Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor

Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor: Slot Overview

If you play online slots for any length of time, there's a good chance you are going to bump into this guy sooner or later. Thor, or Tórr in Old Norse, is the prototypical man's man, or stereotypical depending on your point of view. When he's not drinking and feasting, he's battering his way through foes and beasts, aided by the infamous hammer Mjolnir. If you let him, it's easy to get caught up in the Thor mystique and feel the need to down mead from horn cups, grow a beard, and drape yourself in an epic cape. Gotta say we got pretty pumped to give Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor a spin after thinking about that and looked forward to the game living up to the legend.

A collaboration between Yggdrasil and independent software studio Jelly, our expectations were further inflamed by the studio's hugely popular 'Vikings Go' range of slots. From the moment Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor, the reaction was largely positive. It looks good in a fairly restrained way, a 5-reel, 30-payline game grid set in a moody northern vista which could be anywhere from Iceland to Scandinavia – or beyond now they are saying Vikings landed in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Mjolnir sits on one side, the Buy Bonus button on the other, while lightning crashes down on a rather bleak landscape. So far, so good.

Tackling Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor is possible on any device, where stakes of 20 p/c to $/€80 are available. The game produces a respectable set of stats all around, starting with a theoretical return value of 95.9%, with a big max win lying in wait for lucky warriors. Getting your hands on the larger wins is made possible in a bonus round that populates frame positions with jackpots or money symbols.

First, a few key rules, such as winning combinations which form when at least 3 matching symbols land on one of the 30 paylines, starting from the leftmost reel. The symbols have a nice look to them too. For the low pays, intricately patterned 10-A royals have been used, while the high pays are cups, axes, longships, and Thors worth 10 to 25 times your stake. Mjolnir's back again, now on the wild symbol which lands in any position to replace all symbols bar the scatter. Wilds also appear with multipliers during the Thunder of Thor modifier, covered next.

Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor: Slot Features

Thunder of Thor is a random extra which triggers in the base game at any time, while the Thor Free Spins bonus round frames positions on the reels then fills them with money symbols in a feature called PowerLinks.

Thunder of Thor

This modifier may be randomly triggered on any spin. When it activates, it creates wild symbols which are added to the reels, possessing win multipliers of x2, x5, x10, x25, x50, or x100. Thunder of Thor does not guarantee a win, and wild multipliers are only applied once on any win line.

Thor Free Spins

Landing 5 or more scatter symbols triggers the bonus round, where 5 free spins are awarded. Known as PowerLinks, Wooden frames mark the positions where the triggering scatter symbols hit. During the feature, when new scatter symbols land, they also mark positions with wooden frames. If scatters land in a position that already has a wooden frame, it is upgraded to Bronze, then Silver, Gold, and finally Fire Frame when consecutive scatters land in them. When free spins end, each framed position is filled with a bet multiplier symbol or a jackpot. Depending on the type of frame, these rewards can be:

• Wood – 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x, the bet.
• Bronze – 10x, 15x, 20x, or Mini jackpot (25x).
• Silver – 30x, 40x, 50x, 75x, or Minor jackpot (100x).
• Gold – 125x, 150x, 175x, 200x, or Major jackpot (250x).
• Fire – 400x, 500x, 600x, 750x, or Mega jackpot (1,000x).

Bonus Respin

If players manage to land 4 scatter symbols, a bonus respin may be triggered. This respins the remaining reels to provide a chance for scoring the fifth scatter and activating the bonus.

Bonus Buy

The other option is to just buy free spins, if possible. The cost for doing so 60x the total bet and will instantly trigger the free spins game.

Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor: Slot Verdict

After a playthrough, Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor turned out to be a decent way of whiling away a bit of time in a grim northern realm, without going overboard on the mythology. So much so that players after a full-blown Thor experience might not get the hit they crave. Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor doesn't have the in-your-face attitude of, say, Power of Thor Megaways or the classic Thunderstruck II. While we're on the subject, it also lacks the personal touch of Yggdrasil's Vikings Go range as well.

So what's left? After comparing Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor to its competitors, what remains is an entertaining game, just one that's lower key than these sorts of slots tend to be. It's like one of those comic books from Marvel portraying Thor in one of his introspective moods instead of hurtling through the realms knocking heads. That's no bad thing for players who don't want someone throwing lightning bolts at them on every other spin but just want to get on with the task at hand of trying to extract more from the game than they put in.

Naturally, the best chance of this happening is during the bonus game, where the PowerLinks system comes into play. It's a bit different too, and the way random prize values are placed in frames when the feature ends can be exciting, especially in upgraded positions. It's a bit like unwrapping gifts since you don't know what's coming up. The feature can turn up the rewards too, capped at 10,000x your stake.

For a Norse Mythology game associated with a company named Yggdrasil, you might have thought the makers would have pulled out all the stops in an attempt to rock players' worlds. To their credit, the studio has pulled out a few stops for Valhalla Saga Thunder of Thor, making it a potentially thrilling game but unlikely to push any of the 'Vikings Go' slots off the Yggdrasil Norse game pedestal.