The rules cap a single round at 5,000x your bet, and the cap holds in normal play and in free spins alike. That figure sits beside a 96.50% RTP, 10 fixed lines, and an expanding symbol round in the format Pragmatic Play has used since John Hunter and the Book of Tut. Book of the Fallen, released on 25 November 2021, moves the same explorer into a darker hall, gives Anubis red eyes, and keeps the maths. Five explorers on one line pay 500x the bet, the Super Spin panel on the left costs 10x, and the buy panel on the right costs 100x.
One symbol covers both jobs. The book substitutes for every other symbol on the 10 lines, and it pays on count anywhere on the reels, at 2x the total bet for 3, 20x for 4, and 200x for 5. Three or more anywhere also start free spins. With no other wild on the board, the book is the only symbol that helps a line finish, and it is the only route into the round. One line in the rules matters for the wild half of the job: five books on a line pay by the book’s own table, so a full row of them returns 200x rather than the explorer’s 500x.
The round opens with 10 free spins. Before it starts, the player picks a symbol to be the special expanding symbol for the round. On each free spin, the game pays regular line wins first, then the chosen symbol expands to fill all 3 positions on every reel it landed on. It pays on all reels, even when the reels are not adjacent.
The expansion only fires when enough copies are on screen for a win by that symbol’s paytable, so a single expanded explorer on reel 3 does nothing, and a lone expanded Anubis needs two more before it counts.
Three or more books during the round add 10 spins with the same symbol, and the rules put no limit on retriggers. Reach 5,000x inside a round, and the game stops it there, hands over the win, and forfeits whatever spins remain.
The Super Spin toggle on the left panel is an ante bet costing 10x the current stake. With it on, every spin plays like a free spin, with a preselected expanding symbol that fills its reel and pays anywhere. The symbol wins stay at the base bet, so a 500x explorer line still pays 500x whether the spin costs 1x or 10x.
The rules list 96.49% for Super Spin play, 0.01 below the standard figure. The panel’s price follows the bet, so at the $0.10 minimum, the ante costs $1 a spin, and the on and off switch under the price is the only control the panel carries.
The right panel buys the 10-spin round for 100x the stake, so $200 on a $2.00 bet, with an RTP of 96.48%. The three RTP figures are within 0.02 of each other, so the choice between the buy and the ante comes down to variance.
The buy gives 10 spins on one symbol for 100x. The ante gives one expanded spin at a time for 10x each, and 10 of those cost the same $200 as the buy, with the difference that each ante spin can still land the 3 books that start the round proper.
The paytable has a wide spread. Five explorers pay 500x the bet, while three of the 10, J, Q, K, or A pay 0.5x, so most spins between features return less than the stake or nothing. Two of a kind only pays for the explorer, and at 1x it hands the stake back and no more. The value of this slot sits in the expanding symbol during free spins, and the wait for 3 books on a 10-line board is long. This review rates it High, and a few demo rounds show why.
The rules say the expanding symbol pays on all reels even when they are not next to each other, and that changes how the round is read. Outside free spins, every win needs matching symbols on adjacent reels from the left. Inside the round, a chosen symbol on reels 1, 3, and 5 counts as 3 of a kind once it expands, and with all 3 rows filled, that count applies on every line crossing those reels.
The minimum bet is $0.10. The rules give the maximum as $2,500.00, which is the 10x Super Spin cost at the top stake, so a spin with the ante off tops out at a tenth of that. The RTP is 96.50% in standard play, 96.49% with Super Spin, and 96.48% for a bought round. The rules label the volatility Medium; this review rates it High.
The info screen covers the symbol table with the book’s scatter and wild note, the free spins rules with the non-adjacent expansion and the 5,000x cap, the Super Spin and buy text, the 10 line shapes, the RTP figures and the bet limits, then Pragmatic Play’s stock interface, settings, and autoplay notes.
Each figure below is a multiple of the bet, converted from the $2.00 rules screen, so the explorer’s $1,000 for five reads as 500x. Every symbol pays on a line from reel 1 except the book, which pays on count anywhere.
| Symbol | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Hunter | 1x | 10x | 100x | 500x |
| Pharaoh mask | 0.5x | 4x | 40x | 200x |
| Anubis | 0.5x | 3x | 10x | 75x |
| Ankh | 0.5x | 3x | 10x | 75x |
| A, K | – | 0.5x | 4x | 15x |
| Q, J, 10 | – | 0.5x | 2.5x | 10x |
| Book (scatter and wild, anywhere) | – | 2x | 20x | 200x |
The explorer is the only symbol that pays from 2, and the drop from his 500x to the pharaoh’s 200x is the widest step on the table. Anubis and the ankh share one ladder at 75x, and the low five pay half the stake for 3. The top symbol carries most of the value, as it does across Pragmatic Play’s Egyptian demos.
Book of the Fallen runs the 10-line book format at 96.50% RTP with a 5,000x cap, a 10-spin expanding symbol round, a 10x Super Spin ante and a 100x buy. The three RTP figures sit within 0.02 of each other, so the extras cost variance rather than return, and the wait for 3 books between features is where the High volatility lives. The darker art is the reason to pick it over Book of Tut.
Anubis on reels 1, 4, and 5 with pharaoh masks on reels 3 and 4 and nothing on reel 2 to join them is a typical screen, and so is a pharaoh on reel 3, another on reel 5 with an ankh beneath it, and royals in the other 12 positions. That is the base game of a 10-line book slot in miniature, with premium symbols scattered where they cannot connect and the low cards filling the gaps.
The art is Pragmatic Play‘s usual polish, a lit hall with gold columns, the explorer in his hat, and an Anubis with glowing red eyes that gives the title its horror lean. The side panels show the 10x and 100x prices on every spin, and the message bar under the reels alternates between “Place your bets!” and the turbo prompt.
The review has to weigh the 5,000x cap against the odds of seeing it. The cap is in the rules and applies to both modes. Getting there means a round of 10 spins, or more with a retrigger, with a high symbol chosen and enough copies landing to expand across the 5 reels. Five expanded explorers pay 500x on each of the 10 lines, and that single screen is the 5,000x on its own. At 96.50% RTP, with 0.01 to 0.02 less on the Super Spin and the buy, the price of either extra is a matter of variance rather than return.
The demo makes the comparison easy. Play 50 spins with Super Spin off, and the reels behave like the screens above, with wins from 0.5x low symbols and long gaps. Turn it on at 10x, and every spin expands one symbol, which shows what a round looks like before you pay 100x for the real one. The symbol choice is the decision that matters in both modes. An expanded ankh needs three reels for 3x, while an expanded explorer pays 10x for the same three reels and 500x for five, so the high symbol is the pick whenever the screen offers it, and a low pick trades the top end for more frequent small returns.
The 5,000x and the 96.50% are the specs; the wait between books is the cost of both. With one scatter symbol and no other way in, the three books that open the round are the whole story, and a run of dry spins is the normal texture of the wait rather than bad luck.
Compared to the earlier Book of Tut, the format is the same; the difference is the mood. This one is darker, and the Anubis symbol is the reason to pick it over the sunlit original. For a free play, look at the format with two ways to expand a symbol, it earns 3.5 out of 5.
