Rise of Merlin Slot Review for Players in India

Rise of Merlin at a glance

Play'n GO launched Rise of Merlin on 17 June 2019. Instead of an explorer in a tomb, the hero is a young Merlin in a blue-lit tower, joined on the reels by an owl and a red dragon. The crystal Magical Orb he carries is the symbol that matters most: it replaces other symbols on a line and also unlocks the bonus. Card ranks from 10 to A make up the cheaper part of the reels.

Mechanically this is a book-style game. The 5x3 screen carries up to ten fixed-shape paylines, wins run from left to right, and the bonus uses an expanding symbol that can pay even when its reels are not side by side. The official rules sheet rates volatility at 10, very high, and caps any win at 5,000 times the stake.

One spin from start to finish

Your stake is built from three settings: how many lines are active (up to ten), how many coins sit on each line (up to five) and the coin value. A ₹100 spin, for instance, can be ten lines with one coin of ₹10 each. The rupee steps you actually see depend on how the casino has configured the game.

Once the reels stop, the game checks each active line from reel one. A run of matching symbols starting on the left pays according to the table, multiplied by your coins per line. If one line holds more than one possible win, only the biggest counts. Wins from different lines are added, and three or more orbs anywhere add a scatter prize and open the bonus.

A practical point for anyone tempted to cut lines to save money: the bonus symbol pays only on active lines. With five lines on, a full expansion pays half of what it would with ten. Lowering the coin value keeps the full bonus value at a smaller cost.

Paytable in rupees at a ₹100 spin

The provider lists wins in coins per line. On a ₹100 spin with ten lines and one coin, every line is worth ₹10, so the rupee values below are simply the listed figure times ten. Play'n GO does not say which artwork, Merlin, owl or dragon, belongs to which premium tier, so the rows use tier names.

The orb's scatter award for three or more is not printed in the rules sheet, so look it up in the paytable inside the game.

The Magical Orb does two jobs

Each orb that lands counts twice. As a wild it fills gaps in line wins, and it pays as much as the top premium when it lines up by itself. As a scatter it needs no line at all: three orbs anywhere start the bonus. That double role is why a single spin with three orbs can pay a line win, a scatter prize and still hand you free spins.

What the orb never does is expand. In the bonus, only the randomly chosen special symbol grows.

Free spins and the special symbol draw

The bonus gives 8 free spins at your triggering bet. Before they start, one regular symbol is drawn at random to act as the expanding symbol.

• If a premium is drawn, two copies anywhere on the screen are enough for it to expand.
• If a card rank is drawn, it needs three copies.
• Ordinary line wins settle before anything grows. After that, the special symbols stretch over their whole reels and pay again across all active lines, gaps allowed.
• A new trigger of at least three orbs inside the round gives 8 more spins plus a fresh special symbol. Retrigger again and a third joins in.

Rupee examples from the bonus

All figures use a ₹100 spin, so each line carries ₹10.

• A middle premium on reels 2, 3 and 5: three reels expand and all ten lines show three of a kind at 20 times the line bet. That is 20 x ₹10 x 10 = ₹2,000.
• The same symbol on four reels: 80 x ₹10 x 10 = ₹8,000.
• A low card rank on three reels: 5 x ₹10 x 10 = ₹500, which only covers five spins. Low picks need four or five reels to matter.
• The top premium across all five reels: 5,000 x ₹10 x 10 = ₹5,00,000. That equals 5,000 times the stake, the game's hard ceiling.

The draw at the start of the bonus therefore shapes almost everything. A premium needs fewer copies and pays far more per reel, and every retrigger is another chance at one.

Planning a session budget in rupees

Because so much of the return sits in the bonus, the number of spins your budget allows matters more than the size of each spin. ₹5,000 at ₹100 a spin gives you 50 spins, which may not include a single bonus. The same ₹5,000 at ₹20 a spin gives 250 spins and a far better chance of seeing the feature at least once, and the rupee examples above simply scale down by five. In the demo, try both stake sizes and note how the balance moves; it is the cheapest way to learn what very high volatility feels like before deciding anything else.

Two habits help. Set the coin value first and leave all ten lines on, and decide in advance at what balance you stop. Neither changes the maths of the game, but both keep a long dry run from turning into chasing.

The optional gamble

A base game win can be staked on a hidden card. Call red or black and you double it half of the time; call the suit and you quadruple it one time in four. Up to five gambles in a row are allowed, and the feature is not available in autoplay. The rules say it leaves the overall RTP unchanged, which is another way of saying it only adds swings.

RTP builds and volatility

Out of the box the RTP is 96.58%. Operators may instead load a 94.51% version, or 91.51%, 87.56% or 84.55%, and those last three are not allowed for Malta-licensed casinos. Always read the RTP line in the help screen rather than assuming the default.

A volatility rating of 10 is as high as the provider's scale goes. Read our volatility guide for what that means in practice: most of the return arrives in a few bonus rounds, and the large ones need a premium special symbol across four or five reels.

How it compares with the Dead slots

If you already know Book of Dead, the difference is clear. Book of Dead gives 10 starting spins and one special symbol for the whole round, with a 96.21% default RTP. Rise of Merlin starts with 8 spins but adds a new special symbol on each retrigger and returns 96.58% by default. Its paytable values match those of Legacy of Dead, which uses the same retrigger rule with an Egyptian theme.

Legal position in India and using the demo

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, in force since 1 May 2026, prohibits offering, advertising and processing payments for online money games across India, and state rules apply on top of it. Real money slots therefore fall under that ban. The free demo on this page uses play money only and is the way to explore the game here; our demo slots guide explains how to test a game properly. Any gaming content on this site is meant for adults aged 18 and over.

Where Rise of Merlin is offered for real money

Welcome bonus up to 500% on the first deposits18+ · Terms apply · Indian law restricts online money games, check the rules that apply to you

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PaylinePilot editorial team · Figures on this page are taken from the in-game rules and paytable, not from promotional material.