I’ve spent the last four months putting Legacy of Dead through its paces, and I need to be upfront with you – this isn’t going to be another generic review telling you it’s the greatest slot ever made. After roughly 3,800 spins across different bet levels and several casino platforms, I’ve got a pretty clear picture of what this game actually delivers.
Play’n GO released Legacy of Dead in early 2020, and yes, it’s basically another entry in their endless Book series. The Ancient Egyptian theme has been done to death at this point, but there’s a reason this particular variant keeps showing up in casino lobbies. The 96.58% RTP sits noticeably higher than Book of Dead’s 96.21%, and for players who understand what that means over thousands of spins, it matters.
What You’re Actually Getting
Legacy of Dead runs on a standard 5×3 grid with 10 paylines. You can adjust those paylines if you want, though I genuinely don’t know why you would – playing with fewer active lines just reduces your winning chances. The betting range goes from £0.10 to £100 per spin, which covers pretty much everyone from cautious beginners to players with serious bankrolls.
The game takes place inside what looks like an Egyptian burial chamber. Stone pillars, burning torches, the usual setup. The graphics are clean and sharp – definitely an improvement over some of Play’n GO’s older Egyptian slots. Everything runs smoothly on mobile, which matters since I probably played 70% of my sessions on my phone during commutes and lunch breaks.
Symbols split into two groups. Low-value symbols are your standard 10, J, Q, K, A card royals dressed up to match the theme. They’re not exciting, but they keep small wins ticking over during base gameplay. The premium symbols feature Horus, a Pharaoh, Anubis, and Tutankhamun. That last one pays the most – 500x your stake for five on a payline.
The golden burial chamber symbol pulls triple duty as both wild and scatter. Two or more anywhere on the reels pays out directly (up to 500x for five), it substitutes for everything to complete winning lines, and three or more triggers the free spins round. It’s elegant design, really. One symbol doing all the heavy lifting.
The Reality of High Volatility
Here’s where I need to get honest with you. Legacy of Dead sits firmly in the high volatility category, and if you don’t understand what that means in practical terms, you could burn through your bankroll faster than you’d expect.
During my testing, I tracked everything. I had sessions where I’d go 80-100 spins without hitting the bonus round. My longest dry spell was 147 spins at £1 per spin – that’s £147 gone without seeing those golden chambers line up. When you’re in the middle of one of these cold streaks, it feels brutal. Your balance just bleeds away spin after spin.
But then the game delivers. My best single session turned £100 into £890 over about 200 spins, hitting the bonus three times with two retriggers in the second round. That’s the volatility profile working as intended – long waits punctuated by significant hits.
The hit frequency in the base game runs around 22-25% based on my tracking. That means roughly one in four spins gives you something back, though it’s often less than your bet. You need patience and proper bankroll management. I wouldn’t recommend playing this game with less than 100x your bet size available. If you’re betting £1 per spin, have at least £100 set aside specifically for this session.
Free Spins: Where Everything Happens
Three or more golden burial chamber scatters trigger 10 free spins. Before the round starts, the game randomly selects one regular symbol to become a special expanding symbol. During the free spins, whenever enough of these special symbols land, they expand to fill entire reels and pay across all active paylines – they don’t even need to be adjacent.
This is standard Book-style mechanics. What makes Legacy of Dead different is the retrigger potential. When you land three or more scatters during the free spins, you get another 10 spins AND a second expanding symbol gets added. Theoretically, you can keep retriggering and eventually have all nine regular symbols expanding. In practice, getting even two or three expanding symbols active is uncommon.
I triggered the bonus 31 times during my testing period. Here’s what actually happened:
- 19 times I got the base 10 spins with one expanding symbol, winning between 8x and 95x my total bet
- 8 times I retriggered once, adding a second expanding symbol, with wins ranging from 45x to 380x
- 3 times I retriggered twice (three expanding symbols active), winning 190x, 520x, and 680x
- 1 time I retriggered three times and walked away with 1,240x my bet
That last one happened at £0.50 per spin, so £620 total. Best single win I managed. But notice the frequency – only four times out of 31 bonus rounds did I retrigger more than once. The vast majority gave me decent but not spectacular returns.
The expanding symbol selection matters enormously. Getting a high-value symbol like Tutankhamun or Anubis selected makes a huge difference compared to landing on a low-value card symbol. You have no control over this – it’s purely random – but it dramatically affects your bonus round outcome.
