At least that’s what it appears. The symbols by and large are what you’d expect from a mining theme game. Lower paying symbols are pickaxes, maps, and lanterns.

Middle paying symbols are different gems or ores. High paying symbols are smiling miner skeletons. The highest paying symbol is the serpent. Yellow gems positioned in a W is the wild symbol for this game.

The board layout is a bit unusual with a 2-3-3-3-2 layout and 108 ways to win. All other symbols on the board are blocked. Three of the blocks include bombs that can be triggered. The only way to clear these blocked sections is by triggering special features.

Butterfly Feature

A blue Butterfly Wild will randomly appear on a reel. If the symbols become part of a winning combination, the Butterfly Feature will unlock. The Butterfly will destroy three blocked locations at random and a respin will begin with the unblocked locations now part of the reels.

If a Bomb is unlocked by the Butterfly, it explodes and destroys all blocked areas around it. It also releases an additional Butterfly wild. You get one for every bomb destroyed.

On the respin, a Butterfly may again appear. If it makes another winning combination, you get another respin. This continues until a Butterfly is not part of a winning combination or all blocked sections are opened. Note that you don’t always get a Butterfly on a respin. If that happens, you are guaranteed that the feature will end.

If you open all of the blocked sections on the board, you will trigger the Snake Free Spins. The Butterfly wild appears fairly consistently, but generally, you will only get a couple of respins. I did get lucky once and trigger the Snake Free Spins bonus.

Snake Free Spins

At the start of the Snake Free Spins round, you will get 5 free spins. The snake will move down the board during each spin, covering blocks and removing them from play. However, each time it moves, your multiplier increases.

The first spin is played at the standard 1x. The second spin you lose get a 2x multiplier. On the third, you get a 5x. The fourth spin has a 20x multiplier while the last free spin has a 100x multiplier. The snake moves down after each spin so winning combinations will be tougher to make. After the fifth spin, the snake eats the board and the game goes back to normal.

During the game, you can potentially kill the snake. This is done through Butterfly symbol attacks. For every Butterfly on the board, you get one attack against the snake. The first two attacks knock out the snake’s teeth, which results in less of the board being covered for the remaining free spins. On the third attack, the snake is killed and the Super Free Spins feature is activated.

I was able to trigger the Snake Free Spins once, resulting in a nice win of 50x. I didn’t get to kill the snake though.

Super Free Spins

If you kill the snake, you will get two Super Free Spins. During these spins, all positions on the board are open and you will get a 100x multiplier for any wins. There will be 16,807 ways to win on these two spins.

Serpent Shrine a Bit Unusual But Has a Solid RTP

Serpent Shrine will likely get overlooked by a lot of players because they don’t understand the concept. Also, the graphics for the game are a bit lacking compared to other online pokies. However, once you start playing the game, you’ll find that it is quite enjoyable and profitable.

The game has an RTP of 96.53%, which is a bit better than many of the pokies I’ve recently reviewed. Players of all bankrolls will enjoy this game with spins ranging from .20 to $100 per spin. A great way to clear a Welcome Bonus. Serpent Shrine is available at King Johnnie Casino, Wild Card City, and all online casinos in Australia offering Relax Gaming pokies.