Eye of Horus

What the numbers say about Eye of Horus

Read the spec sheet first and the design becomes obvious. A 5×3 grid, 10 lines, High volatility, a top RTP of 96.31% and a release date of 7 September 2016. Reel Time Gaming built the online game, Merkur lists it, and before it went online it was a regular sight in German arcades. There is one special symbol worth talking about, Horus, and one feature, 12 free games. That is the whole machine.

What lifts it above a basic ten-liner is what Horus does inside the feature. Each time the wild lands there, a picture symbol is promoted to the next one up and stays promoted until the round ends. Over a long round the cheaper pictures disappear from the reels one by one. Two numbers on the sheet need care, though. The studio has never confirmed a top win, and the game exists in several RTP settings, so the figure you meet depends on the build.

The spec sheet at a glance

One name, several games: the build this page covers

Eye of Horus is a family name rather than a single product, and the members follow different rules. Sorting them out first saves confusion later.

• Arcade cabinet (Merkur). Merkur’s own write-up is about its land-based machine, which lets players choose five or ten lines and several stake steps. It is hardware, and it is not what this page measures.
• Online game listed by Merkur. Built by Reel Time Gaming, released on 7 September 2016, top RTP 96.31%. Everything below describes this one.
• Blueprint Gaming builds. Blueprint publishes the title in UK markets. Its B3/Cat C product page sets out the same core: an expanding wild, 12 free games from three or more PYRAMIDS, and upgrades during the feature. Stakes and RTP may not match the online version.
• Follow-up titles. Blueprint has spun the name into Megaways, Gold Spins Megaways, Tablets of Destiny Megaways and more. Each has its own sheet, and a comparison sits further down.

Minor points, such as what the scatter is called or the exact count of bonus spins, shift from build to build. Where we know of a difference we flag it briefly. The help screen in the game you open is always the final reference.

Base game mechanics: an expanding wild on the middle three reels

Outside the feature the game is about as lean as a video slot gets. Ten fixed lines pay from the leftmost reel. Horus can only drop onto reels 2, 3 and 4. When it does, it grows to cover all three rows of that reel and acts as any symbol other than the scatter.

Every one of the 10 lines crosses every reel, so a grown Horus sits on all ten lines at the same moment. One wild is therefore really a full wild column serving the entire line set, which makes it worth more than its landing frequency hints.

Stack two or three of those columns on a single spin and the grid becomes generous. If reels 2, 3 and 4 are all wild, a line pays as long as reel 1 shows a symbol, and a matching symbol on reel 5 turns it into five of a kind. In the base game there is no ladder, so these wins come from the standard pay values.

Reel 1 decides everything. Wins start there, Horus cannot land there, and so each line needs a genuine symbol in the first column before the wilds can help. Placed in the middle, Horus extends lines that reel 1 has opened but can never start one. Reel 5 plays the opposite role: it alone separates four of a kind from five, and it has no wild either.

With a single modifier in the base game, the free games carry a big slice of the total return. That balance is normal for a classic ten-line slot with one feature, and it shapes how the game feels from spin to spin.

Free games: twelve spins and a symbol ladder

Starting the round

According to Merkur’s article, three, four or five scatters open the feature. The symbol has two names: Temple of Horus in Merkur’s text and PYRAMIDS in Blueprint’s rules. Both builds award 12 free games. Lists often give the scatter its own pay of 500x for five, without saying whether that is measured against the line stake or the full stake.

Three jobs for every Horus

Blueprint’s rules describe a Horus landing in free games as doing three things together:

1. Growing to cover its reel and substituting for every symbol.
2. Extending the round with added free games.
3. Promoting a picture symbol one step.

The three effects arrive as a package. Even when a wild lands on a spin that completes no line, it still promotes a picture and still adds games. Inside the feature, no Horus is a dead symbol.

Climbing from fan to Eye

Merkur puts it most simply. Upgrades happen one step at a time, “starting with the lowest value (e.g. the fan)”, and move up from there. Each step takes the cheapest picture still on the reels and turns it into the next one up. Given enough wilds, the pictures keep climbing until all of them are the Eye of Horus.

With the commonly published five-symbol values, the climb looks like this, from the bottom rung:

Names wobble a little by build. The fan sometimes appears as a flower and the falcon as an eagle or bird. The direction does not change: the climb always runs from the fan up to the Eye of Horus. Blueprint’s rules mention picture symbols only. No studio material says the A, K, Q and J royals are promoted, so we make no such claim.

Six pictures means five promotions finish the climb. From then on every picture that lands is the top one, and the only variety left comes from the royals, the wild and the scatter.

The value of each rung is uneven. Fan to ankh adds nothing on paper, as both are listed at 200x for five. Ankh to scarab adds 50x at that level. Higher up the gaps widen: the shrine sits 100x above the falcon, and the Eye 100x above the shrine. In other words the first promotion of a round mostly tidies the reel set, and the later ones add visible value. The larger effect is concentration. Fewer different pictures on the reels means the survivors line up together much more often.

The three-wild ceiling

Because Horus only appears on reels 2, 3 and 4, no spin can show more than three wilds. Two limits follow from that one fact:

• Promotions in a spin: three at most.
• Games added in a spin: 1 for a single wild, 3 for a pair, 5 for three, going by Blueprint’s rules summary. A few builds may use a different number for three wilds, so the help screen is worth a look.

