Pan's Arcadia Demo: Dice-Rolled Free Spins and the Cube

What are the dice rolls in the Pan's Arcadia Bonus Game worth?

Two things. The three Scatters that start the round become dice, and their faces are added: 3 to 18 free spins. Inside the round every third Scatter collected adds 3 spins and rolls again, but now the faces are multiplied and the product goes into the Cube, which turns the four nymphs wild at 36, 72, 108 and 144. Our one natural round rolled 1, 1 and 2 for 4 free spins; a filmed purchase rolled 4 + 3 + 5 = 12, then 3 x 1 x 3 and 1 x 6 x 5, taking the Cube to 39.

Three Scatter cubes become three dice

A dark purple box carved with music notes is the Scatter. Three open the Bonus Game, and the rules say only three can land at once, so a round always starts with three dice of one to six pips. Their faces are added: as few as 3 free spins, as many as 18.

Pan's Arcadia Scatter dice free spins roll — Our filmed purchase rolls four, three and five pips, and the screen reads Free spins won: 12, with the bet at 1.00.

Boxes were scarce outside the bonus. Of our 750 paid spins, 585 showed no Scatter on the first screen, 145 showed one and 20 showed two. Our only natural Bonus Game, on spin 152, needed a respin: two Scatters and a winning line started the Mystery Feature, the first respin brought the third box, and when the second added nothing, five doubled lines paid €5.00. Then the dice rolled 1, 1 and 2, for 4 free spins that paid €0.50.

Every third Scatter rolls again, and this time the dice multiply

During the free spins the Scatters are collected in sets of three. A full set adds 3 spins and rolls again, multiplying the faces, and the product goes into the Cube, a counter at the top of the frame.

At 36 the Orange (Fire) nymph turns wild, at 72 the Blue (Water) one, at 108 the Green (Earth) one and at 144 the one the rules call Yellow (Wind), shown in lilac on the ladder. Level 5 at 180 belongs to Dark Pandora; our capture of that rule breaks off after "All Mid-Pay". The ladder tops out at 216, which the screen calls the End Game and the rules reserve for the special 2x2 Wild; since six times six times six is 216, one perfect roll would get there from an empty Cube.

Pan's Arcadia Cube level ladder nymphs — The level ladder after our second roll: 216, 180, 144, 108 and 72, with the orange nymph's tile enlarged at 36; free spins 12, payout 1.50.

In our filmed purchase the first set filled on free spin 2 and rolled 3 x 1 x 3 for 9; the second filled on free spin 6 and rolled 1 x 6 x 5 for 30, taking the Cube to 39. "Fire Nymph is now Wild," the screen said, and no third set came.

Pan's Arcadia Fire nymph wild line — Free spin 9 with the Cube at 39: orange-nymph Wild coins on reels 1 and 3, the pan-pipe Wild on reel 4 and Pans on reels 2 and 5 light up as one line.

That line carried the round. Two Pans and three Wilds make five Pans, worth €12.00 at €1.00, and each Wild doubled it: x8, or €96.00. Before Level 1 those two coins would have been plain orange nymphs.

Pan pipes that double, and a winning screen that waits to be paid

Pan pipes on a gold coin form the Wild, which replaces everything except the Scatter and applies x2 to each line it joins, x4 with two. Pan, a golden-haired woman and a blue-haired woman pay 6.00 for three, 9.00 for four, 12.00 for five and 36.00 for six on a €1.00 bet.

Pan's Arcadia three Pan symbols win — Media spin 9 of our first pass: three Pans from reel 1 to reel 3 pay 6.00 on a 1.00 bet, while a Scatter box on reel 4 lights one socket.

Doubling did most of the paying. A Wild sat on the first screen of 271 paid spins, but only 54 spins produced a doubled line: 88 lines at x2 and 8 at x4, worth €231.00 of the €378.00 returned.

The Mystery Feature is the other half. Any win can start it: winning symbols lock, the rest respin, and it goes on until no new winning symbols appear or the grid is full. It ran on 18 spins, 39 respins in all, and paid €119.50, including 5 of our 10 wins of 10x or more.

Pan's Arcadia Mystery Feature respin lock — A Mystery respin in the bought round: a hummingbird in the top corner, three orange mushrooms locked in gold frames, four free spins left, payout 98.00.

Spin 357, our best, was one of these: three mid-paying symbols on reels 1 to 3 locked, the first respin added two more and a Wild on reel 2, and two four-symbol lines through that Wild paid €4.50 each, doubled, plus €3.00 for a three-symbol line: 21x the bet.

One natural roll of the dice in 750 paid spins

Thunderkick's demo server took €750.00 from our 750 spins at €1.00 and returned €378.00: 50.4%, where the game page lists 96.10%. For a game rated very high, a session this short says little about the long run.

750paid spins at €1.00 in the demo
50.4%of the stakes paid back
21xbest single spin
1free spins round triggered

Some win arrived on 17.1% of spins, the median was 1.5x, and no stretch without a win ran past 24 spins. Spins without a respin brought €258.00, Mystery sequences €119.50 and free spins €0.50.

