Yggdrasil Introduces New GEM Mechanics OnlyWins in Valley of the Dead OnlyWins Slot

More than seven years ago, Yggdrasil launched an Egyptian-themed slot titled Valley of the Gods. The game had plenty to offer, from expanding the grid and additional lives to an increasing multiplier and respins. A couple of years later, the developer launched a sequel, keeping most of the popular elements from the original and a few new elements.

Fast forward to 2024, when Yggdrasil Gaming decided once again to use the Valley of the Gods as an inspiration, giving it a new look and, most importantly, fresh GEM mechanics. The result is the Valley of the Dead OnlyWins slot, which brings a dark twist to the popular series.

From Light to Dark

Compared to Valley of the Gods, the new release brings a darker and more sinister atmosphere. The action takes place in eerie surroundings, with lots of dark colours and skulls, which appear as symbols and also fly around the scenery.

Valley of the Dead OnlyWins uses a five-reel grid with a 1-3-5-3-1 row architecture and 243 different ways to win on every spin. But that’s not all. You’ll notice the greyed-out skull symbols. They are known as BoltLock symbols, and when removed, they’ll increase the number of winning ways. If everything plays out right, you can boost the number of ways to win to a maximum of 3,125.

The RTP has significantly dropped compared to the original Valley of the Dead game, standing at 94%. On the other hand, volatility is described as medium-high. A stake of $0.25 is enough to get the reels spinning, while the maximum sum of money you can wager per spin is $100.

Coins are the slot’s low-value symbols, paying from 1x to 1.6x the bet for five-of-a-kind wins. Four character symbols are premiums, awarding payouts ranging from 10x to 20x the stake for five matching icons across a payline. There are no Wilds, though, so don’t count on any help in forming winning combinations.

Valley of the Dead OnlyWins: Features

As you might have guessed from the slot’s name, the star of the Valley of the Dead is the new OnlyWins GEM mechanics. The action revolves around activating a respin on every spin. At the same time, winning BoltLock symbols do their magic and destroy a blocker, resulting in more ways to win.

Things get even better if you manage to destroy all blockers in the playing area. In that case, an unlimited win multiplier will spring into action. Every time you gather five winning symbols marked as blue, the multiplier will go up by one.

After destroying all blockers, extra lives become available. Collect five winning icons marked red to get an extra life. Extra lives activate a respin on a losing respin to keep the feature going. Respins continue until you run out of lives or there are no more winning combinations left.

The OnlyWins GEM mechanic can be activated by paying 4.4x the bet. It’s a small price to pay to boost your winning odds to 99.99%.

The OnlyWins mechanics further add to the excitement, keeping the action going even after a losing spin. Together with BoltLock symbols, the new game engine delivers plenty of excitement and offers much-needed help for forming winning combos, as there are no Wilds. The win potential of 5,800x could have been more generous, but it should be appealing to most players.