Book of Shadows Slot (Nolimit City)

The Book of Shadows slot is played with 5 reels and 10, 15 or 20 paylines. If you choose 10, 15 or 20 paylines, you’ll see 3, 4 or 5 rows respectively. You can choose how many paylines/rows you play with by using the white arrow in the middle of the screen.

With any option, winning combinations are formed by landing matching symbols from left to right starting from the leftmost reel and across any of the paylines. For low-value royals, 3 or more are required whilst 2 or more are needed for the high-value symbols.

Called Shadow Rows, the number of rows/paylines affects the bet range. The minimum bet ranges from 10p to 20p a spin whilst the maximum ranges from £100 to £200:

Like with most slot games, there is an Autoplay function where up to 1,000 auto spins can be selected alongside optional single win and balance limits. There is a Turbo Mode facility which is enabled by using the lightning bolt icon. Both these gameplay options aren’t available in the UK though.

In terms of return rates, the Book of Shadows RTP rate varies up to 96.19%. The number of rows and paylines will affect the RTP rate. If you go for 10, 15 or 20 paylines, the RTP is 96.01%, 96.07% or 96.19% respectively.

Nolimit City has also created a low RTP version with 10, 15 or 20 paylines offering a 94.09%, 94.3% or 94.42% RTP rate respectively which may be used at certain online casinos in the UK. Below is a table highlighting all RTP rates for the 3 rows/paylines options:

Classed as extreme volatility by Nolimit City, the hit frequency rate is 33.33%. This means that winning combinations will be formed every 3 spins on average. Triggering the Free Spins feature will occur every 154 spins on average.

Finally, the Book of Shadows slot comes with 30,338 times bet max wins. With no max win probability information, winning 100 times your total bet or higher will occur every 843 spins on average. Bigger wins will come from the free spins due to the expanding Golden symbol.

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Chris’ online gambling career has spanned more than 2 decades. This includes working for online casino sites, consulting for software/slot providers and running his own slots portal. 

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Released on the 20^th of August 2020, the Book of Shadows slot game has a horror theme. The game has been inspired by Gerard Gardner’s Book of Shadows book which, according to Wikipedia, contains “religious text and instructions for magical rituals” found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. It featured prominently in the Charmed television series.

According to Nolimit City, this ‘book of enchantments’ lies hidden in the shadows where it aims to alter the reality of the real world. Set in a creepy woodland at night, the graphics are intense and creepy. The soundtrack is harrowing with wolves howling as you spin the reels.

On the reels, you’ll see A, K, Q, J and 10 royals which are created using what I presume is blood. The higher-value symbols include an eyeball in a flask, a moth, a ram’s skull, a purple cat and a witch. The witch symbol is the best paying awarding up to 500 times your total bet for 5 across a payline.

Finally, there is a Book of Shadows Wild/Scatter symbol which substitutes for all symbols above. With 5 of them rewarding you with a 500-times bet payout, 3 or more will trigger the Free Spins feature. Below is a list of all symbol payouts and functions you’ll encounter on the reels:

• 10: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 5 or 10 x bet
• J: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 5 or 12.5 x bet
• Q: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 5 or 15 x bet
• K: 3, 4 or 5 = 0.8, 6 or 20 x bet
• A: 3, 4, or 5 = 0.8, 6 or 25 x bet
• Eyeball: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 0.2, 1, 7 or 50 x bet
• Moth: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 0.3, 1.2, 7.5 or 75 x bet
• Ram Skull: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 0.4, 1.4, 8 or 100 x bet
• Purple Cat: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 1.6, 9 or 150 x bet
• Witch: 2, 3, 4 or 5 = 1, 2, 10 or 500 x bet
• Book of Shadows Wild/Scatter: Substitutes, pays 500 x bet (for 5) & 3+ triggers free spins

Book of Shadows Mobile

Nolimit City uses HTML5 technology to produce all their slots with Book of Shadows no different. Available to play on laptop, PC, mobile and tablet devices, it’s compatible with iOS and Android smartphones. Using a special Portrait Mode, the experience is just as enjoyable on a handheld device as on a desktop counterpart.

The Book of Shadows slot comes with 4 bonus features. 2 are gamble extras with the focus entirely on the Free Spins feature. Here, you can choose to play with 3-5 Shadow Rows and 10, 15 or 20 paylines with an expanding Golden symbol in all. There are also unlimited extra free spins to be won.

