• The low-paying symbols are 9 to K card royals.
• The Egyptian gods, Anubis, Horus, Sobek, and Bastet are the high-paying symbols.
• Hathor, another Egyptian deity is the wild symbol that only appears as a full wild reel and stands in for any other symbol.

Respins / Scarabs

On any win, scarabs appear and destroy golden blocker tiles, the number of symbols in your winning effectively expanding the reels by a maximum of 16 positions. You will also receive a respin and this process is repeated if you keep landing wins. With all the blocker tiles in place, the reel set starts with a 1-2-3-4-5-2 format, but once all the blockers have been removed, it increases to 3-4-5-6-7-8. When all the blockers are destroyed you will activate 3 collection modifiers which are represented by blue, red, and golden scarabs. You will immediately receive an ‘extra life’ from the red scarab. Any wins will now generate symbols that fill each scarab’s meter.

Every 5 red scarab matches will give you an extra life, 5 blue scarab matches award you a +1 win multiplier, and 5 golden scarab matches gets you a wild reel that appears in a random position and stays in place until the next win or until the respins end. A respin without a win will consume one extra life and once all your extra lives are depleted and no further wins appear, all the blocker tiles will revert to their positions and the reels will return to their original condition.

Sequels sometimes disappoint but Valley of the Gods 2 successfully builds on the success of its predecessor with a few extra tweaks that elevate the gameplay to exhilarating levels. The ingenious approach to the gameplay creates a seamless transition between the base and bonus games. Destroying the blocker tiles through consecutive respins, in addition to being thrilling, unlocks positions on the reels, increasing your winning potential, and ultimately building up to activating the collection modifiers that unleash a flurry of clustered special features.

Stylistically, the slot is very appealing, carrying the Egyptian theme through the entire spectacle with gold-lined reels, winged scarab artifacts, and striking portraits of Egyptian gods. The only identifiable drawback to this title is the frustration you could experience when getting within a whisper of removing all the blockers, only to have them all return because of a losing spin.