Play Demo
What if Merlin were a blonde sorceress holding a glowing Philosopher’s Stone in a cluttered alchemist’s workshop? Arcadem answered that with a 5×3 grid built around a single feature: expanding wilds that stick and trigger free respins, chaining into further expansions if more wilds appear. The 10-payline layout sits inside a dense, atmospheric laboratory surrounded by bubbling potions, chalkboards scrawled with arcane formulae, and a black cat watching from the shadows. It’s a setting that promises more than the feature set ultimately delivers, but the expanding wild chain is where the 1,006x maximum win lives.
When the wild symbol (the Philosopher’s Stone itself, a glowing pink crystal) lands anywhere on the reels, it expands vertically to fill every position on that reel. The game then evaluates all paylines with the expanded wild in place. After paying out, the wild stays locked on its reel and the remaining reels respin for free.
If the respin lands additional wilds on different reels, those wilds also expand and stick. The process repeats with another free respin for every new wild that appears. In theory, this chain can spread wilds across multiple reels in a single sequence, turning an ordinary spin into a cascade of expanding coverage. The maximum win of 1,006x comes from these chain events, when enough wilds lock in to fill the grid with substitutions.
All symbols in this slot pay both left to right and right to left. On a 10-payline grid, this effectively doubles the number of winning directions available on every spin. A three-of-a-kind Merlin combination starting from reel 5 pays the same as one starting from reel 1. This also means expanding wilds on central reels (2, 3, or 4) contribute to combinations running in both directions simultaneously.
The pay-both-ways format is the first thing that separates Merlin and The Philosopher’s Stone from a standard 10-payline slot. Every combination that would normally pay left to right also pays right to left, which means a matching sequence starting on either edge of the grid counts. An expanding wild landing on reel 3 contributes to potential wins running in both directions from the centre, making the middle columns the most productive positions for the feature.
Bets start at €0.10 per spin and scale upward through the BET selector. The 10 payline patterns are fixed and mapped in the info screen. Only the longest matching combination per symbol on each line pays, and simultaneous wins across different paylines are added together. Autoplay runs a chosen number of spins automatically. The game’s rules screen confirms a 95.95% RTP, and the maximum win is 1,006x your total stake.
The following values are displayed at a €1.00 stake.
| Symbol | x3 | x4 | x5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merlin | €5.00 | €20.00 | €25.00 |
| Gold Bars | €2.50 | €6.00 | €12.00 |
| Emeralds | €1.00 | €2.50 | €6.00 |
| Symbol | x3 | x4 | x5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow Potion | €0.80 | €2.00 | €5.00 |
| Purple Potion | €0.70 | €1.50 | €4.00 |
| Blue Potion | €0.50 | €1.00 | €2.50 |
| Red Potion | €0.50 | €1.00 | €2.50 |
Merlin is the clear premium symbol at 25x for five of a kind, roughly double Gold Bars at 12x and four times the Emeralds at 6x. The four potion bottles fill the lower tiers with Blue and Red sharing identical values at the bottom. The pay-both-ways format means these figures effectively apply in two directions, so a five-of-a-kind Merlin hit from reel 5 through to reel 1 pays the same €25.00.
A richly atmospheric setting wrapped around a limited feature set. The expanding wild respin chain is a clean concept, and the pay-both-ways format adds directional flexibility, but infrequent triggers and a 1,006x cap leave the gameplay underwhelming. Visually polished, mechanically sparse, and best sampled in free play before committing.
The laboratory setting is richly detailed. Potion bottles line shelves in the background, a skull sits beside an open book, chalk equations cover a blackboard behind the reels, and a black cat crouches near the bottom right of the screen. Arcadem have invested in the environment art, and it creates a genuinely atmospheric space. The problem is proportion. The reel grid sits slightly too small within all of that detail, dwarfed by the background elements around it. The visual identity is strong, but the gameplay area competes for attention rather than commanding it.
The soundtrack adds to the mood without adding much distinction. A creeping, eerie melody loops through each session, effective for the first few minutes but recognisable as the kind of ambient track that could belong to any of Arcadem’s darker-themed magic titles. It does the job without standing out.
Regular play across the 10 paylines was quiet across our review testing. The pay-both-ways format should theoretically double the hit potential, but the sparse payline coverage on a 5×3 grid means large sections of each spin go uncovered regardless of direction. Wins from the potion symbols returned modest amounts, and the gaps between any kind of meaningful connection stretched noticeably. The expanding wild appeared twice in roughly 40 spins. The first expanded on reel 4, triggered a respin, and landed nothing further. The second hit reel 2, expanded, and the respin delivered a third wild on reel 3 that also expanded, briefly locking two full columns. That chain produced the session’s best result, but it still fell short of dramatic.
The expanding wild chain is a clean concept. Wild lands, expands, sticks, respins, and any new wilds repeat the process. It is elegant in its simplicity and creates the game’s only moments of genuine tension. The issue is frequency. With wilds needing to land on the respin (not just any spin) to extend the chain, multi-reel expansions are rare enough that most sessions will resolve after a single expansion and one uneventful respin. The 1,006x cap reflects that modest potential.
Merlin and The Philosopher’s Stone is a visually polished slot with a single well-designed feature that doesn’t fire often enough to sustain extended demo sessions. The atmosphere earns its place, but the gap between the setting’s promise and the gameplay’s delivery is where the experience falls short.
