On this page
- Why this Egyptian book slot still matters
- Building your stake in rand
- What the reels do on each spin
- Line pays at R1 per line
- The book as wild and as scatter
- Inside the 10 free spins
- Rand maths for an expanding symbol
- Choosing between five RTP settings
- Where it sits among the book slots
- Demo first, then the legal picture
- Book of Dead demo for free
- Questions from South African readers
Why this Egyptian book slot still matters
The release date is 14 January 2016, when Play'n GO put Rich Wilde and his Egyptian book on the market. Ten years on it remains the title most people picture when someone mentions a book slot, and it sits in almost every lobby that carries the provider. The adventurer Rich Wilde had already appeared in earlier Play'n GO releases set in India and Central America; this time he is digging through tombs, and the provider later built a whole Dead series on the same base, including Legacy of Dead.
The design is lean. You get a 5x3 window, up to ten paylines that pay from left to right, one book symbol that handles both substitution and the bonus trigger, and a single free spins round. Nothing cascades, nothing collects, and there is no button to purchase the feature. All of the real excitement lives in that round, where one drawn symbol may stretch over complete reels.
Play'n GO rates the volatility as high, a 7 on its internal scale. For you that translates into plenty of dead spins and small line hits, with the occasional bonus that pays many times what the previous hundred spins cost.
Building your stake in rand
Three settings make up the bet: the active line count (1 to 10, always switched on from line 1 upwards), the coins placed per line (1 to 5) and the coin value. In the provider's base configuration the coin value runs from 0.01 to 2.00 and a full spin from 0.01 to 100; the exact rand limits depend on how your platform has configured the game, so read them in the rules screen.
For every example on this page we use a simple setup: ten lines, one coin, coin value R1. That makes a spin cost R10 and each line carry R1, so every paytable figure below reads directly as rand. If R10 a spin is too rich for a month-end budget, drop the coin value rather than the line count. Fewer lines makes each spin cheaper, but the expanding symbol in the bonus only pays on lines that are switched on, so you would be cutting the very feature you came for.
What the reels do on each spin
- Five reels spin and stop on fifteen positions.
- Every active line is read from reel 1 onwards. Matching symbols must sit on consecutive reels starting at the far left.
- Any book on a line stands in for the missing symbol, so it can complete or lengthen a combination.
- Only the best result on each line is paid, then all line wins are added up.
- Three or more books anywhere in the window pay a scatter award and unlock the free spins.
- After a base game win the game may offer a card gamble, if the operator has left it switched on.
Line pays at R1 per line
Play'n GO's rules sheet prices line wins as multiples of the line bet. At R1 per line, these are the rand amounts for a single line. The provider does not tie each premium tier to a named picture, so the rows use tier labels rather than character names.
| Tier | Two in a row | Three in a row | Four in a row | Full line of five |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium, top tier | R10 | R100 | R1,000 | R5,000 |
| Premium, tier three | R5 | R40 | R400 | R2,000 |
| Premium, tiers one and two | R5 | R30 | R100 | R750 |
| Two higher card ranks | nothing | R5 | R40 | R150 |
| Three lower card ranks | nothing | R5 | R25 | R100 |
Look at the jump between four and five of the top tier: a fivefold increase, from R1,000 to R5,000. A pair of card ranks is worth nothing, yet a pair of any premium pays, which is why premium pairs on reels 1 and 2 are the most common modest win you will see. For the book itself the sheet lists a scatter award of 200 for five, 20 for four and 2 for three; the published sheet leaves its base unclear, so confirm in the in-game paytable whether it is counted against the line bet or the whole spin.
The book as wild and as scatter
A book on reel 3 can turn two top-tier premiums on reels 1 and 2 into a three-symbol line worth R100 at our stake. The same book also counts toward the bonus, wherever it sits. When three books arrive together you can collect a line win that uses them as substitutes, the scatter award, and the entry ticket to the round, all from one spin. Five books on a single line form the top wild combination and pay at the same level as the top premium.
What the book does not do is expand during free spins. Only the specially chosen symbol grows, a point that confuses many first-time players.
Inside the 10 free spins
Three or more books hand you 10 free spins at the stake that triggered them. Before the first one, the reels shuffle and settle on a single regular symbol, which becomes the special expanding symbol until the round finishes.
- Each free spin first pays its ordinary line wins.
- Next, if the special symbol is present on enough reels to make an extra prize on active lines, every copy expands to cover its whole reel.
- Expanded reels count even when they are not side by side. Reels 2, 3 and 5 would count as three of a kind.
