If the reels change height on every spin, why does Sword of Shoguns always have 5,040 ways?
Because only the order of the heights changes. The rules give the six reels one height each, from two symbols to seven, dealt in a random order each spin, and a full way takes one symbol from every reel, so the count is 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 × 6 × 7 = 5,040 wherever the tall reels land. All 750 of our paid spins showed that set of heights. The order still counts: a seven-row reel can hold seven of one symbol, and the free spins keep the layout of the spin that started them.
Where a reel's height turns into extra ways
A way runs from reel 1 rightwards without gaps, one symbol per reel, and pays only its longest win, so a win is its per-way value times the matching symbols on each reel multiplied together.
Per-way values are small. At a €1.00 stake the Shogun, a bearded warrior under a red and gold helmet, pays €0.50 for two and €5.00 for six, and he was the only symbol our log paid for two. The gold Helmet on purple pays 0.50 to 3.00, and three 9s, 10s or Js pay €0.20. On spin 137 six armours ran across the reels, stacked 3-2-1-3-2-2 from reel 1 to reel 6, for 72 ways at €2.50 each. That came to 180x, and nothing else in our log paid as much.
The Sword fills gaps on ordinary ways in the base game and the bonus alike. On 75 of our 168 winning paid spins a Sword sat inside at least one winning way. In the frame below, four Helmets on reel 1, a single Helmet on each of the next two reels and a Sword standing in on reel 4 make 4 × 1 × 1 × 1 = 4 ways at €1.00.
A Sword on one paid spin in four, three at once only twice
Three Swords anywhere start the Bonus Game. Our 750 paid spins showed one Sword 154 times, two on 23 spins and three on 2, the two triggers, and never four. Some listings write "three or more", but the rules say 3, and every trigger we logged, natural or bought, had exactly that.
Its scatter role ends there. No payout in our log belongs to Swords alone, and the visible top of the paytable gives them no value. Expanded wins in the free spins never include them either.
Expanding symbols that skip reels and keep the trigger's layout
When the round starts, the game draws from 5 to 12 free spins, though never 6 or 11, and one symbol other than the Sword, which stays the Expanding symbol until the round ends and fills the first slot of the meter. A retrigger adds 3 to 7 spins plus another Expanding symbol, up to four, and with all four active the Sword leaves the reels.
An Expanding symbol covers its reel only when that forms a win, once per reel each spin at most, and the reels it covers need not touch. Its win counts like any other, with the heights of the covered reels multiplied together. Spin 446's round drew the Fan, worth €0.50 a way for three. It expanded four times, on reels 1, 4 and 5 for 72 ways, on reels 3, 4 and 6 for 56, then twice on reels 1, 3 and 5 for 36, and paid €36.00, €28.00 and €18.00 twice.
Those are 56 ways, 4 × 2 × 7, at €0.30. Every expansion in our five rounds covered exactly three reels. One over all six would be the extreme case. Six expanded Shoguns would fill all 5,040 ways at €5.00 each, €25,200.00 on a €1.00 stake, the same figure as the 25,200x cap. That is our arithmetic, and Thunderkick does not explain its cap.
Six armours on spin 137, then two bonuses 9 spins apart
The 750 paid spins at €1.00 brought €773.40 in wins against €750.00 in stakes, 103.1%, above the 96.15% Thunderkick publishes. That is a short run for a game rated very high, and it proves little either way.
- 750paid spins at €1.00 in the demo
- 103.1%of the stakes paid back
- 180xbest single spin
- 2free spins rounds triggered
For its first stretch the session drifted down, and the low point, €4,935.60, came on spin 136. The six armours of spin 137 then lifted the balance above the start, where it stayed until spin 373, and it had slipped below again by the time three Swords landed on spin 437. That round drew 9 spins and the 10, retriggered for 3 more with the 9 on free spin 2 and for 5 more with the armour on free spin 10, and ran 17 spins for €111.70, 119.9x with the trigger spin's €8.20. Its best free spin, €24.00, had the 10 and the 9 expanding at once.
