5 Lions
5 Lions Stats
RTP & Maths
- RTP Versions
- 96.50% here · Other versions 95.51%
Free Spins & Bonus
- Free Spins
- 3/4/5 scatters on adjacent reels from the leftmost = Free Spins, choose 1 of 7 options (6–25 spins) · 6–25 spins · Retrigger: unlimited - 3+ scatters in the round trigger a new feature played at the end of the current round; the option may be changed
- Multipliers
- 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x, 15x, 30x or 40x · Multiply
Symbols & Pays
- Wild
- Base and feature · Reels 2, 3 and 4
- Scatter Reels
- All reels
- Line Pays
- Top symbol 20x · Lowest 0.1x
5 Lions Demo Overview
Three yin-yang scatters land and 5 Lions stops asking anyone to spin. A seven-option panel comes up instead, and the choice on it runs from 25 free spins on the gentlest multiplier range down to 6 spins on the harshest, with a Mystery column that picks both halves for you. Nothing else in this slot demo puts a decision in front of the player. That one screen is the design.
The seven options, exactly as the game lists them:
| Free spins | Wild multiplier range |
|---|---|
| 25 | 2x, 3x, 5x |
| 20 | 3x, 5x, 8x |
| 15 | 5x, 8x, 10x |
| 13 | 8x, 10x, 15x |
| 10 | 10x, 15x, 30x |
| 6 | 15x, 30x, 40x |
| Mystery | Mystery range, both taken from the other options |
5 Lions Features
The Free Spins Chooser
The panel appears before the first free spin and the round waits on it. Whichever row the player takes fixes two things at once: how long the round lasts and which three multiplier values the game can draw from on each spin. Take the top row, and the round is long and gentle. Take the bottom row, and it is over quickly, with the largest values in the pot. The Mystery row hides both numbers, pulling a spin count from one of the other options and a multiplier range from another, and reveals neither until the round is underway. Special reels are in play throughout, so the symbol mix a free spin draws from is not the mix standard play uses.
Wild Multipliers in Standard Play
The golden lion head is the wild, and it only appears on reels 2, 3, and 4. It substitutes for every symbol except the scatter, and it carries no pay of its own, making it a pure multiplier carrier. On every spin, the game draws a value at random from 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x, 15x, 30x, or 40x, and at the end of the spin it multiplies any winning combination containing at least one wild by that value. Wins with no wild in them pay flat. The whole free spins panel narrows that draw down to three values instead of nine.
Yin-Yang Scatters
The scatter shows up across every reel, and it pays on its own before it triggers anything. Three of them award 2x, four award 5x, and five award 20x the stake, and the same combination that pays also starts the feature. The catch is adjacency. The scatters have to run from reel 1 through neighbouring reels rather than landing anywhere they like, so two in view on reels 2 and 4 is worth nothing at all. It is also the only symbol the game places on every reel without a restriction attached.
No Bonus Buy Button
The reels have no buy plaque, and the rules list no buy price. The panel is reachable only by landing the scatters, which puts this game on the older side of Pragmatic Play’s catalogue in one obvious way and, given what the panel is, arguably on the better side of it too. Landing three adjacent scatters is the entire route in, at the cheapest bet and at the most expensive one alike.
How to Play
Ways, Not Lines
There are no lines to count in 5 Lions and no line count to adjust. Matching symbols pay wherever they land as long as they run from reel 1 through adjacent reels, which gives 243 ways across the standard 5×3 grid. The feature changes the grid rather than the rule. Three extra symbols drop onto the tops of reels 2, 3, and 4, the shape becomes 3-4-4-4-3, and the same adjacency rule now produces 576 ways. Each way returns one win, the highest available, and the game adds the ways together for the spin total.
Series Context
The minimum bet is $0.50, and the maximum is $250.00, with no ante and no super-spin setting to move either end. The theoretical return is 96.5%, and the lowest version an operator can license runs 0.99 points below that. 5 Lions Megaways and 5 Lions Megaways 2 rebuilt the same theme on a format where the ways count moves every spin, so the fixed count here is the structural difference between them before anything else gets compared.
Symbol Payouts
The table below shows each symbol as a bet multiple, based on the cash values shown at $2.00. The dragon is the one symbol whose five-of-a-kind breaks away from the pack, because four dragons pay no more than four phoenixes do.
| Symbol | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon | 1x | 2x | 20x |
| Phoenix | 0.7x | 2x | 16x |
| Money toad | 0.6x | 2x | 16x |
| Koi | 0.4x | 1x | 6x |
| Tortoise | 0.3x | 0.7x | 6x |
| A | 0.2x | 0.6x | 4x |
| K | 0.2x | 0.4x | 4x |
| Q | 0.2x | 0.3x | 2x |
| J | 0.2x | 0.3x | 2x |
| 10 | 0.1x | 0.3x | 2x |
| 9 | 0.1x | 0.2x | 2x |
| Yin-yang scatter | 2x | 5x | 20x |
Ultimate Slots Verdict
5 Lions puts one decision in front of the player and builds everything else around it. The seven-option panel turns a single free spins round into six different rounds, the ways count expands underneath it, and the retrigger rule lets the choice be made again. The high minimum bet is the real cost of entry.
✓ What We Like
- The seven-option panel lets the player set the round's length and its multiplier range before a free spin is played
- Ways expand inside the feature, so the same reels pay across far more routes
- Retriggers are unlimited, and a new round can be taken on a different option
- The wild multiplier reaches its highest range on the shortest free spins option
- Scatters pay on their own at 2x, 5x, and 20x the stake before the feature starts
- Three extra symbols drop onto reels 2, 3, and 4 in the feature, which is exactly where the wilds appear
✗ What Could Be Better
- The minimum bet is high for a game of this age and format, with no lower step available
- No bonus buy anywhere, so the panel is only reachable by landing scatters
- The wild appears on reels 2, 3, and 4 only, and it carries no pay of its own
Detailed Review
Our 5 Lions Experience
5 Lions Megaways and its sequel handed this game’s theme to an engine that decides the variance for you, spin by spin. The original hands that decision to the player instead, once, on a panel, before the round starts. Seven options, one choice, and no way back until a retrigger. This review is mostly about that panel.
The floor is where the age shows. A ways game with a minimum this high is unusual now, and it means the cheapest look at the panel costs more than it would on most of what Pragmatic Play has released since. That is a real barrier on a game whose entire appeal is the moment the panel arrives. Everything above that floor behaves like a modern release; the floor itself does not.
Read the panel as a volatility dial, and the game reorganises around it. The longest option is a flat, patient round built to keep landing modest multiplied wins across a lot of spins. The shortest compresses everything into a handful of spins where one wild carries the whole feature, or nothing does. Same trigger, same return, two completely different rounds. The Mystery row then takes the decision away again for anyone who would rather not make it, which is a thoughtful design choice on a game this old.
The retrigger rule does more work than it looks. Three more scatters within the round start a fresh feature that plays at the end of the current one, and you can change the option before it begins, so a round opened on the longest row can finish on the shortest at 40x. There is no limit on how often that happens. 5 Lions Gold, 5 Lions Dance, and 5 Lions Reborn all followed this game, and none of them improved on that particular rule.
There is no buy button anywhere here, and on this game the absence reads as deliberate rather than dated. The panel is the reward for landing the scatters, and selling it would remove the only decision the game asks anyone to make. Running the demo shows all seven rows, with that choice costing nothing.