The Gamble Feature Nobody Talks About
After any win in the base game, you can gamble your winnings. The screen changes to show a face-down playing card. Guess the color correctly and you double your win. Guess the suit and you quadruple it. Wrong guess and you lose everything.
This feature deserves more attention than most reviews give it. The color guess is a true 50/50 proposition, while the suit guess gives you 25% odds. You can keep gambling up to five times consecutively after each correct guess.
I used the gamble feature selectively – never on wins above 20x my bet, and only when I was ahead for the session. My personal rule became: gamble once on the color for wins between 5x and 20x, then collect. This added some nice boosts to medium wins without risking the bigger scores.
Over roughly 200 gamble attempts during my testing, I came out slightly ahead, probably winning around 55% of the time. Pure luck falling on the right side of variance. Your results will vary, obviously, but the feature adds a strategic decision point that I appreciated. Just don’t get carried away. Watching a 50x win disappear because you tried to push it to 200x feels terrible.
Mobile Performance Breakdown
Since most of you are probably playing on phones, let’s talk mobile experience. I tested Legacy of Dead on a Samsung Galaxy A54, an older iPhone 11, and briefly on a budget Redmi Note 11.
The Samsung handled it flawlessly. Smooth animations, no lag, battery drain was reasonable at about 15% per hour of gameplay. The screen size at 6.4 inches gave plenty of room for the interface without squinting at symbols or accidentally hitting the wrong button.
The iPhone 11 performed just as well, though I noticed slightly faster battery consumption – closer to 18-20% per hour. iOS users should keep a charger handy for longer sessions.
The budget Redmi struggled a bit more. Animations occasionally stuttered during the free spins expanding symbol sequences, and the device got noticeably warm after 30-40 minutes of continuous play. Still playable, but not ideal if you’re planning extended sessions.
Data usage ran about 25-30 MB per hour on 4G. Not terrible, but if you’re on a limited mobile data plan, you’ll want to watch it during marathon sessions. WiFi eliminates that concern entirely.
Portrait mode works fine, but I preferred landscape for this game. The symbols and paytable feel more natural in landscape orientation, and the spin button sits in a better position for thumb access.
What It Costs and What You Can Win
The 5,000x maximum multiplier represents the top prize – achieved by filling all reels with the highest-paying symbol during free spins with maximum expansion. At £1 per spin, that’s £5,000. At £100 per spin (if you’re playing those stakes), you’re looking at £500,000.
Let me be clear: I never got close to the maximum win. My best was that 1,240x hit I mentioned earlier. Maximum wins in high volatility slots are mathematically possible but extraordinarily rare. You’re playing for enjoyment and the chance at solid 100-500x wins, not counting on hitting the absolute maximum.
The RTP of 96.58% is solid. Better than many competitors in the Egyptian slot category. However, some casino operators offer a lower RTP version at 94.51% or even lower. Always check the game information screen before playing – it’s required to display the RTP. If you’re seeing anything below 96%, you’re getting a worse deal.
That RTP difference might seem small, but over thousands of spins it adds up. At 96.58%, you’re theoretically losing £3.42 per £100 wagered. At 94.51%, that jumps to £5.49. Over a year of regular play, the gap becomes substantial.
Strategy Tips That Actually Work
I’m not going to pretend there’s some secret system that guarantees wins. This is a slot game with RNG determining outcomes. But there are practical approaches that helped me manage my bankroll and maximize playing time:
Bankroll sizing matters. I found 150x my bet size gave me comfortable session length without going bust during normal cold streaks. If you’re betting £0.50 per spin, start with £75. At £1 per spin, have £150 ready. Less than this and you risk running out before the volatility swings in your favor.
Play all 10 paylines. The option to reduce active paylines exists, but it only hurts your chances. The math doesn’t work in your favor when you’re deactivating potential winning combinations.
Set session limits before you start. I adopted a strict rule: stop after losing 60% of my session bankroll, or after winning 100%. Whichever comes first. This kept me from chasing losses and from giving back big wins.
The autoplay controls are better than most. You can set loss limits and single win limits that automatically stop the autoplay. I’d configure it to stop after any win over 50x my bet, which let me decide whether to continue or cash out after a good hit.
Time your sessions realistically. High volatility means you need time for variance to work. Sessions under 100 spins often don’t give the game enough room to deliver. I found 200-300 spin sessions gave a better feel for what the game offers.
Avoid the gamble feature on big wins. Anything over 20-25x my bet, I collected immediately. The temptation to push a 50x win higher is strong, but losing it feels worse than the potential gain feels good.
