Cathedral 9

Cathedral 9: Slot Overview

Scatter pays has really taken the online slot world by storm, and every other casino game maker and its dog seems to be getting in on the action. One studio which has released a few examples of this type, without going too overboard on them (so far), is developer ELK Studios, having produced the likes of Hula Balua, Ashoka, and Mine Defender. Hmm, actually, it seems once those scatter paying shenanigans get their hooks in, the habit is hard to let go, as the studio has returned to the scatteration form to design Cathedral 9, a slot which showcases a set of older and newer ELK Studios features.

Cathedrals are often quite uplifting spaces where light filters through stained glass windows, vaulted roofs rise high into the sky, and if you're lucky, a choir or other sort of inspiring tune drifts about. Not so much Cathedral 9's base game, which is a rather dark and gloomy sort of place, where statues in the wall stand around piles of steaming rocks littering the floor. Why? Good question, possibly because the game leans on a coffin feature, and according to the game sheet, these are 'coffins overflowing with unimaginable treasure.' The scene brightens when free spins are active, but atmospherically, Cathedral 9 sits somewhere on the heavier end of the scale alongside the likes of Phoenix Graveyard, Phoenix Graveyard 2, and Nightmaker.

Cathedral 9 is a scatter pays slot played on a 6x5 gaming area, creating wins when 8 or more matching symbols land in view. One of its not-so-secretive aspects is a medium-high volatile math model producing ELK Studios' preferred 94% RTP both when betting $/€0.20 to $/€100 per spin, or when buying features from the X-iter.

Four pip symbols are followed by five various theme-related object symbols. Scatter wins made up of 8 matching symbols pay 0.1x to 2x, rising to 2x to 50x for a 25+ of a kind combination. Any pay symbol can also land as 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4-sized big symbols, paying as the amount of 1x1 positions they cover. Big symbols replicate into empty cells below with matching 1x1s. After no more wins, a big symbol may spawn and replace others. Wilds substitute all pay symbols, with an all-wild win paying the highest symbol.

Cathedral 9: Slot Features

Cathedral 9 is rammed to the rafters with a feature reel, feature symbols, mystery coffins, Entombed, a global multiplier, Holy collect, bonus rounds, and X-iter feature buys.

Feature Reel

The 2x6 Feature Reel holds feature symbols and empty cells. When wins clear symbols (except mystery coffins), features can drop into gaps, followed by a symbol drop. The process repeats as long as wins continue.

Collector & Explosion Symbols

Collector symbols activate when there are no more wins. It selects one pay symbol in view and collects all instances of it into one position. Pay symbols in coffins are not collected. Explosion symbols activate when there are no more wins, and they remove all pay symbols on their own and adjacent columns.

Mystery Coffins & Global Multiplier

Mystery coffins activate on reaching the bottom, revealing matching symbols or wild. After wins are collected, they nudge down and reveal again until no wins remain. Super coffins work the same but add their multiplier to the global one. Also, mini coffins spawn a mystery coffin above when landing. The global multiplier starts at x0 and is activated when a super mystery coffin reaches the bottom of the grid, remaining active till the end of the game round or free drop. Possible values on super mystery coffins range from x2 to x1,000.

Entombed Feature

This feature triggers when the entombed symbol covers the entire Feature Reel and triggers when no more wins appear. All symbols on the grid are replaced with one paying symbol type. The Super Entombed feature triggers when the super entombed symbol covers the entire Feature Reel. All symbols are replaced with one pay symbol type of high or mid values.

Holy Collect

The Holy collect can trigger on any spin or free drop. Energy is added to the holy collect when a holy blocker drops from the feature reel. The state of the holy collect is kept between game rounds, and it adds 3-6 coffins to the grid when triggered. Every game round has the same probability of triggering the holy collect feature.

Bonus

Landing 3-6 bonus scatters triggers the free drops bonus game. Each scatter awards 2, 3, or 4 free drops. The global multiplier is persistent between free drops. Mystery coffins reaching the bottom of the grid activate the global multiplier if it already has an inactive value. The global multiplier inactivates between free drops. Extra free spins are granted when landing scatters, in the same way as they are initially awarded when the round triggers.

Winning on all 9 pay symbols in bonus mode triggers the super bonus, awarding 2, 3, or 4 additional free drops. Each free drop starts with 1-6 super mystery coffins added to the grid. Only super coffins appear in the super bonus game. In the bonus game, all inactive super mystery coffins activate between free drops.

X-iter

Cathedral 9's X-iter has Bonus Hunt at 2.5x to buy a game round with more than 3 times the chance of triggering free drops, while the Mega Bonus Hunt costs 10x to make triggering the bonus more than 10 times more likely. The Coffin Drop costs 50x to buy a game round with 1-6 random mystery coffins, while the bonus or super bonus costs 100x or 500x, respectively.

Cathedral 9: Slot Verdict

Cathedral 9 combines a lot of things ELK Studios has been up to of late. Two obvious components are the dark, religious/supernatural angle on the front end and the scatter paying mechanic underlying the action. It's rare for an ELK Studios slot to come across as unattractive, and Cathedral 9 doesn't buck the trend. It may not be the studio's most eye-catching production as such, but it's made with great class and the church setting and choral soundtrack do an exceptional job of setting the mood for players to do some coffin excavation as they search for the 'nine ancient artefacts.'

That quote relates to getting wins with all 9 pay symbols during free spins, which is what needs to occur in order to trigger the super bonus, where up to six super mystery coffins appear on each spin. Regular coffins can do a sound job of revealing matching symbols, but the super version is better, since it's also able to pep the global multiplier, which could turn out to be a game-changer. Feature symbols dropping from a feature reel is another classic ELK Studios move, as seen in slots like Gritty Kitty of Nitropolis, Tropicool 4, and Mystic Orbs, and it works hand in glove with avalanches, as well as symbol removal features. The final sweetener in this regard is the entombed symbol hanging over the feature reel, tantalising with its ability to envelope the whole thing, thereby covering the entire play area in a single symbol type. A bit of overkill in some ways since the biggest combinations are 25+ in size, but a potentially exhilarating addition nonetheless.

Cathedral 9 feels like a studio broadening its exploration of weightier subject matter while expanding its suite of features. It's not a game that pushes many, if any, of the studio's boundaries to their absolute hilt. Yet, Cathedral 9 is a well-executed production stuffed with features that are able to work well on their own or in pairs, but getting a bunch of them pumping in unison is when Cathedral 9 really shines. As for its 25,000x win cap, well, you never know, the coffins might live up to the 'unimaginable treasure' hype.