Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds

The floating Empire of Celestria reaches far and wide across the Scorching Clouds, the next addition to the Kingdoms Rise slot series by Playtech in association with Sunfox Games. Powered by mysterious Dragon Egg crystals, the task falls to the fearless knights to face the fierce creatures and harvest the crystals from deep within the floating islands of the empire. Throughout their quest, they will be aided by wild substitutions, spreading wilds, Dragon Egg Respins and two Free Games modes that can lead to wins of up to 2,000 times your bet. Not to forget, there are three progressive jackpots up for grabs.

Slot Details

Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds is a 5×5 grid slot with cascading symbols and cluster pays. Wins are awarded for 4 to 10 matching symbols landing horizontally and/or vertically connected. You can join the fearless knights on desktop or mobile from a low-roller friendly 0.10 credits up to a staggering 2,000 credits per spin. The game has medium to high volatility with an overall RTP of 96.93% – 97.06%, which includes 0.99% jackpot contribution and 3%  for the Kingdoms Rise Tokens.

The game evolves around the tale of the fearless Eilana Touloune, who is leading her Empire of Celestria, a collection of floating islands that hover on mysterious dragon egg crystals, on a treacherous journey through a fantasy world. The main island can be seen in the background of the dragon ornamented game window with the Chief Engineer working on the controls to hold the course. An epic soundtrack goes into dramatic crescendos on teaser and winning spins.

The pay symbols start at the low end with four silver-ornamented gems in purple, green, blue and red colours, awarding 2x to 9x your bet for clusters of 10 or more symbols. They are followed by three items associated with the characters – green wrench, blue hammers and red telescope. Hitting clusters of 10+ symbols will pay 30x, 30x and 40x your bet respectively. The premiums are the three characters – the Chief Engineer Toredd Danerick, the Royal Knight Sir Jacob Deven and the Sky Empress Eilana Toloune. Wins for clusters of 10 or more symbols rise to 60x, 60x and 100x your bet.

A ship wheel marked with the word itself is the wild symbol, performing the usual substitutions duties. Further, blue dragon eggs landing on the reels will be collected and trigger the Dragon Egg Respins while a dragon mask acts as the Free Spins scatter.

Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds Slot Features

The entire Kingdoms Rise series stands out for its variety. Each slot has its own twists, layout and features that make it unique with the group, which lets players pick those they prefer most. The central part to all are, of course, the jackpots and the newly introduced Token system where you can buy features on any of the slots in the series the soon you have accumulated a sufficient amount.

Intense gaming sessions await those brave enough to join the empress in her quest and will be rewarded with Spreading Wilds, Crystal Collection and Respins as well as two Free Games modes. So, buckle up for a volatile ride as we take you through the various features in the best chronological order.

Core to the gameplay are the cascading symbols and cluster pays. At the start of a spin, 25 symbols drop on to the 5×5 grid, potentially forming winning clusters of minimum four matching symbols. All in a combo will shatter once the payout has occurred while the remaining symbols drop down and new ones tumble into the empty spaces. This can lead to repeated winners within a spin sequence and will only end once no new winning clusters land after a tumble.

Keep an eye on the three highlighted positions at the bottom of reels three, four or five. A wild or a dragon egg landing within the zone will trigger the Spreading Wilds feature in the base game only. Two, three or four wilds will be randomly placed on the grid. The feature is retriggered when a random wild is placed in the zone, creating even more random wilds. Any wilds that become part of a winning combo will be removed before the next tumble.

Blue dragon eggs landing anywhere on the reels in the base game only will be collected in the meter on top of the game window. It will then turn into a wild symbol for the current spin. Once the meter is filled up with six eggs, it will trigger 6 Dragon Egg Respins. During the feature, the cascading mechanic is inverted. Winning clusters stay on the reels and all other symbols are removed before new ones drop into place to potentially improve the winning combo. A respin ends when no further matching symbols add to the cluster.

Hitting three or more dragon scatters in one spin sequence will trigger the Free Games round, which cannot be retriggered. The game leads to a second screen, giving you a choice of two features. You can pick any on each trigger. Spreading Wilds and Dragon Egg collection are deactivated during the bonus rounds.

• Knight Free Games – Medium Volatility: Awards 8, 10 or 12 free games for three, four or five scatters respectively and is played with empress and engineer symbols removed from the reels. Any blue hammer symbol landing adjacent to a Knight will turn into a Knight symbol, thus providing extra potential to score bigger wins.
• Empress Free Games – High Volatility: Awards 5, 6 or 7 free games for three, four or five scatters respectively and is played with knight and engineer symbols removed from the reels. Any green wrench, blue hammer and red telescope symbols landing adjacent to an Empress symbol will all turn into an Empress symbol.

With the launch of the Kingdoms Rise series, Playtech has introduced an in-game Token rewards system that comes at no extra cost as such but 3% of the RTP are attributed to it. Up to 15 gold coin tokens can appear attached to any pay symbol in one spin and will be added to your personal Token balance. You can use them in the Kingdoms Rise Features Shop to buy a feature on any slot from the entire series. Head to the shop any time to exchange your tokens, then simply scroll down the list and pick the feature you would like to purchase.

The Free Games features on this game can be purchased by exchanging tokens in the Kingdoms Rise Features Shop. There are three different types available for each mode that you can activate at any time when there is no feature active.

• Empress Free Games: Purchase 4, 6 or 8 free games for 1,500, 2,250 and 3,000 Tokens respectively.
• Knight Free Games: Purchase 4, 6 or 8 free games for 1,000, 1,50 and 2,000 Tokens respectively.

Lastly, and for some players the most important part, there are the three progressive Kingdoms Rise jackpots. These are localized jackpots specific to a single casino or all brands of a casino group. A percentage of 0.99% of each bet contributes to the three jackpots. They can trigger randomly after any spin with the chances of winning one being directly relative to your bet size.

• Daily Strike Jackpot – must be won each day by the date and time shown
• Power Strike Jackpot – must be hit before it reaches a monetary threshold, e.g. before reaching 2,000 credits
• Epic Jackpot – unlimited jackpot which can be hit at any time.

Final Verdict

Kingdoms Rise: Scorching Clouds is another fine addition to the Kingdoms Rise franchise of now five slots, which will no doubt further grow in the coming months and years. A mysterious storyline, suspenseful gameplay, ample features and not to forget three progressive jackpots make for intense gaming sessions, although the win potential from standard play is at best medium. We estimate it to be around 2,000x your bet in the Empress Free Games.

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