It’s not immediately obvious from its name but the Cygnus slot is an Egyptian-themed game from ELK Studios. Named after a constellation of the night sky, it starts by using a 6 reel, 4 row, 4,096 ways to win game engine. With a 96.1% RTP, avalanche wins can bring up to 8 rows into play and take the ways to win up to 262,144. If special multiplier symbols reach the bottom row of the playing grid, they can add multipliers of up to 64x. There’s also a bonus round that awards free spins on the fully expanded reels. Stakes in this high variance game range from between 20p and £100 per spin.
Head to ancient Egypt
There’s rarely any cause to grumble when it comes to the design of a slot from ELK Studios and Cygnus is another cracker on that score. A mighty Egyptian pyramid and the clear night sky forms the backdrop to the action here. On the reels you’ll see green, blue and red jewel symbols as well as a bird, camel and cat done hieroglyph style.
The most lucrative symbol is the 7 which awards 5, 10, 15 or 30 times your bet if you land 3, 4, 5 or 6 on adjoining reels. Substituting for all the standard symbols is a wild.
Avalanche Reels
You’ll start playing on a 6 reel, 4 row machine. Land a winning combination and the Avalanche feature follows. The winning symbols are removed and new symbols replace them. Rather than dropping from directly above, the new symbols can gravitate down to the left or right to fill any vacant positions.
These avalanches keep on coming as long as a new winner is created. When a cycle of avalanches is over, an extra row of symbols is added. Each row gives you more ways to win too – you could end up with up to 8 rows live here which offers 262,144 ways to win.
Multipliers up to 64x
You can boost your winning drops with the Multipliers feature. The way this is activated is rather unusual. Look out for the X symbol. When 1 of these reaches the bottom row of the grid, the first 2x multiplier becomes active. If you manage to land further X symbols on the bottom row, the multiplier increases to 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x or 64x.
The multiplier reverts to 1x then a series of avalanches is completed. You can see what multiplier is active by looking at the meter/pillar to the right of the reels.
Free spins with 262,144 ways to win
Like the multipliers, the Free Drops Bonus feature is activated in a slightly unusual manner. When the Bonus symbol reaches the left-hand pillar, you’ll be awarded 7 free spins. These play out on the fully expanded 8 row reels set which offers 262,144 ways to win. If a multiplier is activated, it will remain in play throughout and won’t go back to 1x once a set of avalanches is over. You can also win 7 more free spins taking your total to 14.
Original take on a classic theme
We really liked the Cygnus slot. The visuals are excellent, backed by a haunting Arabian-style backing track. The gameplay is plenty innovative enough too. The avalanche reels can deliver loads of action, especially if you manage to get the multipliers going.
As far as variance goes, we’re in the medium to high range – Cygnus offers top wins of 5,000 x bet on every spin or free spin. The ancient Egyptian theme has been done to death by slot developers. ELK Studios has created something fresh and new with Cygnus. If you like this classic theme, then this video slot is well worth investigating.
By the way, it bears some similarities to other ELK Studios slots like Tahiti Gold, Voodoo Gold and Ecuador Gold which all offer up to 262,144 ways to win. If you ancient Egyptian themed slots, ELK’s Hidden game is recommended.
