HelioPOPolis
- Game provider
- AvatarUX
- Name
- HelioPOPolis
- Feature Buy
- Yes
- Released
- 2022-12-12
- Game type
- Video Slots
- Mobile version
- Yes
- Grid slot
- No
- Wilds
- Yes
- Reels
- 5
- Sticky wilds
- No
- Rows
- 3
- Scatters
- Yes
- Paylines
- 486
- Free spins
- Yes
- Payout/RTP
- 96,00
- Bonus game
- No
- Volatility
- High
- Progressive jackpot
- No
- Min. bet
- 0,20
- Random Feature
- No
- Max. bet
- 100,00
- Autoplay
- Yes
- Maximum win
- 20000
- Last update
- December 5, 2022
Review
Travel to a technocratic dimension of Egyptian mythology on the video slot from AvatarUX. HelioPOPolis features expanding reels courtesy of the PopWins mechanic of up to 65,536 both-ways-pays and a mini free spins bonus in the base game. Choose from two bonus rounds of Synced Reels or Expanding Symbols, each with an increasing win multiplier, wilds, mystery symbols and sticky reel increases for wins of up to 20,000 times your bet.
Recommended Casinos to Play HelioPOPolis
Slot Details
HelioPOPolis is a pays-both-ways video slot with 5 reels, 3 rows and 486 ways to pay as standard. The number of ways can increase to 65,536 courtesy of the PopWins mechanic during free spins. To score a win, you will need to match three or more symbols in succession, in either direction, starting from reels one or five. You can journey to the strange dimension from 0.20 to 100 credits per spin. This game has a high volatility rating and a 96% RTP. Alternative RTP designs will be found at some online casinos. Open the game info upon loading to check the RTP rating of an online slot.
AvatarUX whisks us off into an alternate reality of Egyptian mythology on HelioPOPolis, with strangely familiar deities and futuristic icons of old, garnished with ambient-techno music. The game is colourful and professionally finished with an abstract design touch seen on many of the studio’s games.
The pay symbols start at the low end with 10, J, Q, K and A, which pay 0.6x your bet for five-of-a-kind. Three abstract symbol designs follow in pink, green and orange, and matching five across the reels awards 1.5x to 2.5x your bet. Sobek, Anubis, and Horus complete the pay symbols, awarding 3x to 4x your stake for five-of-a-kind.
A scarab beetle represents the wild symbol that appears during free spins only, question marks act as mystery symbols, and a futuristic pyramid appears as the bonus scatter, which triggers free spins for landing three or more on a spin.
HelioPOPolis Slot Features
HelioPOPolis is the first Egyptian-themed PopWins game and comes with Avatar’s signature abstract and colourful style. Innovation can be easily diluted by market saturation, yet, so far, AvatarUX has strived for originality with each PopWins title. Before we see if HelioPOPolis can stake the same claim, let’s recap the lightning rod that charges each release, PopWins.
Before you begin, you can enable Ante Bet, doubling your chance of triggering the bonus on a spin for a 25% increase in stake size. A basic game spin starts with a pays-both-ways 5×3 format. Winning symbols explode from the reels and ‘pop’ each space into two symbol positions, expanding the reel height by one and increasing the number of ways. New symbols appear in place, which can lead to further wins.
The PopWins mechanic continues until no more wins occur and will pay the sum of all wins at the end of a spin sequence. Each reel can expand to six symbols in the base game and up to eight positions during free spins. Reel heights are reset to the original format at the end of each base game spin.
Unlock all the reels fully to win two Free Spins with Expanding Symbols or Synced Reels. This added bonus plays out at the end of the spin sequence and randomly determines your feature. On Expanding Symbol spins, a symbol is chosen at random to expand when part of a win. The selected symbol will expand to cover all reel positions before calculating wins. Any symbol can be an expanding symbol except for wilds, bonus scatters, and mystery symbols. During the Synced Reels feature, two adjacent reels are chosen to be synced with matching symbols. Synced Reels may contain 2×2 and 3×3 symbol versions.
Land three or more bonus scatters to trigger a bonus game choice of the Big Sync or Great Wilds. The number of triggering scatters determines your award as follows:
- Three Bonus Scatter Symbols: A 5×4 starting layout with 2,048 ways to win, up to 7 free spins and a starting win multiplier of up to x5.
- Four Bonus Scatter Symbols: A 5×5 starting layout with 6,250 ways to win, up to 9 free spins and a starting win multiplier of up to x6.
- Five Bonus Scatter Symbols: A 5×5 starting layout with 15,552 ways to win, up to 11 free spins and a starting win multiplier of up to x7.
Choose Big Sync Free Spins to start a bonus round with Synced Reels on every spin and a chance of landing 2×2 or 3×3 symbols. The Great Wilds Free Spins contains guaranteed wild symbols on every spin and Expanding Symbols, which fill a reel when part of a winning combination.
Wild symbols feature in either bonus game, along with mystery symbols, an increasing win multiplier, and a sticky reel feature. Upon landing, mystery symbols reveal a matching symbol chosen randomly from the pay table. An increasing win multiplier will increase in x1 increments with each winning PopWins sequence.
Furthermore, the reel height of expanded reels from PopWins will only reset to the shortest reel height attained during free spins and unlocking all reels fully awards two extra free spins and adds x2 to the win multiplier.
Where available, HelioPOPolis comes with a Bonus Buy feature for direct bonus game access. For a fixed amount, you can purchase one of the following Bonus Buy options:
- Big Sync: Purchase a Synced Reels bonus game trigger with three, four or five scatter symbols for 125x bet, 250x bet, or 500x bet, respectively.
- Great Wilds: Buy an Expanding Symbols and Guaranteed Wilds bonus game trigger with three, four or five scatter symbols for 125x bet, 250x bet, or 500x bet, respectively.
- Extended Free Spins: An enhanced bonus game of 11 free spins with a starting win multiplier of up to x5, 15,552 ways, plus Synced Reels, Expanding Symbols and Guaranteed Wilds on every spin for 1,000x your bet.
Final Verdict
HelioPOPolis is an engaging addition to the PopWins series, with a choice of bonus games, a mini-bonus of two free spins found in the base game, plus an enhanced feature for bonus buy fans, centred around synced reels and expanding symbol features sprinkled with multipliers and mystery symbols.
Combined with the mesmerising PopWins mechanic and its expanding ways, this array of garden variety slot features results in an action-packed, captivating game. Fans of cascading symbols with expanding ways can do much worse than look towards a PopWins release, and the introduction of HelioPOPolis gives the AvatarUX faithful more diversity to pick from.