Running balance of our 750 paid spins at €1.00: €5,000.00 at the start (dashed line), minus every stake, plus every win. Pink dots mark the spins that started free spins.

The total stood above €5,000.00 only briefly, peaking at €5,004.50 after 18x from three plain line wins on spin 40, then slid and ended at its lowest, €4,628.00.

Hope Roll, Fire Roll and five more prices, all rated below the base game

Behind BUY FEATURE sits a scrolling panel. The demo server lists 7 options from 15x to 400x the stake, but our frame shows only two: Hope Roll (???) and Fire Roll (111). The table labels the rest from the server's ids, not from the game.

Pan's Arcadia buy feature Hope Roll — The BUY FEATURE panel at a 1.00 bet: Hope Roll (???) for 160.00 with Confirm purchase beneath it, and Fire Roll (111), marked 1+1+1, for 15.00.

We took the Fire Roll twice as control purchases. Both times the dice came up 1, 1 and 1, as its card promises, the round lasted 3 free spins and returned €0.00 and €3.00 for €15.00 each. For the film we paid €160.00 for the Hope Roll, the random option.

Our filmed Hope Roll at €1.00, with sound: dice of 4, 3 and 5 give 12 free spins, two Scatter sets add 6 more and roll 9 and 30 into the Cube, the Fire nymph turns wild with the Cube at 39, a line of Pans and three Wilds pays €96.00 on free spin 9, and the round ends at €99.00.

Filmed in a separate demo session at the same stake, the round ran to 18 free spins; all but €3.00 of its €99.00 came from the one x8 line, and it still fell short of its price.

Pan's Arcadia: the Bonus Game buys on the demo server
Option	Price	At €1.00	RTP of the buy
Fire Roll (111)	15x	€15.00	95.62%
Bonus Game, dice 2-2-2	55x	€55.00	95.26%
Bonus Game, dice 3-3-3	120x	€120.00	95.15%
Hope Roll (???)	160x	€160.00	94.79%
Bonus Game, dice 4-4-4	200x	€200.00	94.85%
Bonus Game, dice 5-5-5	300x	€300.00	94.59%
Bonus Game, dice 6-6-6	400x	€400.00	94.41%

Every buy here is rated below ordinary spins, from 95.62% down to 94.41%. Beside the reels sits a BET+ switch, never on in our frames, for which the demo server lists modes costing 1.5x, 3x or 4x per spin. The demo plays the 96.10% version named on the game page, in the rules and by the server; casinos can choose a different one, and some markets disable the buy altogether.

Thirteen lines beside Midas, Alice and the Gunman

Doubling Wilds are an old Thunderkick habit: Midas Golden Touch built its base game on x2 per wild, up to x32 with five. Here it moves to six reels, and in the Bonus Game the nymphs join it.

Locking a winning screen for respins recalls Alice: Time Rift, where a Time Rift must sit in the line first; in Pan's Arcadia any win can do it, one paying spin in seven in our log. Nothing reviewed here has dice or a Cube.

The Gunman of Goldwood also multiplies a line by each Wild on it, up to x16 with four, under a cap of 7,500x; Pan's Arcadia stops at 4,320x, the lowest of the 24 games on this site. Its listed 96.10% beats 13 of them.

So who should play it? Players happy with small doubled lines and the odd respin chain will find plenty to watch. The dice are another matter: they rolled once in our 750 spins, the higher levels usually need several good sets in one round, and our best round, a purchase, stopped at Level 1.

Where the dice and the Cube still puzzle people

What follows rests on our logs and frames wherever the rules screens are thin.

What happens to a fourth Scatter?

Nothing, say the rules: only three Scatters can land on the reels at once, so the opening roll always uses three dice. In our 750 paid spins the first screen never showed more than two.

Is the Golden Nektar on Thunderkick's page the Mystery Feature?

Probably. The game page says the Golden Nektar triggers respins, the rules show the Mystery Feature beside a hummingbird, and one flew in before the respin in our filmed round. The rules pages we captured never use the word Nektar.

What share of winning spins went on to respins?

About one in seven: 18 of our 128 paying spins locked and respun, never more than 5 times in a row, and those sequences paid close to a third of what the session returned.

Is a nymph that turns wild worth x2 as well?

In our filmed round, yes. With the orange nymph wild, a line of two orange-nymph Wilds, the pan-pipe Wild and two Pans showed x8 on every symbol: three doublings of the €12.00 that five Pans pay, or €96.00 at €1.00.

Fire Roll or Hope Roll, which did better in our purchases?

Hope Roll, though three purchases prove little. Our two Fire Rolls at 15x returned €0.00 and €3.00 from 3 free spins each; the Hope Roll at 160x ran to 18 free spins and returned €99.00.

How far below the base game do the buy RTPs sit?

Between 0.48 and 1.69 percentage points: 95.62% for the cheapest, 94.41% for the dearest, against 96.10% for ordinary spins.