Gamble

Whenever you form a winning combination, the optional Gamble feature can be used. You will be given the chance to gamble by picking a red or black card, If you successfully guess the correct colour, the win amount will be doubled. Losing the gamble will see you lose your initial win. You can gamble up 5 times in a row with the gamble amount limited to the amount of £25,000.

Gamble Wheel of Bonus

There is also a Gamble Wheel of Bonus Gamble feature. This allows you to gamble your winnings in order to win your way into the Free Spins feature. The larger your win, the bigger chance you have of winning entry to the free spins. This feature is available as long as wins don’t exceed 60 times the bet. However, this option is not allowed in the UK.

Free Spins

The Book of Shadows slot game is all about the Free Spins feature. It’s triggered by landing 3 or more Book of Shadows Wild/Scatter symbols anywhere during a base game spin.

You then get to choose the number of Shadow Rows you want to play with. The number of free spins awarded will change as a result:

A Golden symbol is randomly chosen before the feature begins. You can reshuffle once to try and get a higher-value symbol. The Golden symbol expands to cover the whole reel when winning combinations are formed. This means you require 3 or more low-value A, K, Q, J or 10 royals to land or 2 or more high-value eyeball, moth, ram skull, purple cat or witch symbols.

Your win potential depends on which symbol is randomly selected to act as the Golden expanding symbol. If you play with 20 paylines and 5 Shadow Rows, a screen full of 10 royals would result in a 200 times bet payout. With the witch symbol, your win would be 10,000 times your total bet. Below is an image depicting what a screen full of the high-value symbols will pay:

Lastly, 3 or more Book of Shadows Wild/Scatter symbols will result in a retrigger. There are unlimited retriggers available for infinite free spins theoretically.

Nolimit Bonus

Available to non-UK players, there is an optional Nolimit Bonus feature. Essentially a Bonus Buy, you can buy your way into the Free Spins feature. You can opt for 3, 4 or 5 Shadow Rows where you’ll get 10 free spins on each. Below is the cost and the RTP rate which rises:

The Book of Shadows slot may be a ‘Book of’ game on the surface but Nolimit City has to be commended for not going down the ancient Egyptian route. Featuring black magic, creepy visuals and a quite terrifying soundtrack, it’s a welcome change from seeing Cleopatra, Anubis, the Eye of Ra, pyramids and ancient chambers. 

In terms of the gameplay, you can choose to play with 10, 15 or 20 paylines. Yes, your bet will be affected according but so will your RTP rate. I would go for 5 Shadow Rows and 20 paylines which gives me the best RTP rate (96.19%).  

With the focus on the Free Spins feature, it’s all about landing a high-value Golden symbol which expands when appearing during a free spin. A screen full of 10 royals will result in a 200 times payout whilst the same result with the witch will give you a 10,000 times bet win.

On a negative note, the game had a Lucky Locks feature where you can pay to lock up to 4 reels. With a price to lock each reel, it gave you the chance to lock reels in to increase your chances of landing a big win or triggering the free spins. Nolimit City removed this feature at some point with no explanation given.

Extremely volatile, Book of Shadows can dish out 30,338 times bet max wins. This dwarfs the amounts on offer in the 2 most popular ‘Book of’ games: (5,000 times bet in Book of Dead and Book of Ra Deluxe).

In summary, Nolimit City has delivered a terrifying game that pushes the ‘Book of’ genre in a different direction. With much bigger win potential up for grabs, the unique Book of Shadows slot stands out in a crowded field. It features on our top 13 Halloween slots list which includes many others from NLC such as Mental, Disturbed, Possessed and Serial. 

The Book of Shadows slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. It was then verified/checked by Jenny Mason, our prime Slot reviewer who has 17+ years working in online gambling, top UK brands. 

Jenny Mason

Slots content manager

Jenny Mason has more than 17 years of experience in the online gambling industry and has worked for some of the UK’s top betting brands. She started at OLBG in 2014 and her role involves creating great content and looking after the marketing activity. Jenny is knowledgeable in all areas of online sports betting and has an interest in slots and bingo.

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🎰🍒🍀 Jenny has become an expert with online slots completing hundreds of our various new slot reviews and creating and writing some of the slot articles found on site. She has become a firm fan of NoLimitCity and Hacksaw gaming slot in this process and always awaits the new releases with much anticipation