Hydra's Lair Slot Review

I used to be quite the rum drinker and no, I didn’t have some pirate fetish going on – it just happened to be my drink of choice for some reason.

If you’ve ever been on a bender with rum and woken up the next day in a room with closed windows and doors, you’ll be familiar with what I’m going to describe next.

Like, the walls might need a fresh coat of paint and your eyelashes will probably have fallen out – such are the ghastly after-effects of that particular tipple.

I reckon the fabled Hydra of Greek mythology was also a fan of rum. Its breath was said to be poisonous, and the gym bunny Hercules had to wear a cloth around his mouth and nose as he went about chopping its heads off.

But before you get all critical of this 9-headed water beast, maybe it’s time to keep an open mind. The Hydra is going to be your best friend so read on to find out why I say this.

This is Hydra's Lair slot from Mascot.

Gameplay

Ooh, dark and spooky – this game’s off to a good start! Having said that, I found it a bit weird that the background (the mountains and sinister buildings) was reflected inside the gameplay area.

The symbols are made up of helmets, skulls, golden chalices, and daggers. Other than the eerie look and feel, the soundtrack really impressed me. Not only did it add to the whole spine-chilling vibe, but it was pleasant enough that I let it run un-muted. That’s some kinda minor miracle!

The first stat I want to mention is the hit rate – in other words, the frequency with which winning combos hit the reels. The average slot hit rate is usually somewhere between 20% and 30%, so Hydra's Lair slot’s 40.1% is very impressive.

This game offers 20 fixed paylines, a high volatility rate, but an RTP that’s unfortunately sub-par at 95.19%. Luckily, there are two positives to take the sting out of that RTP; the max win clocks in at €249,900 and you can play in the crypto or fiat currency of your choice.

Features

The Scatter symbol appears during the base game as well as in the Free Spins round, but only on reels 1 and 5.

There are 2 different Wild symbols available. The first is a standard Wild (look out for a silver frame), which replaces symbols other than the Scatter.

The second Wild is a Hydra Wild, which only appears during the Free Spins round. Each time that it appears, it will initiate the Hydra feature.

HYDRA FEATURE:

The Hydra symbol turns all adjacent symbols – including Scatters – into Wilds, and these carry multipliers with values up to 5x. Any Wilds already present on the reels before the Hydra feature triggers will have their multipliers boosted by +1.

INFINITE FREE SPINS:

This feature kicks off when you land 2 Scatters symbols during the base game and will continue until 2 visible Scatters land on the grid again.

RISK’N’BUY:

This feature will be offered to you (if it’s available in your territory) during the base game after each spin; irrespective of whether you won or not.

If you win, you’ll be able to risk that amount for a shot at the Free Spins round. If you didn’t win anything, you can still buy your way into Free Spins for 55x your bet.

Performance

Mascot Gaming uses HTML5 technology for its games, which means you’ll be able to play on any device of your choosing and use whichever browser you prefer.

My testing validated this, as I didn’t have a single instance where the game buffered or threw up errors.

Maximum Win

I’d battle a 9-headed monster for a shot at €249,900, wouldn’t you? And here’s the kicker: the max multiplier is an astonishing 73,500x, so you only need to sustain your betting at €3.40!

P.S: the lowest you can bet is €0.20.

Conclusion

Initially, I was like: meh, it’s not the prettiest game and the features just seem to be OK. But I was wrong.

The Infinite Free Spins option combined with the Hydra Wilds (that create adjacent Wilds) is simply superb! It’s possible to rack up a ton of spins and some incredible wins as a result.

Look, the base game experience is boring and does nothing for the wallet, so you’ll need to get to the features if you wanna make some moolah. But there is almost a quarter of a million euro on the line, so that should be enough of a reason to persist.

Slot Details

Software: Mascot
Game Type: Video Slots
Paylines: 20
Reels: 5
RTP: 95.19%
Bonus Round: No
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins
Max Win: €249,900

Published by:
BitStarz, award-winning Bitcoin Casino