How It Compares to Book of Dead
Everyone wants to know: should you play Legacy of Dead or Book of Dead? They’re extremely similar, which is both intentional and slightly frustrating.
The RTP advantage goes to Legacy of Dead – 96.58% vs 96.21%. Over long-term play, that’s meaningful. The graphics are sharper in Legacy of Dead, with higher resolution symbols and cleaner animations. The soundtrack is nearly identical, just remixed slightly.
In terms of gameplay feel, Book of Dead has slightly lower volatility. You’ll hit the bonus round a bit more frequently, but the expanding symbol mechanics work the same way. Legacy of Dead’s higher volatility means longer dry spells but potentially bigger payouts when things align.
My honest take? If both games are available at your casino with their standard RTP, play Legacy of Dead for the mathematical edge. If only Book of Dead is available, you’re not missing out on anything revolutionary. They’re fundamentally the same game with minor tweaks.
The bigger issue is casino availability. Book of Dead has been around longer and appears at nearly every online casino. Legacy of Dead has more limited distribution. You might not find it everywhere you play.
The Mistakes I Made (So You Don’t Have To)
Starting with too small a bankroll was my first error. I tried playing £2 per spin with £100 total, thinking I’d just have a quick session. Burned through it in 45 spins without hitting the bonus. That’s high volatility teaching an expensive lesson.
Chasing losses after bad sessions was another mistake. After dropping £200 in a particularly cold session, I convinced myself the bonus was “due” and immediately deposited another £100. Lost that too. Slots don’t work that way. Each spin is independent. The RNG doesn’t owe you anything.
Ignoring the RTP variation between casinos cost me money early on. I played at a casino offering the 94.51% version for a month before realizing better options existed. That lower RTP adds up faster than you’d expect.
Getting greedy with the gamble feature hurt several times. Turning a 35x win into nothing because I wanted to push it higher stung. Set a personal limit and stick to it.
Not tracking my spending and wins meant I had no clear picture of my overall results for the first six weeks. Once I started keeping records in a simple spreadsheet, I made much better decisions about session sizing and when to stop.
Who Should Play This Game
Legacy of Dead suits players who understand and accept high volatility. If you need frequent small wins to stay engaged, this isn’t your game. You’ll face extended periods without significant returns, which requires patience and proper bankroll management.
It works well for mobile players. The optimization is solid across devices, the controls are intuitive, and sessions can be as short or long as you want. I played plenty of 15-minute sessions during breaks without feeling like I needed to commit hours.
Players with limited budgets should approach cautiously. The volatility can chew through £50-100 faster than you’d expect. If you’re playing with small amounts, bet proportionally smaller to extend your playing time and give variance a chance to work.
Experienced slot players who’ve handled high volatility games before will appreciate what Legacy of Dead offers. The mechanics are straightforward but the execution is solid. There’s no learning curve beyond understanding the expanding symbol feature.
If you’re chasing massive progressive jackpots, look elsewhere. The 5,000x max win is substantial but not life-changing for most bet levels. This is a medium-range volatility slot masquerading as a high-volatility game, if that makes sense.
The Bottom Line
After 3,800 spins and four months of testing, I can tell you exactly what Legacy of Dead delivers: a solid, well-executed Egyptian slot that plays by familiar rules but does so competently. The 96.58% RTP gives it an edge over competitors. The high volatility provides the big win potential that makes slots exciting. The mobile optimization means you can play anywhere.
It’s not revolutionary. Play’n GO essentially took their Book of Dead formula, tweaked the numbers slightly, updated the graphics, and released it as a new game. That’s a valid criticism. But the formula works, and the improvements are real even if incremental.
My overall results after extensive testing? I’m down about £180 across all sessions combined. That’s after the 1,240x win and several other solid bonus rounds. High volatility means variance swings both ways, and I happened to land on the wrong side more often than the right side. That’s gambling.
Would I play it again? Absolutely. Despite being down overall, I found the gameplay engaging enough to keep coming back. The bonus round potential keeps things interesting, the mobile experience is smooth, and the RTP at least gives me a fair shake mathematically.
If you’re looking for an Egyptian-themed slot and you see Legacy of Dead available at your casino, give it a shot. Just go in with realistic expectations, proper bankroll sizing, and the understanding that high volatility means long waits between significant wins.
Set your limits, play responsibly, and remember that slots are entertainment first. The house edge is real, variance is unpredictable, and no strategy overcomes the mathematics. But if you’re going to play an Egyptian slot anyway, Legacy of Dead does it better than most.
Just check that RTP before you start spinning.
