A Tale of Elves

A Tale of Elves Slot Review

A Tale of Elves from Games Global is a Christmas themed video slot with a simple 5 by 3 layout and 243 ways to win. It mixes classic gameplay with a couple of solid bonus features built around Santa and his elves.

Basic game setup

The game uses 5 reels and 3 rows with 243 ways instead of fixed lines. That means wins pay when you land matching symbols on at least three reels in a row starting from the left, in any position on each reel.

Bets start at 0.30 per spin and go up to 12 per spin in most casinos. The return to player is 95.07 percent and the volatility is high, so you can expect long dry spells with the chance of bigger hits when the features line up.

Symbols and payouts

The paytable is very straightforward. Low symbols are J, Q, K and A in a snowy style. These are the most common hits and pay the smallest amounts.

The high symbols are the four elf characters in different colors: blue, green, orange and yellow. Five of a kind of these premium symbols pay from around 5 times to about 8.33 times your bet when they land across the reels.

There are also two important special symbols:

• Wreath wild – a Christmas wreath that acts as the wild symbol.
• Santa scatter – Santa Claus, which triggers both cash prizes and free spins.

Wild symbols and stacked wilds

The wreath wild can land on any reel. It substitutes for all regular symbols to help complete or improve winning combinations. It does not replace the Santa scatter symbol.

Wilds can appear stacked, meaning several wilds can land on top of each other on the same reel. When this happens you can cover a whole reel with wilds, which can lead to multiple winning ways at once. A five of a kind win made only of wilds pays more than any regular symbol win, though still less than a top scatter payout.

Santa scatter symbol

Santa is the scatter and he does not need to land on a specific reel or on a payline. Any position counts. He has two separate roles:

• Triggering random cash prizes when 2 scatters land.
• Triggering free spins when 3 or more scatters land.

Because of this, you will see Santa quite often during play and he is the key to almost all of the bigger wins in the game.

Random Cash Prize feature

When 2 Santa scatters land anywhere on the reels in the same spin, you trigger the Random Cash Prize feature.

Here is how it works:

• The game checks that exactly 2 Santa symbols are in view.
• A random cash amount is then awarded, up to a maximum of 50 times your total bet.
• The prize is paid immediately and the spin ends as normal.

This feature does not give extra spins or multipliers. It is simply a small to medium instant win that helps break up stretches of dead spins. Based on review data, it triggers quite often, roughly every couple of dozen spins on average, though this is not a fixed guarantee.

Free spins feature

The main bonus in A Tale of Elves is the free spins round. You trigger it by landing 3 or more Santa scatters anywhere on the reels in one spin.

Before you choose your free spins mode, the scatters also pay a scatter win:

• 3 Santas pay 1 times your total bet.
• 4 Santas pay 20 times your total bet.
• 5 Santas pay 200 times your total bet.

After this payout, you move to a screen where you choose one of four different free spin options. Each option is linked to a different elf and offers a trade off between number of spins, multiplier size and how tall the stacked elf symbol is.

Four free spin modes explained

In free spins, wins still pay using the 243 ways system, but now all wins are boosted by a fixed multiplier and one elf symbol becomes stacked on the reels.

The four choices are:

• Blue Elf Spins
  • 18 free spins.
  • All wins are multiplied by 2.
  • The blue elf symbol appears stacked 6 symbols high, so it can cover two full reels when it lands.
• Green Elf Spins
  • 14 free spins.
  • All wins are multiplied by 3.
  • The green elf symbol appears stacked 5 symbols high.
• Orange Elf Spins
  • 10 free spins.
  • All wins are multiplied by 4.
  • The orange elf symbol appears stacked 4 symbols high.
• Yellow Elf Spins
  • 8 free spins.
  • All wins are multiplied by 5.
  • The yellow elf symbol appears stacked 3 symbols high.

The taller the stack and the more spins you get, the lower your win multiplier. The fewer spins and the shorter the stack, the higher the multiplier. This lets you pick a style that suits how much risk you want to take.

During free spins, the chosen elf symbol can land in big blocks. When those stacks line up across several reels and combine with the multiplier, you can land some of the best wins in the game.

Retriggers and extra features in free spins

Public information does not clearly confirm if free spins can be retriggered by landing more scatters during the bonus. Some builds of similar Games Global titles allow retriggers, others do not, so this detail may vary by casino setup. For safety, assume that you mainly get one batch of free spins per trigger unless your casino help page states otherwise.

Aside from the multiplier and stacked elf symbol, there are no extra mechanics in free spins. There are no cascading wins, no extra wild types and no gamble feature tied to the bonus. The value comes from the combination of ways to win, stacked symbols and the fixed multiplier.

Max win potential

A Tale of Elves is rated as a high volatility slot with a max win of around 20,000 times your bet. Hitting anything close to that will need a strong free spin round, usually from one of the higher multiplier options, with stacked elves and wilds lining up across many reels at once.

Because of the high volatility, your balance can swing a lot. It is common to go through long stretches of smaller hits and rely on a few strong bonuses to get ahead.

Mobile play

The game is built to run on desktop and mobile. The 5 by 3 layout and 243 ways system fit fine on small screens, and all features, including the Santa cash prizes and the free spin pick screen, work the same way on phones and tablets as on larger devices.