ELK Studios’ New Katmandu Gold Slot Review

ELK Studios has recently expanded its lineup of games by launching an exciting release that will see players embark on an epic adventure set high up in the mountains of Nepal. Titled Katmandu Gold, the new slot is the fifth instalment to the developer’s Gold Series and the first one to feature the Buy Bonus feature.

No rest for the game’s main protagonist Kane, who’ll be once again travelling around the world in order to look for hidden riches and ancient treasures.

Apart from stunning visuals, the game will offer a wide selection of exciting and unique features, such as the Multiplier Free Drops bonus round, the Ice Climber, and Expanding Win, while the use of the Avalanche mechanic will bring 531,441 different ways to win!

Basic Info and Gameplay

Katmandu Gold is played on a reel set consisting of six reels and four rows, with a total of 4,096 ways to win for players to benefit from, at least initially. The game uses the Avalanche mechanic, where winning symbols disappear from the reels, making way for new ones to get into the empty places.

After a win, an extra row of symbols will be added to the game. Win five times in a row to get nine additional rows of icons and increase the number of ways to win to 531,441!

Populating the reels are low paying Royals, and higher-paying ones, such as a golden dragon, a golden reptile, a golden lion and Kane himself. There’s also the Wild and the Scatter symbols.

The slot’s Return to Player is 96.20%, which is slightly above the industry average. If you decide to purchase the Free Spins round or the Super Bonus using the Buy Bonus feature, the RTP will increase to 96.30% and 96.40% respectively.

Katmandu Gold is considered to be a highly volatile release, with the maximum payout worth 10,000 times the stake.

Game Features

Featurewise, players can benefit from several exciting features, such as expanding wins, giant symbols, the Ice Climber and the Free Spins bonus round.

Expanding wins enable punters to get entire reels with identical symbols on them, leading to staggering payouts. Gaint symbols can be 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 in size, and combined with the game’s mechanic can lead to handsome prizes. The Ice Climber will see punters go up the mountain, upgrading low-value into high-paying icons and even turning them into Wilds.

The Free Spins round is called the Free Drops, and it’s activated whenever three or more Scatters simultaneously land on the reels. Players receive 10, 15, 20 or 25 spins, depending on the number of symbols used to trigger the feature. They can start the Standard Bonus or, with a bit of luck, the Super Bonus.

However, they can also choose to buy any of them. The Standard Bonus costs 100 times the stake while unlocking the Super Bonus is five times more expensive. During the Free Spins round, the total multiplier increases by one whenever you land a Scatter and is applied to all wins you get until the bonus ends. The Super Bonus starts with a multiplier of 10x, which explains why it costs more to purchase it.