Katmandu X: Slot Review and Free Play Demo

Katmandu X Review

In appearance, and as revealed by the title, Katmandu X is a follow-up to ELK’s Katmandu Gold, which is an installment in their popular Kane series. However, when you take a peek under the hood you’ll soon discover that the actual gameplay is much closer to what’s on offer in ELK’s dystopian slot release Propaganda. You’re taken high up in the Himalayan mountains once again for this adventure, and it comes with a majestic and uplifting visual presentation.

As in Propaganda, you get a global win multiplier that increases per removed winning symbol in all stages. In addition, a brand new exploding wild can also remove symbols to increase the win multiplier. Wilds merge to create multiplier wilds as before, and these can also split. The multiplier only keeps building in the bonus round, and you get the Wild Strike random wilds feature on every Super Free Spin. The 25,000x potential is solid, and a merger of two excellent games only adds to the experience.

Katmandu X Slot - Reels Screen

Katmandu X Slot Features

You need between 5 and 16+ matching symbols in a cluster anywhere on the 6x6 grid to win, and the minimum wins range between 0.05 and 1.5 x your stake. Landing 16+ cluster wins awards between 4 and 100 x your stake in comparison, and the Avalanche mechanic removes all winning symbols from the grid. A wild symbol is then spawned before the gaps are filled with new and/or existing symbols dropping down, and this repeats as long as you keep winning.

Wilds serve different functions, but they all have one thing in common. As their core feature, wilds step in for pay symbols to help complete and/or improve winning clusters. When multiple wilds take part in the same win, they will merge into one wild for the next avalanche drop. This creates a multiplier wild that will boost future wins, and multiplier wilds that connect multiple winning clusters will split into the relevant clusters. The Exploding Wild removes all surrounding symbols, which triggers the Avalanche redrop.

The Wild Strike feature can trigger at random times, and you will then see markers jump around from position to position. A random selection of positions will then be upgraded to wilds, multiplier wilds, or exploding wilds.

The global Win Multiplier can be seen in the middle of the big red X above the grid, and it increases for every removed symbol. This goes for removed winning symbols, as well as symbols removed by the exploding wild, and the global win multiplier will boost all winning clusters once its value is higher than x1. The wild multipliers will boost the cluster wins first, if available, and then the global win multiplier does its thing. The win multiplier resets between base game spins.

You will land Big Symbols on a regular basis, and these are pay symbols that come in sizes up to 4x4. The big symbols count as regular sized 1x1 symbols when part of a win, and they also crush regular sized 1x1 symbols on each redrop. Matching symbols are not crushed by this mechanic, however, and neither are wilds or free drop symbols. Empty positions below a big symbol will automatically be filled with 1x1-sized matching symbols.

You need to accumulate 3 bonus symbols in the same Avalanche sequence, or in the same single drop, to trigger the Bonus Round. This gives you 7 free drops, and the big difference from the base game is that the global win multiplier never resets during the feature. You win +1 extra free spin from each Yin & Yang scatter during the feature.

If one of the triggering bonus symbols is a Super Bonus symbol, you get the Super Bonus Round instead of the regular bonus round. You can also upgrade the regular feature to the Super version by landing a Super bonus symbol on a free drop. You get the Wild Strike feature on every Super Free Drop, and it always awards multiplier wilds and/or exploding wilds.

The X-iter Bonus Buy menu is available in some jurisdictions, but not in the UK for sure. It comes with 5 options this time, and they are as follows:

• Bonus Hunt - pay 2x your stake per symbol drop to double your bonus round chances.
• Exploding Wild - pay 10x your stake to get a symbol drop that’s guaranteed to land an exploding wild.
• Super Wild Strike - pay 25x your stake for a symbol drop that guarantees the Super Wild Strike feature to trigger.
• Bonus - pay 100x your stake to get the regular bonus round.
• Super Bonus - pay 500x your stake to get the Super version of the bonus round.

The 200 Spins Katmandu X Slot Experience

We get the Wild Strike feature as the 2:18-minute highlights video starts, and it leads to a longer avalanche sequence that eventually triggers the bonus round. We got 7 regular free drops from the 3 triggering scatters, and you can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

Merging Katmandu Gold with Propaganda seems like a winning idea both on paper and in practice, as the dystopian and somewhat depressing atmosphere in the latter could be a turn off for some players. Now you get essentially the same gameplay, although there have been a few smaller changes, with a theme that’s more elevating to the spirit. This is only accentuated by the harmonious symmetry of this game, which makes it look like a scene out of some yet to be made Wes Anderson movie.

The view is stunning when the grid opens up so the temple in the distance becomes visible, and the pace is excellent with the turbo switched on. The win multiplier can climb to impressive levels in all stages of the game, and the merging multiplier wilds system comes in addition. Things can heat up quickly when the multiplier never resets in the bonus round, and not least when you get the Wild Strike feature per spin in the Super version. The 25,000x potential seems achievable, and Katmandu X is a solid installment in the popular ELK series.