Cluster Kingdom

Cluster Kingdom Review

It's been a while since ELK Studios offered us its last medieval slot with a comic twist! There were several attempts to present Old England and its knights but in a rather serious way. Now, the premium provider is planning to release a masterpiece comparable with the top tiers in its portfolio!

Cluster Kingdom will make its debut in the first days of October, and I expect nothing but perfection. The RNG machine has a few things in common with Micro Knights, the last similar slot by the company released in 2020. The payout system, the theme, and the humorous approach are alike, but that's pretty much all the similarities.

"Hail to the king!" ELK Studios starts solidly the presentation of a game that can disrupt the status quo. Whether the introduction available on the company's site is an excerpt from a poem, the lyrical inspiration of a talented employee, or AI at work, we may never know. The fact is that it gives a unique first impression to an unbiased enthusiast like me.

Obviously, the Cluster Kingdom slot utilizes a Medieval theme and puts the setting in the court of a King, who has a lovely wife, the Queen, and a courageous daughter, the Princess. These three characters play major roles in the script ahead, but first, let's dissect the mechanics.

Name-wise, the game features a Cluster Pays engine that activates when 5 or more symbols of a kind touch each other vertically or horizontally. That shouldn't be difficult because, unlike Micro Knights, Cluster Kingdom game comes with a relatively small playing grid of 5 reels and 5 rows.

It's designed as a board game built of cards and played with dice given the attributes scattered on the table where the board lies. Obviously (again), it's a game of chance since lots of gold and silver coins can be seen around. They pile up as the gameplay unfolds during the bonus minigames.

Different to other Cluster Pays slots, winning combinations here do not activate cascades or avalanches. The involved cards and all other non-winning cards of the same type or types are simply changed with new ones. However, the rest of the symbols, untouched by the mechanics, remain in their initial positions.

Cluster Kingdom Slot - Reels Screen

When it comes to audio-visual performance, ELK Studios is one of those providers you can trust. The creative artwork can be spotted everywhere, and the clever-designed animations are both amusing and fascinating. Sounds are also well-crafted, calm at most moments, and with heavy metal boosts at the right times.

Whenever you score a big win, these music extravaganzas will remind you that you are in the XXI Century, staring at a digital screen. Cluster Kingdom casino slot is mobile-friendly and compatible with Android and iOS smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Several tech features are available to make your experience smoother - Quick Play, Autoplay, X-iter, etc.

The Paytable is packed with just 5 symbol cards - Castle, House, Windmill, Tree, and Wheat. Each of them offers 8 tiers of rewards from 5 to 20+ of a kind, packed in winning clusters. The lowest payouts range from 0.10x to 1x the bet, while the highest are 250x, 150x, 100x, 50x, and 25x, respectively.

A couple of Wild symbols substitute for all of these cards and land in the form of Jokers and Knights. Clusters built of wilds only pay as Castles! The betting range is also solid but won't attract high rollers - €0.20 to €100 per spin. Strategies would be tricky for implementation, too, due to just 12 available stake levels.

The provider continues its strategy to offer technically amazing games with rather low payout rates. The Cluster Kingdom RTP is 94%, the Hit Frequency is 25%, while the levels of volatility are high (7 out of 10). The max win compensates for the sour - 10,000x the bet or up to a mouth-watering exposure of €1,000,000.

Cluster Kingdom Features

If you haven't run the Cluster Kingdom demo yet, my review might seem a little odd! But there is nothing ordinary with this game, so I won't pretend the opposite. Clever mechanics, stunning visuals, and engaging features is why ELK Studios stands out, and in the following lines, I intend to introduce 2 out of these 3 elements!

Wild Symbols & Feature Symbols

Joker Wilds simply substitute for all regular symbols, while the Knight Wilds come with attached win multipliers. They affect the entire cluster win, and if more than one Knight is part of it, the multiplier values will be added to each other.

The King has symbol-upgrade powers! Upon landing, it chooses the lowest-paying symbol type adjacent to him and switches all of its instances across the grid with the highest-valued symbol type adjacent to him.

The Queen switches symbols adjacent to her in an attempt to create winning clusters. It moves one step closer to the King if he is in view. That move happens after each win and before the board's refill.

The Princess also moves a step closer to the King, if available, after each win, following the same rules as the Queen. However, the King's daughter also spreads from 1 to 4 wild symbols across the board.

Sticky Redrops

The feature is random and when it triggers, it selects one of the regularly-paying symbols. All instances of it become sticky, along with the wilds and the wilds with multipliers, and a Redrop is awarded. If new symbols of the same type appear, they will also be held, and a new Redrop is awarded.

This will continue until the whole grid is filled or a Redrop doesn't bring new symbols of the required kind. Feature symbols in view, if any, are inactive until the end of the Redrop sequence. Once the total win is evaluated and the grid is refiled, they will start executing their features.

Bonus, Super Bonus & Mini Bonus

The Free Spins bonus starts when the Queen and the King are adjacent to each other. It starts with a new set of symbols and 6 Free Drops. During this bonus, all wilds from the triggering spin and between the free rounds are persistent (sticky & wondering).

You can also activate the Super Bonus minigame if next to the triggering Queen or King is the Princess as well. Whenever the whole family unites, you will get 6 Free Drops with persistent and progressive wild multipliers. They increase by +1 every time when they are part of one or many winning combinations.

In case the Princess and the King are adjacent to each other, without the beloved Queen, the Mini Bonus activates. It's played with progressive persistent wild multipliers, but you will have only 3 Free Drops at hand.

Cluster Kingdom Slot - Free Spins Gameplay Screen

X-tier Features

ELK Studios loves to add the X-iter features to its online slots, which is the company Bonus Buy tool. It contains several purchasing options and boosters that will help you win big or trigger the bonus more easily. Here is what is in the Cluster Kingdom X-iter:

• Bonus Hunt - 3x the bet - the bonus triggering chance is more than tripled.
• Sticky ReDrops - 10x the bet - a guaranteed feature activation.
• Mini Bonus - 50x the bet - activates 3 Free Drops with persistent increasing wild multipliers.
• Bonus - 100x the bet - activates 6 Free Drops with persistent wild multipliers.
• Super Bonus - 500x the bet - activates 6 Free Drops with persistent increasing wild multipliers.

Pros And Cons Of Cluster Kingdom Slot

Our Verdict

Medieval Times is a theme with a massive potential in online slot crafting, as it can be seen from two completely different angles. Bravery and bloodshed or comic characters and cunning royal court plays, and it seems that ELK Studios has chosen the second approach for Cluster Kingdom ELK Studios!

At the beginning of the year, I thought that I would never find a game similar to Tarasque, a slot by Print Studios. Now, I'm divided on which one is more mesmerizing, as they share similar features, mechanics, and a level of creativity. Moreover, this skilled provider with a very limited portfolio even has another resembling title.

A year before Tarasque, it released Holy Hand Grenade, which exploits a similar theme but comes with simpler mechanics. Both slots come with ranging RTP rates, which, however, have better potential compared to Cluster Kingdom (above 96%). In any case, each of the three titles is worth the time!

In conclusion, I rate this amazing Medieval comedy highly in my personal ranking! The original theme, Moving Symbols with extras, and plenty of fun, have really made my day! On the flip side, this is a complex casino game entirely in the provider's style. Therefore, starting with the demo is a must, or you risk missing the full spectacle!