Unlike many digital slots games with Viking themes that focus on Viking daily life, Viking Vanguard from WMS Gaming is more concerned with Norse mythology, complete with dragons and the world-encircling serpent.
The game therefore has a darker, broodier theme to it, enhanced by the music and sound effects and set off against a forbidding snowswept mountain backdrop. Another feature that sets Viking Vanguard apart from most other slots is its configuration: it features six reels displaying four rows, and a total of 60 bet lines.
Players can adjust bets per line from as little as one coin to as many as 300, so the game can be played for stakes that suit any budget. All wins in regular play require at least three matching symbols, running consecutively from Reel 1 on a bet line, but because matches can go as high as six of a kind, players have four prize options available for every symbol.
Viking Vanguard Regular Symbols
Viking Vanguard has eschewed poker symbols to stay true to the theme throughout, which does present players who don’t have academic degrees in Nordic mythology with an identification problem. Each symbol is distinct and easy to recognise, but difficult to describe without specialist vocabulary.
There are three different rune symbols fashioned from twigs, each of which pays the same for winning matches: from 2 coins for three of a kind up to 10 coins for six of a kind. Three Nordic coins depicting the world-encircling serpent, the wolf Fenrir and the world-tree are of equal value to the runes, in the same matching combinations. Medium-value symbols, which also score equal prizes of between 3 and 15 coins, are a raven and a wolf. Viking Vanguard has two high-value icons; a Goddess and a Hero.
The Goddess scores between 5 and 25 coins for 3-6 matches, and the Hero score 5 to 150 coins. The Hero icon is stacked over two rows on the reel, so it is possible for a sequence of Heroes to score on multiple bet lines simultaneously.
Wild and Bonus Icons
The Viking Vanguard Wild symbol is a Dragon, rendered as a close-up eye in normal play but rearing up in a full-sized animation when included on a winning bet line. The Wild substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter Bonus, to help create more winning bet lines. On every spin, one of the six reels is transformed into a random Wild stack, with Wilds featuring on all four rows.
The Scatter Bonus icon is a sunset-backed rendering of the world-tree. 3 Scatters in any position trigger 8 free spins, 4 Scatters trigger 20 free spins plus 10X the total bet, and 5 Scatters award 100 free spins and a 15X multiplier. In addition, the reel that transformed into a stacked Wild on the spin that triggered the free spins bonus remains a stacked Wild for the duration of the free spins, and on each free spin, any or all of the remaining reels can transform into stacked Wilds. This round, clearly, offers the potential for Viking Vanguard’s biggest wins: up to 135,000 coins. The slot can be played online like keno in Canada at https://canadiancasinoonline.org/keno.