Golden Glyph

Golden Glyph (Quickspin): Overview

Quickspin is taking players on another trip back to Ancient Egypt in this feature-rich slot. It’s not the first time Quickspin has used the Egyptian theme, but they haven’t made it as unique or so lucrative as in other Egypt slots previously. Even in stills and thumbnails, the beauty of Golden Glyph is immediately apparent. Quickspin’s graphic design team have done an amazing job both with the symbols, and the magnificent background. It just takes you there. It conjures up the otherworldly nature of the land of the Pharaohs. Somewhere achingly mystical to spin its 7x7 grid packed with an array of intriguing features that includes power wilds and a collection of power-up modifiers among other things.

In a first for Quickspin, winning combinations are formed when similar symbols land in clusters, rather than paylines. Golden Glyph also uses a tumbling reels mechanic where winning clusters are removed from the board to let others tumble into place which can lead to consecutive winners from just one spin - at least five symbols are needed to form a cluster. A popular genre at the moment, and one that works perfectly with the 7x7 grid format. Medium variance, wagers can be had for as low as 20c/p or set as high as $/€100 per spin. For that, players get an above-average RTP of 96.19% and quite decent maximum payout possibilities.

In terms of symbols, four Egyptian hieroglyphs make up the lower end of the paytable and offer decent value from 0.1x to 18x the stake for clusters of be between 5 and 15+ symbols. The top three symbols are represented by Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, and Horus the falcon god. The latter is the most rewarding, giving you 250 times your stake for a cluster of 15+ symbols. The golden wild marked by a "W" is the standard wild - it substitutes for all regular symbols.

Golden Glyph (Quickspin): Features

Quickspin have paired the 7x7 grid with a suite of extras that complement it nicely. Frequently, players will come across the Power Wild as it appears in one of the empty spaces following a cluster win. Only one is awarded per tumble, and it appears during both the base game and free spins. If it's used as part of a winning cluster, then it also activates one of the Power-Ups.

There are also 4 different Power-Up modifiers available in the game. At the start of each spin, five Power-Ups are chosen at random and?displayed on the golden wheel to the left of the grid. The fifth will always be the Free Spins Power Up. When a winning cluster contains a Power Wild, it charges these Power-Ups in successive order until Free Spins are triggered, or a tumble results in no win. If that happens, all live Power-Ups are activated in the order of the wheel.

• Golden Scarab Power Up: distributes 4 – 10 wilds at random over the grid.
• Eye of Horus Power Up: picks a low pay symbol and removes all occurrences of it from the gird and triggers an additional tumble. Players receive 1/20th of their stake for each symbol removed.
• Blaze of Fire Power Up: is placed at a random position on the board and incinerates all base game pay symbols horizontally and vertically and also triggers another tumble. As before, each symbol removed is worth 1/20th of the stake.
• Free Spins Bonus Power Up: awards 9 free spins.

Free Spins cannot be re-triggered, but if the Fee Spins Power Up is activated during this round, then 3 more spins are added to the total every time it does. On the first free spin, the fabled Golden Glyph Wild is placed on the reels in a random space. The game’s namesake is the golden method for obtaining some truly epic wins. Not only does it act like a wild, but it also possesses a progressive multiplier that increases by 1 every time it forms part of a winning cluster. It moves to a new location with every spin, and is capable of reaching the top of the pyramid with a 99x multiplier. In other words, the Golden Glyph Wild is the key to the biggest payouts in the game.

Golden Glyph: Verdict

We have to say, Quickspin has successfully blended just the right elements to create their best Egyptian themed slot to date. It is the first time they have gone with a cluster pays system, and it works like a charm, particularly with the 7x7 layout. It’s not quite the first time Quickspin have used a tumble mechanic - we saw a similar device used in Big Bad Wolf with swooping reels, but it has certainly been fine-tuned and carried out in a more modern and sophisticated way with Golden Glyph. Along with top gameplay, Golden Glyph deserves a shout out for its looks. It's a truly gorgeous game that makes playing it all the more fun.

At the end of the day, what makes Golden Glyph so compelling is the interplay of its extras and the potential chain of events that are possible. The inclusion of Power Wilds after a win is a brilliant concept, and the way Power-Ups play off each other is a joy when it happens – especially when they are unleashed on the grid. Add a free spins feature capable of providing a multiplier of x99 with wins of up to 13,185 times the stake to that and you have one of Quickspin's best releases of 2019.