Home of Thor: Slot Overview
The mighty Norse god, Thor, has laid the smackdown for gamblers’ amusement in Hacksaw Gaming partner Backseat Gaming‘s online slot Home of Thor. Or at least, he has lent the game his favourite weapon. Thor is one of the most popular deities to appear in online slots, and while Backseat Gaming has employed the service of a Poseidon character in Commander of Tridents, it’s the first time the software provider has touched upon the god of lightning, thunder, and storms – and his trusty hammer, Mjölnir. On the mechanical side, Home of Thor is a cluster pays slot that highlights grid positions before filling them with various symbols, including Coins, which can be multiplied, before rubbing a persistent quality into its two bonus rounds.
If the background image is where Thor resides, all nature, thatched houses, and blue cloudy sky, then it is a very homely, picturesque spot for a deity to live. The scene shifts to a raven-dotted forest at night for the lower bonus round, before heading to a snowy domain for the upper bonus feature. At all times, Home of Thor is a pleasing game to behold, though the mighty leading character is oddly conspicuous by his absence.
Home of Thor’s gaming arena is a 6×5 grid, creating winning combinations when at least 5 matching symbols are connected to each other in a cluster. Winning symbols are removed and replaced by symbols dropping down, and wins are collected in the Total Win Bar. At the end of a spin, the Total Win Bar amount is multiplied by the Global multiplier and the final amount paid. The Global multiplier resets between base game spins. It is possible to wager 10 c to $/€100 in this medium-high volatile slot, and the highest available RTP clocks in at 96.29%.
The pay table lists nine paying symbols. Five of them are 10-A low pay card ranks, while the other four are higher paying axes, helms, boats, and horns. Five-of-a-kind winning clusters pay 0.1x to 1x the bet, or the largest clusters of 26+ OAK are worth 100 to 500 times the bet. Wilds substitute for any paying symbols, and should 30 wilds land, players win 1,000x their bet.
Home of Thor: Slot Features
Winning symbols highlight positions that can reveal various symbols, including Coins, when Hammers hit. This action is available in the base game and in two bonus rounds, which players have the option of buying.
Highlight Squares
Positions on the grid holding winning symbols become highlighted. If the Mjölnir symbol is on the grid, at the end of a tumble sequence, all highlighted positions are transformed into matching low or high-paying symbols or Coin prizes. When Coin prizes are revealed, so may Collector, Multiplier, or FS symbols. The Mjölnir can only land once per spin, including tumbles, and any winning combinations caused by symbols revealed by Mjölnir do not highlight positions.
Coin symbols can have values of 1x to 1,000x the bet. Empty Collector symbols collect all fixed prizes and respin all of the collected Coins. They do not collect other Collector symbols. When a Multiplier is revealed through the symbol transformation feature, it adds x1 to x100 to the Global multiplier before respinning that Coin again. The Global multiplier persists for the entire duration of a bonus round. At the end of a spin, all Coins and Collector symbols are added together and added to the Total Win Bar. FS symbols only appear during bonus games to add +1, +2, or +3 to the remaining number of free spins.
Odin’s Feature
Landing 3 Raven scatters in the base game triggers 10 free Odin’s Feature spins. Odin’s Feature retains the mechanics of the base game, plus highlighted positions remain highlighted between spins until activated by a Mjölnir symbol, and the Global multiplier remains persistent till the feature ends.
Valhalla
Hitting 3 Home of Thor scatters in the base game triggers 10 free Valhalla spins. The rules are the same as Odin’s Feature, except highlighted positions remain persistent for the full duration of the bonus round, even after being activated.
Bonus Buy
BonusHunt FeatureSpins cost 2x the bet and make each spin 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, while HammerFall FeatureSpins cost 50x and guarantee Mjölnir plus a winning combination on each spin. Odin’s Watch may be bought for 100x or Valhalla for 200x.
Home of Thor: Slot Verdict
For a game called Home of Thor, there really isn’t much Thor to see. None really, though the big guy’s famous hammer makes a powerful appearance. You’ll want to see that thing clanging down on the reels as much as possible, too, since it’s the key to unlocking many of Home of Thor’s best bits. In some ways, a lot of ways, really, the Mjölnir symbol is the equivalent of a game like Le Bandit‘s Rainbow, and the two slots share quite a few things in common. The striking similarities might have come across as a bit naughtier if Hacksaw Gaming (the maker of Le Bandit) and Backseat Gaming weren’t such good buds. Since they are clearly pals, it’s kind of touching to imagine the two teams sharing ideas such as the highlighting positions revealing symbols and prizes technique.
And a sweet technique it is as well. Golden Squares worked like a charm in Le Bandit, and their Highlighted Squares counterpart here does so as well. Further plus points in Home of Thor include a Global multiplier that multiplies wins (not just adjacent Coins, for instance), and Highlighted Squares, which persist throughout the Valhalla bonus, whether they are activated by Mjölnir or not. Furthermore, unlike in Le Bandit, the Valhalla bonus can be bought, which may pique the interest of players who don’t have the time, patience, or interest in grinding out a natural base game trigger. On top of that, Home of Thor boasts far greater winning potential as well, at 15,000x the bet (though equal to Le Pharoah).
In other words, it would appear that Backseat Gaming has picked up one or two ideas from its more established partner, but the team has put what it’s learned to good use, so players thrilled by Le Bandit style gaming are well served by the action on tap in Home of Thor.
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