Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena Review

Rich Wilde is one of the most successful adventurers in the world of online slots, and certainly a golden goose for Play’n Go after the mega success they had (and have) with Book of Dead. Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena introduces us to his previously unknown daughter, Cat Wilde (which oddly looks old enough to be his wife), and we hear she’s about to follow in her father’s footsteps, and get her own dedicated slot in the very near future.

Anyway, Shield of Athena is certainly related to Book of Dead and the whole book series as such, but it’s more of a spin-off than a direct lineage, which is actually quite refreshing. The game plays out on 5 reels, 3 rows and 10 ways to win, and you can place bets between 10p and £100 per spin across all platforms and devices. So far, not much is different, but this game has a better RTP than Book of Dead, and it comes with twice the max win potential.

This alone makes Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena an attractive game for sure, but the volatility is naturally also quite brutal here. Medusa is famous for turning men into stone with her hideous snake-hair and dreadful appearance, and the Shield symbol (with Medusa depicted on it) can come to live in this game and benefit you both in the base game and during the free spins bonus round. The visuals are quite stunning, and the pace of the game flows nicely with the fast spin option turned on. Fans of Book of Dead should definitely check this out, as it’s among the very best slots in the Rich Wilde saga.

What symbols are there?

Rich Wilde is the wild symbol here, which is suitable enough considering his name. There is also the Shield of Athena wild, and both wilds are the high paying symbols in this game. The regular premium symbols are different artifacts like helmets and rings, and you also find the regular low value royals here. You need between 3 and 5 matching symbols on a payline to win, and here we present you with the paytable for Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena slot:

• Rich Wilde wild - Pays 1,000x for 5 on a payline
• Shield of Athena wild - Pays 1,000x for 5 on a payline
• Shield of Athena regular - Pays 500x for 5 on a payline
• Helm of Athena - Pays 100x for 5 on a payline
• Ring of Wisdom - Pays 40x for 5 on a payline
• Pendant of Courage - Pays 20x for 5 on a payline
• Golden Owl - Pays 10x for 5 on a payline
• Royal symbols - Pay between 10x and 3x for 5 on a payline

What are the bonus features?

There are 2 main bonus features in this game, namely the Medusa Respins feature and the Medusa’s Gaze Free Spins bonus round. Both of these features can work their magic alone, but they can also interfere with each other. The Riche Wilde wild symbol acts as the game’s regular wild, and can step in for all regular symbols.

The Shield of Athena has a golden Medusa depiction on it, and this Medusa can sometimes come alive and show her scary face. You will not turn into stone, however. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. When the Medusa animation comes alive, the symbol not only doubles in value and becomes a wild symbol, but you will also trigger the Medusa Respins feature.

The Medusa wild will become sticky for the respin, together with any winning symbols. The rest of the reel positions will then spin again, and you get another respin if you land more Medusa wilds or winning combos. This process goes on until you don’t land anymore Medusa wilds or winning combos, or until you fill the screen with nothing but winning combos and Medusa wilds.

Free spins in Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena

Rich Wilde has brought his daughter along for the ride this time, and Cat Wilde is the scatter symbol in this game. The Medusa’s Gaze Free Spins feature is triggered when you land at least 3 scatters on the same spin. More precisely, you will get 10, 12 or 15 free spins when you land 3, 4 or 5 scatters, respectively.

You can retrigger the bonus round as many times as you wish, just as long as you manage to land at least 3 Cat Wilde scatters anywhere on the reels on a free spin.

How to play

The gameplay is fairly obvious and straightforward on Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena slot, but as always, there are certain things you should be aware of before you start playing. Fear not, we will run through all the essentials here, and get you up to speed in no-time.

First of all, you can check the paytable via the hamburger menu, and here you’ll find details about all the different bonus features the game has to offer. You will also find out how much each symbol is worth in different combinations, and the dynamic paytable will automatically adjust the symbol values according to your chosen bet level.

This makes it easy to find out how much each symbol pays per total stake, as all you need to do is adjust the bet level from the default £1.5 to £1. The 10 paylines are fixed in this game, and cannot be adjusted. In the settings menu you can turn the sound on/off, and you can also turn on fast play mode and left-hand mode.

The game rules tell you all the technical (and somewhat boring) stuff about this game, and you’ll find a dedicated tab for that one too in the menu.

You have different options as to when the autospin feature shall stop, and this includes winning or losing a certain amount or triggering the bonus round. That pretty much covers how to play Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena, and we wish you the best of luck with your session!