Finishing the climb therefore needs at least two spins that carry wilds, since five promotions are required and a spin offers three at most. The extra-games scale leans in the player’s direction. A pair of wilds adds three games rather than two, and a full set adds five, so the spins that promote most also buy the most time for those promotions to pay. Reports widely say there is no cap on added games.

Early wilds versus late wilds

Timing matters because promotions stack up through the round. A Horus on the second spin improves the reels for ten or more spins that follow. A Horus on the last spin promotes a symbol with only that spin left to use it, unless the games it adds stretch the round further.

It helps to split a round into two stages. In stage one, wilds are mainly climbing and extending, and each wild spin raises the value of everything after it. In stage two, with the climb mostly or fully done, wilds switch to completing lines of the dominant top picture across all ten lines. A round that climbs fast spends most of its time in stage two. A round whose wilds come late barely reaches it.

Paytable values and the unit question

Published five-of-a-kind figures are:

• Eye of Horus: 500x
• Anubis shrine: 400x
• Horus falcon: 300x
• Scarab: 250x
• Fan and ankh: 200x each
• J, Q, K and A: 100x each
• Scatter: 500x for five

Missing from these lists: the unit (line stake or total stake) and the values for three and four of a kind. The unit is not a small detail. On 10 lines, 500x the line stake equals 50x the total stake. We repeat the figures as published and do not guess which unit applies.

The in-game paytable answers what the lists cannot. Start with the unit: if values are shown as coin amounts that move when you change stake, they track your bet, and dividing by the line stake gives the multiple. Next, read the three-symbol row for each picture, since that tells you what the frequent small wins are worth. Then check whether the wild has a row of its own and whether the scatter pays on the total stake. Last, open the free games page to confirm the extra-games scale and the order of promotions. Those four checks fill every gap in the published list.

The unconfirmed top win

Several top-win numbers circulate for this game, 50,000x and 20,000x among them, and it is often unclear whether the 50,000x figure is a line-stake or total-stake multiple. The studio has not confirmed any of them, so we list the max win as not verified.

The unit changes the answer by a factor of ten. Across 10 lines, 50,000x the line stake is 5,000x the total stake. The published values do not resolve it. Five Eyes of Horus on every line at 500x each comes to 5,000x the line stake over ten lines, well short of either 50,000x reading unless a separate wild or scatter pay is added on top. Until a studio paytable for a named build states the figure, treat every number as unconfirmed.

The route to the biggest results is not in doubt, though. It takes a long free games round where wilds arrive early enough to finish the climb, followed by spins in which grown wilds and an all-Eye picture set line up across the ten lines.

Five return settings and a High rating

The game ships in five RTP settings. From the top: 96.31%, then 94.83%, 92.44%, 90.25% and finally 88.26%. That is a gap of slightly more than eight points between best and worst, which is large. At the top setting the maths returns 96.31 units for each 100 staked across a very long sample; at the bottom setting it returns 88.26. A short session will not reveal the difference, but as a design figure it is significant.

Blueprint’s UK builds may carry RTP values that are not on this list. Only the help screen tells you which setting is live.

Blueprint Gaming rates volatility High, five of five, though some listings call it medium. Both views come from the same structure. The base game has one modifier and a modest set of pay values, while the ladder can turn a free games round into an outcome of a very different size. Most results sit around ordinary base spins, with a long tail made of rounds that climb quickly.

So High here means modest line wins from the base game and larger results mainly from the feature. It does not mean an even ride, as one fast-climbing round can outweigh a long stretch of base play. RTP and volatility both describe behaviour across a huge number of spins. Neither predicts when the feature arrives, and no spin is ever owed a result.

Optional gamble screens

Certain builds and markets offer a gamble step after a win, typically a red-or-black card guess to double or a risk ladder. Neither the Merkur rules article nor the Blueprint product page mentions one, so its presence depends on the build. If it appears it is always optional. Guessing a card colour is a coin toss, not a skill, and it does nothing to raise the long-run return.

Original versus the Megaways follow-ups

The first game is remembered as a straightforward classic with a strong following in Germany. Blueprint later reworked it for the Megaways format, keeping the Horus theme and the promotion idea but changing the grid:

The family also includes Eye of Horus Tablets of Destiny Megaways, widely reported with a 10,000x max win and symbol upgrades in its free spins, and Eye of Horus The Golden Tablet, plus other releases.

The main contrast is readability. The original is fixed: ten lines, three wild reels and one ladder. The Megaways titles bring shifting reel heights and thousands of ways, which makes outcomes harder to follow. The original’s best RTP beats the Megaways figures in the table, but because several settings exist, that edge only holds for the right build.

Strengths and weak points

Strengths

• In free games each Horus grows, extends the round and promotes a picture in one go.
• The ladder gives long rounds a clear sense of building value.
• A grown wild on reels 2 to 4 covers every one of the ten lines.
• The top setting of 96.31% is respectable for this format.

Weak points

• RTP settings reach down to 88.26%, and UK builds may show different values again.
• No studio-confirmed top win.
• Only one modifier in the base game, so play is plain between features.

Is it for you

• Fans of traditional 5×3 ten-line slots who would rather not learn new grids or modifiers.
• Players who like a feature that grows within a round, where early wilds set up everything after them.
• Anyone who wants a high-volatility classic without the very wide swings of modern high-ceiling games.

Look elsewhere if you want a range of bonus types, a clearly documented top win or a feature buy, which this version does not list.

Questions about Eye of Horus