Zulu Gold Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Zulu Gold Review

Those who thought Kane’s Katmandu adventure was the peak of ELK’s Gold series, will probably have to reconsider. The crafty and bold developer has somehow managed to take it up a notch with Zulu Gold, even though the same cannot be said about the 95 % RTP. If you can look past that small, yet important, detail however, you’re in for an African-themed thrillride that packs a 10,000x your stake punch.

The Zulu theme itself is somewhat of a rarity, and the gameplay comes with a perfectly tuned pace, hard-hitting and downward-crushing stone symbols, all accompanied by the excellent tribal soundtrack. There are plenty of modifiers too, and they tend to conspire to keep your winning streak going when they finally trigger. The unique multiplier symbol system can really add up towards the end of the bonus round, and the Safety level feature makes a welcome comeback.

Zulu Gold Slot - Reels Screen

Zulu Gold Slot Features

The regular wild steps in for all pay symbols like wilds usually do, and the same goes for the other wild types you’ll find in this game. The Charged Wild comes with up to 3 lives, and it stays on the grid until all lives have been used up from being part of a winning combo. A Walker Wild will trigger at random times, and it moves around while leaving a wild trail in its wake.

The Walker Wild stays put between Avalanches, while the latter removes all winning symbols from the grid.

This opens up space for new and/or existing symbols to drop from above to fill the gaps, which also adds an extra row to the grid. This process goes on as long as you keep winning, with up to 4 extra rows added at the most. A maxed out 6x8 grid comes with 262,144 win ways.

All symbols, including wilds, come in 4 different sizes from 1x1 to 4x4. These all count as the number of 1x1 tiles that make them up, and spaces below a big symbol are filled with matching symbols. Big symbols also smash their way down the grid, but they stop when hitting similar sized (or bigger) symbols, as well as wilds and bonus symbols.

You can also land a Zulu Stack, which is a stack of 2 to 4 matching symbols, and this might add additional symbol rows to the grid.

You trigger the Multiplier Free Drops bonus round by landing 3+ scatters anywhere in view. More specifically, you win 10, 15, 20 or 25 free spins, respectively, when you land 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters on the same spin. When you get at least 3 multiplier symbols in view, their respective values are added to the global win multiplier that comes with no upper limit.

What’s more, landing a new multiplier symbol in the same avalanche sequence, reactivates all the present multiplier symbols, and adds them to the total one more time. The ‘Safety level’ increases by +1 per free drop win, adding up to 4 extra rows in total at the most. The grid resets to the safety level between spins, and the free drops always reach the height of the safety level.

Non-UK players can take advantage of the in-game X-citer Feature Menu. You have 5 modes to choose from this time:

• 5x your stake buys 1 spin with a win guarantee.
• 25x your stake gets you 3 spins with Zulu Stacks on each spin.
• 100x your stake guarantees you the Multiplier Free Drops feature.
• 250x your stake buys 3 spins with Wild Walkers on each spin.
• 500x your stake is the price you pay for the Super Bonus Round, where all multiplier symbols remain on the grid for indefinite reactivation.

The 200 Spins Zulu Gold Slot Experience

We have included a bit of the base game play in our highlights video, and we benefited from the Zulu stacks and the crushing symbols many times. Around the 1-minute mark we trigger the Super Bonus Round (yes, we purchased it, as it’s not available from any organic trigger), and you can see how we fared by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

Sometimes you just need a single glance at a game, and you just know it’s gonna be a top notch experience. Following in the footsteps of their excellent Katmandu Gold, ELK has somehow managed to outdo themselves with Zulu Gold.

All the best elements from previous installments are included, and the outstanding audiovisual presentation, combined with ‘oddly satisfying’ gameplay, makes this a joyride from the very first spin.

Keep in mind that it’s a volatile joyride though, and you’ll usually get plenty of dead spins between some kind of modifier payout that keeps you afloat in the base game. The only real drawback is the 95 % RTP, which is lower than usual, and the fact that the Super Bonus Round cannot be triggered organically. Still, this is a highly entertaining and powerful release, and a sparkling jewel in ELK’s already solid catalog.

Pros

• Avalanche wins adds up to 4 extra rows
• Crushing Big Symbols feature
• Zulu stacks up to 1x4 in height
• Multiplier Free Drops w/ safety level
• Win up to 10,000x your stake
• X-citer feature buy menu (not UK)

Cons

• RTP of 95 % is below average
• Super Bonus cannot be triggered organically

If you love Zulu Gold Slot you should also try:

Katmandu Gold - used to be the best installment in ELK’s Gold series, before getting stiff competition from the game at hand. Cascading wins adds up to 4 extra rows here too, and you’ll also benefit from Ice Climbers and Expanding Wins. You can win up to 10,000x your stake from the progressive multiplier bonus round, and the RTP is a solid 96.2 %.

Tahiti Gold - comes with an excellent tribal soundtrack, and this is another popular installment in the Kane saga. You’ll benefit from row-adding cascading wins, as well as crushing mega symbols up to 4x4.

The Wild Forge feature is unique to this installment, as is the Eye of Tiki feature, and the expanding reel set bonus round comes with a 5,000x potential.

King of Cats - is another game, this time from BTG, with an African theme that sticks out in a very positive way. Choose between Lion and Puma mode, and benefit from features and bonus rounds that are unique for each mode. At best, you’re looking at payouts hovering above 56,000x your stake in this action-packed and highly playable release.

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