Bell Tower Guardians Slot Review
If you’ve ever set foot 🦶🏻 in Europe, you’ve seen a gargoyle (and some of them are as rude as f***). We’ve always been told that they were created to scare off demons, ironically.
It turns out their sole reason for existing is to function as…. gutters. Yeah, I know that’s anticlimactic. 🤷♂️
The name comes from the old French for "throat," same root as gargle, because rainwater 💧 ran down a channel in each one's back and shot out its mouth, clear of the cathedral walls.
Bell Tower Guardians slot from Novomatic has 5 gargoyles on a ledge above the reels, and not one of em is dribbling water.
Gameplay
A full moon hangs over a pair of castles above an eerie, dark forest. The reels sit in a dark blue-gray metal frame with enough curls and spikes to keep a blacksmith busy for a month.
The 5x4 grid has 20 paylines, the RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 95.01%, volatility is high, and the max multiplier is 6,000x. The max win is $300,000, with bets running from $0.20 to $50, although Japanese Yen doesn't get past the castle gate.
Down in the foundations of the paytable, the 10, J, and Q symbols each pay 1x for 5 of a kind, 0.2x for 4, and 0.1x for 3. The K and A sit one course of stone higher at 2x, 0.4x, and 0.2x.
Above them, the Cross pays 2.5x for 5, 0.8x for 4, and 0.4x for 3, so it barely clears the A. Then the Dagger pays 3x, 1x, and 0.6x, while the Ring brings 5x, 1.5x, and 1x.
At the top of the tower, the Goblet pays 10x for 5 of a kind, 4x for 4, and 2x for 3. When the best line in the whole castle pays 10x, you know the gold is locked away in another room.
As for the Wild, it stands in for every symbol except Coins, Upgrade symbols, and the Chest. It can patch a hole in a line, but it has no say in the Coin business.
Features
FREE SPINS:
When a Guardian awakens, it opens a round with its own feature and 10 Free Spins, and a Coin symbol can activate the corresponding round if it lands on one of the reels. That makes the statues on the ledge the doormen of the round.
The Violet, Red, Blue, and Green Guardians each carry one feature. Multiple features may be triggered at the same time, but however many gargoyles stir, the count stays at 10 Free Spins.
The Golden Guardian opens a round with all 4 features but only 3 Free Spins. So it's one trick for 10 spins or the whole bag for 3.
Coins pay out when they land at the same time as a Chest symbol, and that goes for every type of Coin. Their values range from 0.5x to 20x your bet, which makes the Chest the castle treasury and the symbol you're rooting for.
Multiplier
The Violet Guardian's feature reveals a random multiplier from 2x to 5x when it triggers, and that multiplier is applied to every Coin symbol. One number from one gargoyle marks up the whole board at once.
Big Coin
With the Red Guardian feature active, a Big Coin symbol worth 10x to 100x may land on the reels. At the top, that's 5 times the best standard Coin value, so the Red Guardian is the one sitting on the heavy purse.
Lock & Respin
With the Blue Guardian feature active, a Chest and any Coin symbols landing at the same time lock in place and start Lock & Respin.
From there, every Coin that lands locks too and gets collected by a Chest, so the castle bolts the door behind each new arrival.
The respins don't count as Free Spins, and they keep going until no new Coin symbols land. Your counter stays frozen in stone while the board fills up, which is about as generous as the slot gets.
Upgrade
When the Green Guardian feature triggers, 10s get upgraded into Coin symbols, and on every spin after that, any 10 that lands counts as a Coin.
Landing a Green Arrow symbol upgrades even more low-pay symbols into Coins, and the Green Guardian panel keeps track of which ones have converted.
Performance
I don’t quite get the logic of demonic-looking things scaring away demons. Do demons look in the mirror and freak out? Anyhoo, the game ran smoothly during testing and that’s what really matters.
Maximum Win
Put the max multiplier of 6,000x on the $50 top bet and you get a max win of $300,000. The minimum bet is $0.20.
Conclusion
The game's money lives in Free Spins – more precisely in Coins landing alongside a Chest. The base game's best line is 5 Goblets at 10x, and the card ranks pay less than that, so line hits are the castle's small change.
Each Guardian pushes the Coins in its own direction, which is why it matters so much which one wakes.
Big Coins raise the values, the Violet multiplier marks every Coin up, Lock & Respin keeps collecting until the Coins stop coming, and Upgrade turns 10s (plus more low-pays with a Green Arrow) into Coins.
The road to the 6,000x max multiplier runs through those features stacking in 1 round. You get there either from several features triggering together or from the Golden Guardian's all-4 package.
By my count, if you fill 19 of the 20 positions with top-value Coins, leave 1 for the Chest, and put the biggest multiplier on the lot, the board pays about 1,900x.
So the 6,000x max multiplier needs the Red Guardian's Big Coins on the board with the Violet multiplier on top of them, and that's the pair of gargoyles to hope for.
The Golden Guardian's offer cuts both ways. All 4 features working together is where the big numbers live, but 3 spins is a short night's watch, while a single Guardian stands guard for 10 spins with one feature.
Nobody sells a key to this tower, so the only way into Free Spins is waiting for a Guardian to wake at whatever bet you're on.
High-risk players with a bankroll built for long, quiet nights between Guardians are the main crowd. Skip this bad boy if you need the base game to carry you.
Slot Details
Game Provider: Novomatic
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 20
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 95.01%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: High
Bonus Round: No
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins
Max Multiplier: 6,000x
Max Win: $300,000
Published by
BitStarz, award-winning Bitcoin Casino
