Ragnarok

Ragnarok: Slot Overview

Headquartered in Stockholm, Viking DNA pulsing through its veins, casino game maker Slotmill has created Ragnarok, a Norse-themed online slot focused on this titanic, cataclysmic battle. 'I learned the Norse gods came with their own doomsday: Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, the end of it all. The gods were going to battle the frost giants, and they were all going to die,' – Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. Weighty stuff which requires a heavy game to do it justice. In steps Ragnarok, a cluster pays slot that digs into Norse mythology while combining it with doubling up win multiplier activity.

Ragnarok is a stunning-looking game held in a craggy mountainous region, which would seem to be the ideal spot for communing with the gods. A glowing stone formation is even provided for potentially doing so, and players are able to lose themselves in the otherworldly scenery for a while before kicking the game into motion. The artwork is of an excellent standard and has been paired with a rousing soundtrack. This isn't Slotmill's first Viking-themed slot. That would be 2020's Vikings Creed, and not saying the older game was an eyesore or anything, but it goes to show how far the studio has progressed during the intervening years.

The symbols aren't as attractive as the background scenery, yet they do the job. They land on a 5x5 gaming grid and create a win when 5 or more identical symbols land next to each other, creating a cluster. Betting 20 c to $/€60 in the regular manner comes with a default RTP of 96.12%, and the math model is highly volatile. Click the Xtra-Bet on, however, and the RTP shifts to 96.1% to make it three times more likely to trigger the free spins feature. The stake also increases by 50% when using the Xtra-Bet. Burst Mode is also provided for ultra-fast play.

Ragnarok's pay symbols are 3 stone blocks with creatures carved onto them, then 3 stone-looking character symbols, topped by 1 character symbol possessing flaming eyes. Clusters containing 5 matching symbols pay 0.15 to 0.4 times the bet, while the biggest clusters containing 12+ matching symbols are worth 5 to 12.5 times the bet. Not the highest cluster values you'll see, but that's where the multiplier feature comes in handy. The Avalanche feature explodes winning symbols off the reels and replaces them by dropping symbols downwards. The Avalanche feature continues as long as new winning clusters appear.

Ragnarok: Slot Features

In some ways, Ragnarok is a straighter forward game than they often are from Slotmill, relying on things like avalanching wins, a rising multiplier, free spins, and feature buys to augment the thrills.

Wild Symbol & Progressive Win Multiplier

After each win, a wild symbol is placed in one of the spaces created by the Avalanche feature before other symbols drop. The wild substitutes for all symbols except the free spins scatter. Moreover, each Avalanche win doubles the win multiplier, which resets to x1 at the beginning of each base game spin.

Loki's Trick & Giant Symbols

The Loki's Trick feature may activate at the start of a game round. When activated, the win multiplier is increased by a random number of steps. At the start of each new game round, or at the end of a game round where no more wins are present, giant symbols of 2x2 or 3x3 in size may randomly appear on the reels. A 2x2 counts as 4 symbols, a 3x3 as 9.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols in the base game triggers 8, 10, or 12 free spins, respectively. During the free spins round, the win multiplier does not reset until the feature ends. The win multiplier starts at x1, and scatter symbols are not present on the reels in the free spins round.

Fast Track

Fast Track provides direct access to Ragnarok's features. The options are these, and all are very highly volatile:

• Giant Symbol – one spin with a guaranteed Giant symbol for 5x the bet. RTP 96.15%.
• Loki's Trick – one spin with Loki's Trick guaranteed for 25x the bet. RTP 96.23%.
• Bonus – 100x the bet to trigger the free spins round. RTP 96.32%.
• Super Bonus – 400x the bet to trigger free spin with 5 scatter symbols. RTP 96.44%.
• Gamble – buys a spin where there is a 50/50 chance of winning free spins with 5 scatters or a non-winning spin for 200x the bet. RTP 96.45%.

Ragnarok: Slot Verdict

What's reassuring about Ragnarok, the mythological event, is that it apparently isn't the absolute end of everything because, after the cataclysmic series of events, it's said the world rises back up again, ready to be repopulated by Líf and Líftrasir. A colossal act of cleansing and rejuvenating, a monumental reset. Hopefully, we can all do better on the repeat the second time around. Ragnarok is a game of cycles as well. Nowhere near as long a cycle as the birth, death, and rebirth of a world, but a slot that cycles through batches of cascading cluster wins, doubling the win multiplier, then resetting again once the sequel has played out. Over and over, it goes, in an attempt to jack the multiplier to stratospheric proportions in conjunction with a sizable cluster win.

In other words, Ragnarok is basically Yggdrasil Gaming's DoubleMax feature but using cluster pays rather than a ways or paylines systems. Even adding a wild symbol to the spaces made by removing a winning cluster is right out of the DoubleMax playbook. Slotmill clearly isn't immune to seeing another studio's feature they like and figuring they could do a pretty good job with it as well. It did mean Ragnarok wasn't as alive with ingenuity as Slotmill slots usually are, especially since we'd reviewed Bang Bang Games' The Runemakers not long before this one, which was also a Norse-esque slot that added cluster pays to DoubleMax. Bang Bang's had higher winning potential, too, if size matters, at 50% more than Ragnarok's 10,000x the bet top prize.

Bang Bang Games might have beat Slotmill to the punch, and Ragnarok does feel like an imitator, but if you look past that, it's also a firmly constructed cluster pays game with a doubling multiplier boost. It can get a bit repetitive in the base game, noodling around in circles awash in low-value wins, yet as we've seen in the past, a doubling multiplier, if it gets the chance to break loose, can cause masses of devastation. Not battle of the gods at the end of the world level devastation, but it's up there.