Reindeer Royale Slot Review

The Reindeer Royale Slot Game

This ELK Studios slot reminds me of the Nitropolis franchise, when the Pug Thugs, Rogue Rabbits, Gritty Kitty, and Dirty Dawgs plotted revenge against a rogue Sgt. However, according to the backstory, this time, the once peaceful reindeer kin are armed to the hooves as they go after Rudolf’s killer.

An ominous ambience hovers over the Frosty North, where a dimly lit wooden shack covered in snow sits on the left-hand side of the screen. The full moon provides light into the scary night set in a snowy location with pine trees and hills in the distance.

Then, the bonus game starts with several stoic reindeers bursting through a door and into the wooden shelter. 

I wonder who murdered Rudolf. But whoever they are, they’re in for more than an a$$ whooping! Meanwhile, the cackles, owl growls and howls, big foot-like steps, and other ambient effects help enhance the eerie design.

Symbols and Payouts

This game may be a reskin of the Rabbits Royale, but it adopts reindeer and human characters gone berzerk as part of its symbols. In total, there are eight regular symbols, as highlighted in the paytable. 

You aim to spin the 5x5 gameboard and hope that a winning combination of 3+ matching symbols beginning from the leftmost reel to the right will land. However, since the slot has 259 ways to win, the matching symbols must be on consecutive reels.    

Payouts indicated in the paytable are indicative of the selected stake!

Reindeer Royale has thematic symbols only. It applies a Dart, a Spiked Belt, a Potion Bottle, and a Hydraulic Cutter worth 0.2x, 0.25x, and 0.3x bet for its low-valued tier. Then, for the high-paying category, you get the following:

• Truck & Meat Mincer - 0.4x, 0.6x, and 1x the stake.
• Gun-wielding Elf - 1x, 1.5x, and 2x the bet.
• Knife-holding Chap - 1.5x, 2x, and 3x the stake.

Wilds can perform more than just substituting for regular symbols here, as I’ll show you shortly. Further, a payline of wilds only pays as the highest value symbol.

Reindeer Royale Slot Bonus Features

Several features complement the main game in this video slot, potentially helping you rack wins of up to 25,000x the bet!  

Ammunition Cache & Respins

Any wild contributing to a win unveils an Ammunition Cache with a random value. The reveal happens after a payline win and only if at least one reindeer is in view in Reindeer Royale. The Ammunition Cache symbols are blockers, with all reindeers in view personally gathering the Ammunition Cache values. The collection awards a re-spin.

The Reindeer symbols are also blockers. In addition to collecting Ammunition Cache values, they all collect orthogonally adjacent reindeer before awarding a re-spin. The reindeer may shift to newer positions during the re-spin. Any extra reindeer that appears without Ammunition Caches during a respin will trigger one re-spin, regardless of the number of reindeer.

The reindeer’s value never decreases. Instead, it remains until the end of the game round, and you get the values of the reindeer at the end of the round when no more re-spins occur. 

Ghost Feature

This feature randomly starts during a free spin or re-spin when at least two reindeer are in view. It triggers a confrontation between random reindeer currently in view. The selected reindeer don’t need to be adjacent.

Further, the collection happens over spinning Reindeer Royale columns where the selected reindeer are currently located.

Bonus & Super Bonus Games

Hit 3, 4, or 5 bonus symbols during the normal mode to trigger a corresponding number of free spins and 1, 2, and 3 reindeer, respectively, on the initial free spin.

A further 3+ bonus icons during the free spins retrigger more bonus rounds and reindeer, as initially triggered.

If triggered during a re-spin, the bonus game starts immediately after potential payline wins and collections. All the reindeer presently in view spill into the bonus game, complementing any awarded by the feature trigger. However, they are limited to 5 reindeer in view in any mode.

The bonus and super bonus modes end when no free spins remain, or you reach the win cap.  

X-iter Feature

As usual, Reindeer Royale offers the X-iter feature to enable you to buy into several different game modes. However, depending on the selected feature, you must be willing and able to part ways with between 3x and 500x the bet! 

How to Win at Reindeer Royale Slot

We’ve come a long way into this slot review, but I’d like to remind you a few things. First, the game has 5 reels and 5 rows with 259 connecting paylines.

Second, to win, you must match identical symbols in 3+ connected positions, beginning from the furthest left side to the right and on consecutive reels. Then, check for the corresponding win amount from the paytable.

A lucky Reindeer Royale spin can pay up to 25,000 times the stake!

But your budget must support the €0.20 to €100 bet levels before you can play a game round. After picking a preferred amount, hit the Spin button for a single game round. Or, use the Autoplay function for several auto-spins.

Reindeer Royale Slot RTP & Volatility

Being another ELK Studios creation means you’re up for another experience with a 94% RTP. Meanwhile, the slot’s 9 out of 10 volatility rating (high variance) has a 21.4% hit frequency.    

The Final Verdict

At first, I assumed ELK Studios intended for this slot to be Xmas-themed. However, after reviewing it, I’m unsure what to make of the theme, whether it’s Halloween-based, Christmas-inspired, or both. Whatever the developer’s end goal, this video slot culminates as a state-of-the-art design with high-standard audio-visuals.

Reindeer Royale may be a cloned game, but I’m glad it follows after a game that has never been cloned before—Rabbit Royale. I won’t go deeper into the features, as I’ve already extensively described them in this review. But just to recap, they include Ammunition Cache and reindeer symbols, a ghost feature, and free spins. Also, I won’t miss to note that they are enough to keep you wanting more.

However, despite the slot’s lucrative win cap of 25,000x bet, I keep questioning how realistic it is to hit the amount, considering its features aren’t crazy. For instance, you can never have more than 5 reindeer simultaneously in view in any mode.

Regardless, a clone isn’t bad unless it leads to another clone. In short, playing this game may not feel like experiencing repeated action, considering the original slot isn’t overused. Plus, the theme is distinct!