A Tale of Elves

Santa’s little helpers are getting ready for a festive reel season on the slot from Microgaming. A Tale of Elves is bringing back the gameplay and features from the iconic Game of Thrones slot released as far back as December 2014. Baratheon, Lannister and Co. are now replaced by the seemingly friendly elves although the reel ride to the North Pole is just as volatile as on the original. Wild substitutions, stacked symbols, random cash gifts and four free spins modes can lead to wins of up to 20,250 times your bet.

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Slot Details

A Tale of Elves is a video slot with five reels, three rows and 243 ways to win. Pays are awarded for matching symbols landing on adjacent reels from left to right only. You can spin the festive reels on desktop, mobile or tablet from 0.30 to 12 credits per spin. Some casino operators might offer it with higher bet limits. The game has high to extreme volatility with a below-average RTP of 95.07% and a hit frequency of roughly 1:4 spins.

The dark and eery atmosphere from Game of Thrones has been replaced with a serene wintery scenery at the North Pole. Santa’s little helpers dominate on the festively decorated reels which are held in a wooden frame while a jingle soundtrack conveys the festive mood for the holiday season.

The pay symbols are divided into two sets of four, starting at the low end with the card royals from J through to A with payouts for a single five of a kind ranging from 1.33x to 2x your stake. They are followed by four elves in differently coloured costumes – blue, green, yellow and orange. Hit five across the reels to win 5x to 8.33x your bet. A Christmas wreath is the wild and top symbol, appearing in 3-high stacks at all times and substituting for all regular pay symbols. Five will yield 16.66x your stake. Santa himself acts as the scatter.

A Tale of Elves Slot Features

At the time of its release in 2014, Game of Thrones was considered to be the most volatile slot in Microgaming’s growing portfolio of 243-ways slots. It also came with the largest win potential ever seen on any of their games at just over 20,000 times your stake. Other blockbuster games such as Immortal Romance peaked at 12,150x bet. Cue in 2020, and we get a rehash of the hit slot, only that now we are looking at cute elves and listen to a yuletide tune while the high volatility remained unchanged.

Other than the stacked wilds, there is one more feature in the base game that night raise your blood pressure. What is usually known as a “teaser spin” when only two scatters land, has been transformed into a chance of getting you a random Santa surprise win of up 50x your total stake.

Hitting three, four or five scatters will trigger the Free Spins feature and also award a coin win of 1x, 20x and 200x your bet. Retriggers are available with the same combinations, no limits. The game will lead to a second screen, displaying four modes for your bonus round. You can pick any on each occasion.

• Blue Elf: Gets you 18 free spins with an x2 win multiplier and 6-symbol high stacks of the blue elf
• Green Elf: Gets you 14 free spins with an x3 win multiplier and 5-symbol high stacks of the green elf
• Orange Elf: Gets you 10 free spins with an x4 win multiplier and 4-symbol high stacks of the orange elf
• Yellow Elf: Gets you 8 free spins with an x5 win multiplier and 3-symbol high stacks of yellow elf

Once selected, the game will lead back to the main screen and play the free spins with your chosen extras. The latter option with the yellow elf is obvisouly the most volatile one, so choose wisely as there is no replay available. The maximum hit in a single spin would be a full screen of wild symbols with the x5 multiplier, leading to a massive mega win of 20,250 times your bet.

Final Verdict

Well, cute it is, but don’t be fooled by the friendly elves. The game is highly volatile as those who played Game of Thrones extensively can confirm. The ride to the North Pole will be more like a roller coaster instead of a smooth festive journey. Although I am a big fan of the GoT slot and thus welcome the clone, I do wonder when Microgaming will make the effort to create a proper festive slot again.

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