The trigger spin of round 446 paid €42.00 by itself, mostly six Helmets on 12 ways, before its 8 Fan spins added €100.00, and the balance reached its high of €5,209.40. No bonus followed in the last 304 spins, and the session closed at €5,023.40. Just 5 spins paid 10x or more, 3 of them 100x and up, while the median win was 1.2x and no dry spell lasted beyond 14 spins. Leave out spin 137 and the return falls to 79.1%. Leave out the free spins instead and it is 74.9%.
Three draws at 120x, none of them back to the price
Buying the Bonus Game costs 120x the bet, €120.00 on a €1.00 spin, and it is the only card under BUY FEATURE. Thunderkick rates the bought round at 96.40%, against 96.15% for paid spins, and its rules say only that a purchase starts a spin with an outcome that triggers the bonus, so the spin count and the symbol are still drawn.
Those figures are for the 96.15% build, which Thunderkick's game page lists and this demo serves. The studio's test reports, information sheets and rules add builds at 94.12%, 92.13%, 90.18% and 87.12% for casinos to choose from, and in some markets the buy button is missing.
| Option | Price | At €1.00 | RTP of the buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonus Game | 120x | €120.00 | 96.40% |
We bought three rounds. The two control buys drew 7 spins with the Fan and 5 with the K, the one we filmed 8 with the A. They paid €27.30, €57.80 and €39.90, €125.00 for €360.00 spent. The shortest paid best: its K expanded three times, the Fan in the 7-spin round only once.
A follow-up to Sword of Khans, built on ways in place of lines
Both Thunderkick's press release of June 2023 and one of its own posts call this game the sequel to Sword of Khans. The 2019 game is on this site in its Reborn build: 5x3 with 10 paylines, rated high, an RTP of 95.36%, a cap of 10,000x and a buy at 80x. The two share a Sword that is wild and scatter, and free spins with a symbol that fills its reels. Here that symbol pays across the shuffled ways and can be joined by three more, while the rules give no multipliers.
The closest grid on this site belongs to Carnival Queen 2, which also deals its reels two to seven symbols tall. Its count is not fixed, though: Thunderkick gives it 5,040 to 117,649 pay ways. In this game the 5,040 never moves.
Expect to wait. The median win sits close to the stake, and most of the money arrives in a few spins. In the bonus a 10 or a 9 pays little per way where a Fan or a Shogun pays far more, and nobody chooses which one comes.
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For these we went back to Thunderkick's rules and to the demo server's record of our rounds.
Does an expanding symbol need reel 1?
No. Ordinary ways must start on reel 1, but the rules say Expanding symbols need not sit next to each other, and our log agrees. In spin 437's round the 9 expanded on reels 2, 3 and 4 for 30 ways, and in our filmed purchase the A paid on reels 2, 4 and 6, with nothing on reel 1.
What layout do the free spins use?
The one the trigger spin landed with. The rules keep those reel heights for the whole Bonus Game, so the seven-row reel stays wherever it fell. Each of our five rounds, two natural and three bought, kept its layout from the first free spin to the last.
What happens once four Expanding symbols are active?
The rules remove the Sword from the reels for the rest of the round. Since three Swords are what retrigger the free spins, nothing is left to add more. Our longest round, from spin 437, stopped at three symbols: the 10, then the 9, then the armour.
How long can one Bonus Game run?
Thunderkick prints no ceiling. If every retrigger brings a new symbol, as both of ours did, the Swords leave after the third retrigger, which by our arithmetic caps a round at 12 + 3 × 7 = 33 spins. Ours ran to 17.
Did a Sword ever pay on its own as a scatter?
Not in our log. Every payout across the 750 paid spins and 25 natural free spins was a pay-way win or an expanded win, and the visible part of the paytable lists no Sword value. As a scatter, the Sword only opened and extended the bonus.
Is Sword of Arthur the next game in this line?
No source we read says so. Sword of Arthur came out in June 2024 with a similar Sword, wild and scatter at once, but on 5x3 reels and 10 paylines, and it has its own review here. Sword of Khans is the only game named as this one's predecessor.