- Should three or more books land again, 10 extra spins are added and the special symbol carries over unchanged.
The non-adjacent rule is the reason players love this round. On a normal spin a symbol on reels 1, 3 and 5 pays nothing; with the special symbol it can pay on all ten lines at once.
Rand maths for an expanding symbol
Stay with R10 a spin and R1 per line. Suppose the draw lands on the tier three premium.
- Three reels covered. Each of the ten lines now shows three of that symbol, worth R40. Ten lines bring R400, forty times the spin.
- Four reels covered. Each line is worth R400, so the expansion returns R4,000.
- Five reels of tier one or two. R750 per line, R7,500 for the screen.
- Five reels of the top tier. R5,000 per line, R50,000 in total. That is 5,000 times R10, exactly the game's win cap, so no result can go beyond it.
Now the other side. If a lower card rank is drawn and grows over three reels, every line returns R5, so R50 overall, five times your stake. Over a ten-spin round, that kind of draw often ends somewhere between R50 and a few hundred rand. The symbol picked at the start is pure chance and shapes the round more than anything else.
Choosing between five RTP settings
Play'n GO supplies this slot with five return settings: 96.21%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% and 84.18%. Out of the box it ships at 96.21%, though the operator makes the final choice. Our RTP guide explains the idea in detail; here is what it means in rand. Across R1,000 of total spins, the top build hands back about R962.10 on average and keeps about R37.90. The lowest build hands back about R841.80 and keeps about R158.20, more than four times as much. Same graphics, same rules, very different long-run cost.
Volatility is a separate matter. Because the value sits mostly in rare rounds where a premium symbol expands over four or five reels, a few hundred spins can land far above or far below that average. Read more in our volatility guide.
Where it sits among the book slots
| Point | Book of Dead | Book of Ra | Legacy of Dead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released | 2016 | 2005 | 2020 |
| Lines | up to 10 | 9 | up to 10 |
| Default RTP | 96.21% | 92.13% | 96.58% |
| Free spins at the start | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Extra special symbol on retrigger | No | No | Yes |
Against Novomatic's Book of Ra, the difference that counts is roughly four percentage points of default return, plus one extra line. Legacy of Dead keeps the Egyptian look but trades two starting spins for a fresh special symbol on every retrigger.
Demo first, then the legal picture
Our demo loads the practice build supplied by Play'n GO and runs on play credits, so nothing you win or lose there is real money. Use a few hundred spins to learn how long the gaps between three-book hits can be, write down which symbol the round picks each time, and open the rules screen to find the RTP setting and bet limits. Our demo guide has more ideas for a useful test.
A word on the law at home. Under the National Gambling Act 2004, online casino games are not authorised in South Africa; the legal online option is sports betting with a provincially licensed bookmaker. We do not encourage anyone to break local law, and we never recommend VPNs or ways around blocks. Everything here is for adults of 18 and over.
If you do play somewhere it is lawful for you, keep the stake small enough that a balance covers several hundred spins, skip the gamble when you want the game's normal maths, and choose your stop point before the reels start, not halfway through a losing run.
Where Book of Dead is offered
Questions from South African readers
What RTP does Book of Dead pay?
The default configuration returns 96.21%. Operators can also choose 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% or 84.18%. The game's rules screen shows which of these settings the version in front of you uses, so check it before you stake anything.
How much can Book of Dead pay at R10 a spin?
The cap is 5,000 times the stake, so R50,000 at R10. That figure comes from a full screen of the top premium symbol expanding across all five reels during free spins, with all ten lines active.
How do I get the free spins?
You need at least three books in any position on the screen. That unlocks 10 free spins and a special symbol drawn at random for the round. Another set of three books during the feature adds 10 spins, and the drawn symbol does not change.
Do expanded symbols need to be on neighbouring reels?
No. Once the special symbol expands, the reels holding it count together even with gaps between them. A grown symbol on reels 1, 3 and 5 pays on all active lines as a three-symbol win.
Is it smart to switch off lines at a lower budget?
It lowers the cost of a spin, but expanded symbols only pay on active lines, so you shrink the bonus too. Keeping all ten lines and lowering the coin value is the better way to cut your stake.
Can the Book of Dead feature be bought?
No. There is no option to purchase the feature. The round only starts when at least three books land, and only further books inside it can extend it.
Does the gamble change my chances?
It does not improve them. The card gamble only lets you risk a base game win for a bigger or zero result, which adds swing to a session. Operators can disable it, and skipping it keeps the game on its normal maths.
