If you have ever been in any of the top bricks and mortar casinos around the city of Las Vegas and come out of there humming the tune of the Bangles hit “Walk Like an Egyptian”, then the reason 
for that may very well be the Pharaoh’s Fortune slot from IGT.
The game was a huge hit in Las Vegas casinos and it has now made a successful transition from the offline world to the online in the form of this exciting 5×3 reel, 15 paylines slot, which you can play right now at the hugely popular Bet365 Games.
After an upgrade in November 2014, which saw the number of paylines increase to 15 from 10, the slot has enjoyed a new lease of life in the online realm, so let’s take a look at how it plays and whether it is worth slipping on the sandals to perform a sand-dance for.
Key Information
Since the slot was reworked a couple of years ago, Pharaoh’s Fortune has proven to be one of the most popular Egyptian themed slots you can play today. That is not a small accolade either given the large amounts of game that use Egyptian myths and legends as their starting point.
Deciding how much to wager is simple as there are 15 non-selectable pay lines in operation on every spin. Simply click on the Line Bet arrows to increase or decrease your bet. The maximum bet is $30, with the minimum bet being a very small $0.15, meaning this slot is definitely aimed at more low to medium stakes players.
The reels are adorned with symbols inside what appears to be a pyramid structure and as you would expect, there are a number of hieroglyphic type symbols across the reels. Rather than feeble attempts to describe what is on each symbol, IGT have cleverly colour coded the symbols, the paler yellow colour background denotes a lower value symbol, while symbols with a darker coloured background are those that offer higher value wins.
This is a simple and effective way to communicate to the player which are the higher value symbols and it works very well in the base game and free spins round.
There is a Wild symbol on the reels too and this is the Pharaoh’s Fortune pyramid symbol. This can be used to create winning paylines by replacing high and low value symbols but it can also be used in conjunction with other Wilds to trigger wins in its own right. Indeed, land five of these symbols on one of the 15 paylines and you will win the base game jackpot of 10,000 coins.
The scatter symbol is denoted by a Scarab Beetle symbol and this offers a payout when you land two or more anywhere across the reels. The size of the payout increases with each Scatter landed. Two offering 2 coins, 3 Scarabs earn 5 coins, four earns 10 and land five to land the 50 coin top prize.
The Free Spins round is activated when you land two of the Free Spin Wins symbol, a grinning King Tutankhamun’s death mask, across the reels. This gives you an initial 3 free spins and a 1x multiplier but also launches the Free Spins Bonus Stones round.
Here, you get to select from a selection of stones which when clicked will reveal either additional free spins, an increase to your multiplier, or the Begin Free Spins round (which ends the Stones bonus feature). You get to keep clicking on stones until you trigger the Begin Free Spins round and in doing so you can earn up to 25 free spins and a 6x multiplier.
When Free Spins starts, the number of lines available on the reels increases from 15 to 20 for the duration of free spins and you can also retrigger free spins up to a maximum of 999 in total. The great news is that on every Free Spin, you are guaranteed a win (although the size of the win can vary greatly).
Pharaoh’s Fortunes is a hugely enjoyable slot that has benefitted greatly from a small revamp a couple of years ago. Smart animations, a sense of humour, a fabulous soundtrack and an 
enjoyable bonus game make this a fabulous all round slot to enjoy.
How to win playing the Pharaoh’s Fortune slot
The key to enjoying a decent sized win on the Pharoah’s Fortune comes really in two separate phases. The first is getting the maximum out of the base game over a session to enable you to trigger the second phase of the strategy, hitting the free spins game.
What is immediately apparent with this slot is that it is a more medium variance game. Wins are not guaranteed on almost every spin and you will have periods where you spin and spin and don’t hit a single win. You therefore need to manage your bankroll by playing at an appropriate coin size to ensure you are able to deal with these runs of bad luck.
However, in the base game, wins are varied. Most are smaller wins but occasionally, especially when the Wild symbol is in use, you can hit some decent wins that offer you a much larger payout and keep your bankroll topped up. Scatter symbol wins are rare and not that lucrative, but hitting Wild symbols on successive reels can lead to some excellent wins.
The biggest wins on the slot however come from the Free Spins round. Picking in the Stones Bonus game is random of course, but the more spins you pick up and the greater the multiplier, the more you increase your chances of a much bigger win. If you can hit between 15 and 25 free spins and get that multiplier up to around 4x to 6x, then you are looking at a very nice win indeed.
Those extra paylines in free spins do come in very useful in landing wins and with a win guaranteed on every spin (although these wins can be very small amounts as well as larger), you know you will at least take something from each one of your free spins. Remember too to look out for the retrigger option as this can massively boost your chances of a big win in the free spins game, especially if you don’t have many free spins or a small multiplier to begin with.
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