Lightning Strike Megaways

Megaways what? Yes, we have yet another Megaways slot from Blueprint Gaming, using the licensed BTG game engine. Brace for even more Megaways titles as BTG has started licensing the engine to other developers as well, plus some have created their own Megaways models. While the games are highly entertaining and have huge win potential, we do get the feeling that the format is getting oversaturated with a new slot being released nearly every week.

Deeply rooted in Norse mythology, this Blueprint game is taking us on a thunderous quest for big wins with Mystery Symbols, Thor’s Hammer Respins with wild win multipliers, and a Mega Spins gamble that can lead to wins of up to 10,000 times the stake. Plus, as a first on Megaways slots, pays are awarded both ways.

Slot Details

Lightning Strike Megaways is a video slot with six reels, five rows and up to 15,625 ways to win. Using the patented BTG Megaways engine, the game will select randomly two to five symbols on each reel for every spin, creating anything from 64 to 15,625 ways to win. Pays are then awarded for adjacent symbols from left to right and from right to left.

Bet sizes range from 0.10 to 50.00 credits. The RTP of this high variance game is set at 95.96%. Autoplay will let you choose 10 to 100 consecutive spins without interruption, however, a mandatory loss limit must be set.

A typical Nordic fjord surrounded by mountainous terrain and thunder clouds is the fitting backdrop to the gold-ornamented game window. A Viking longship is seen being moored just off the shore. The Nordic legendary heroes – Loki, Odin, Thor, and Freja – feature prominently on the reels. A heroic soundtrack coupled with dramatic thumps and loud thunders completes a well-designed slot.

Blueprint Gaming stayed with there usual pay symbol range that includes card royals and characters. At the low end are the card royals from 9 through to As, followed in ascending order by Freja, Loki, Odin and Thor at the high end. Pays for a single five of a kind range from 1x to 50x the stake. Thor’s Hammer is the wild symbol while a golden Yggdrasil tree is the mystery symbol. There are no scatters on this slot as the free spins feature is won via the Mega Spin gamble.

Thor’s Hammer Respins

Any Thor Hammer wild landing on reels two, three, four or five will expand to cover the entire reel. It will first reveal a win multiplier of x1 to x3 before awarding a respin. Any further wild landing on the respin will expand into a multiplier wild as well and trigger a further respin. The sequence can repeat up to four times until expanded multiplier wilds are on all reels from two to five. Wins are evaluated and paid after each respin. The multipliers are multiplied by each other, creating the chance to hit a maximum win multiplier of up to x81.

The Mystery Symbol Feature

A golden Yggdrasil tree is the mystery symbol on the Lightning Strike Megaways slot. All landing in view on a spin will reveal a common pay symbol that is randomly chosen on each occasion. The mystery symbol can appear in the base game and Mega Spins feature.

The Mega Spins Gamble

Being used to trigger the free spins round via a defined amount of scatters lets us look out for them on every slot we open for the first time. Well, there are none to be found on this game as the bonus round can only be won via the Mega Spins Gamble feature.

The gamble is triggered after hitting a win of minimum 5x the stake in the base game. The slot will lead to a second screen displaying a large wheel with a prize ladder on each side. On the left is the display for 1 to 100 Mega Spins and on the right cash prizes from 10x to 1,000x your bet. Players can decide to take the cash win or to gamble for higher prizes. Cash prizes can be exchanged for Mega Spins. E.g. a cash prize of 20x the bet can be traded for two MegaSpins.

The gamble wheel has two wedges, one in green and one in red. At the beginning the green wedge is 2/3s of the wheel and landing on it will win the gamble. The green area is increasingly reduced the higher up a player progresses on the prize ladder. Landing on the red area will end the gamble with the triggering win being lost as well. Hence, it might be sometimes better to take the cash win and run instead of aiming for more as losing a few gambles consecutively can have quite an impact on the gaming balance.

However, once Mega Spins are won and accepted from the gamble, more wild and mystery symbols are added to the reels to increase the chance for Thor’s Hammer Respins and mystery wins. The Mega Spins feature cannot be retriggered.

Final Verdict

Did Lightning Strike Megaways hit us like a hammer? Well, it looks like Blueprint Gaming still has new ideas on how to put the Megaways engine into innovative and entertaining gaming concepts. For starters, it is one of the first Megaways slot paying both ways. Then, the Mega Spins gamble is taking slotting into a pure betting territory. Win or lose, that’s it. There is no consolation prize when taking the risk to win as many Mega Spins as possible. It can’t get much more suspenseful than that. The sky-high win potential of 10,000x the stake is only adding even more excitement to the game.

Bonuses

Winners

Comments

Remember, you can play Lightning Strike Megaways here