Where to play Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena?

Now that we have told you all about how to play this game, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and get right down to the nitty gritty. You can play this game either for free via the demo game version, or you can play for real money at a chosen casino with a nice welcome offer. Either way, the game can be played on both mobile, tablet and desktop/laptop, and it’s compatible with all operative systems, like Android, Windows and iOS.

Play for real money

Playing for real is where the true excitement lies, and we don’t blame you for wanting to jump right into the deep end. This is no problem for experienced players, as they will quickly understand what this game is about. The good news is that you can pick and choose from our scanned list of casinos on top of this review page. Just follow the link and play Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena for real with a nice welcome bonus right away.

Play free demo version

Even experienced players prefer to check out the free demo game version first sometimes, and it’s a good idea if you feel a bit uncertain if this game is for you.

The 200 Spins Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena Experience

The favorite part for us, is when we get to report how it went with our first 200 spins on a brand new game. This is not something you should take too seriously, and it’s meant to be fun and give you a feel for what the game is like. Our results are not statistically valid in any way, but more of a measure of our beginner’s luck with each slot.

We started by setting the bet level to £1 per spin, and adjusted the autospins feature to 100 spins (which is the maximum number). We forgot to set the fast spins mode on at first, but the game allowed us to change that without closing down the autospins, which was kind of neat. The first 100 spins went quite well, so let’s get right into it!

As expected from a high volatility game, the regular base game wins were relatively small between the dead spins. At most we won 6x from a regular spin, but we triggered the Meduse Respins feature as much as 4 times during our first 100 rounds. The hit frequency balanced out somewhat during the final 100 spins however, so it’s probably more like 1 on 35-40 than 1 in 25 for this feature.

Anyway, we had wins between 8x and 26x with the Medusa Respins. It’s quite exciting every time you land a Shield of Athena symbol, as you never know if it will morph into the Medusa wild, or not. On the last 100 spins we saw less of the Medusa feature, and what little profit we had made from the first 100 spins was now slowly chipped away by the base game grind.

For the sake of honesty and transparency, we did not trigger the bonus round on our first 200 spins. Instead, out of curiosity and frustration, we let the reels autospin until it finally triggered. Our heart skipped a beat as we triggered the Medusa Respins at the same time, and we saw our long-awaited 3 Cat Wilde scatters disappear.

Luckily, the free spins round played out right after the Medusa Respin feature was finished, but even though we triggered it (i.e. the Medusa Respins) 5 times inside the bonus round also, we only ended up winning a lousy 17.5x our stake in total. All we can say is, hopefully your beginner’s luck with this game is a lot better than ours was!

Review Summary

Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena is an excellent game by any measure, and fans of the legendary Book of Dead should really pay attention here. The bonus features are simple enough, but they intertwine in peculiar ways that can lead to massive payouts.

The 10,000x max win potential is twice that of most Book slots, and this is a refreshing spin-off from the Book series, for sure. Time will tell if the reception of Shield of Athena will live up to Play’n Go’s most famous and popular game, but it certainly has that quality and potential.

Pros

• Medusa Respins feature
• Free spins with Medusa Respins
• High volatility and 10,000x max win potential

Cons

• Volatility can be too brutal for low-risk players

If you appreciate Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena you should also try:

This is hardly the first adventure we’ve been on together with the bold explorer Rich Wilde, but it’s the first time we’ve been introduced to his daughter, Cat Wilde, which is a charming touch. Anyway, here we shall take a brief look at some other games you might like, if you enjoyed this one, and we’ll start with one of the most popular slots ever made.

Book of Dead - is the first Rich Wilde adventure which took us all by storm, and it’s the legend that started the whole Book slot mega-trend. Many players stay loyal to this game even though there are book slots out there that have a more beneficial math model. Book of Dead is all about the free spins with expanding symbols, which has been copied so many times after this that we’ve lost count.

Book of Ra Deluxe - is an upgraded version of the game that inspired Book of Dead in the first place. It’s a bit dated for sure, as it was released back in 2008, but it’s still worth checking out if you enjoy tracing your favorite games back to their legendary origins. It’s similar to the original Book of Ra, but with a more beneficial math model and RTP.

The Golden Owl of Athena - is all about the greek goddess of wisdom, and the Golden Owl (another symbol of wisdom) is your key to bigger wins in this game. You can get yourself up to 20 free spins via the Owl scatter, and the Owl also doubles as a wild symbol to help you form winning combos. Athena can expand during the bonus round, and wins above 5,000x your stake is possible.

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