Cygnus 5

Cygnus 5: Slot Overview

People have been looking up to the stars for an awful long time. The earliest astronomical records we have come from 30,000 year old cave paintings, and it feels fairly safe to say mankind was looking up in wonder long before that time. Since then, we humans and our inquisitive minds have tapped into some of the universe's mysteries, but plenty more remain unanswered. Maybe some of the questions we'll never be able to answer? Before we get lost in a rabbit hole of hypotheticals, however, let's grip onto the physical realm and take a leap into the online slot Cygnus 5, the fifth release in provider ELK Studios' mystical Cygnus range.

The Cygnus series has passed through a number of theme changes, from astronomy, ancient arena, to the Tower of London. Cygnus 5 cycles back to the original slot, being an Ancient Egyptian-themed number with a focus on the stars. A narrow focus this time, as a small section of the night sky can be glimpsed above and behind a gaming grid housed in some sort of temple space. The visual impact isn't as great as earlier Cygnus slots - this is the fifth time around the block, after all, but it is otherwise tough to fault the game's sounds and sights too harshly.

As they have done so far, Cygnus 5 is played on a lopsided 6-reel gaming grid. Hitting spin drops 4 rows of symbols into play with the aim of getting at least 3 matching symbols on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost side. At 4 rows high, 4,096 ways to win are available, increasing when extra rows are added to the board via the Avalanching wins mechanic. For part 5, ELK has included a medium/high volatile math model, where the RTP is 94% at best or 87% for specific markets. The stake range is 20 c to $/€100 a game round.

Seven pay symbols land in Cygnus 5. They are triangle, diamond, and hexagonal shapes as the low pays, then a bird, a snake, a cat, and a sun-moon symbol as the highs. Low pays award 0.2 times the bet for 6 OAK, while the high pays award up to 0.3 to 5 times the bet. To help link winning combinations together, the wild symbol substitutes for all regular paying symbols.

Cygnus 5: Slot Features

Winning combinations in Cygnus 5 trigger the Avalanche feature, which removes the corresponding symbols, and the remaining symbols drop downwards. Next, an additional row is added (up to 8 high), and symbols drop to fill the reels. Extra rows mean extra ways to win; at its full size, there are 262,144 ways to win. Avalanches repeat like this until no new win appears on the grid.

Prism Symbol

The prism symbol activates when it reaches the bottom of the grid. After the next symbol drop or immediately if placed by a Meteor Strike, it turns all symbols along lines in a random number of directions into matching symbols or wilds. A prism symbol hitting a prism symbol with its beam of light triggers a chain reaction, and all symbols along the selected lines also transform into the same pay symbol or wild. Symbols in crossings become wilds. Multipliers, scatters, or super scatters along a direction selected by a prism temporarily transform into the selected symbol. These feature symbols return after the win calculation.

Multiplier Symbol

A multiplier symbol that reaches the bottom of the reels or the leftmost column increases the current active win multiplier before transforming into a wild symbol. Multiplier increases, and symbol transitions occur before the payout. The win multiplier is applied to all subsequent wins in the game round. Reaching the top of the multiplier pillar pays the remaining amount needed to reach the max win. The win multiplier resets before the start of the next game round.

Meteor Strike

The Meteor Strike is randomly triggered after a drop or after a symbol refill. When triggered, a number of randomly selected pay symbols on the grid are replaced by feature symbols.

Free Spins

A scatter symbol or a super scatter symbol that reaches the leftmost column triggers 7 free spins, and the current win multiplier is carried over to the bonus round. If a scatter or super scatter ends up on the bottom row in columns 2 to 6, it is removed and dropped again in the column, 1 step to the left if possible. This movement occurs at the end of an Avalanche cycle, once per cycle.

During free spins, the win multiplier is persistent throughout the round, and each new drop starts with 4 rows. If super spins were triggered, a Meteor Strike is guaranteed on every drop. When a scatter reaches the leftmost column, additional free spins are granted. Or, if a super scatter reaches the leftmost reel in regular free spins, the round is upgraded to super free spins.

X-iter

Cygnus 5's X-iter bonus buys include these 5 choices: Bonus Hunt (2x the bet) for 1 drop, which is more than 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus or super bonus game, Meteors (10x the bet) for a game round that guarantees a Meteor Strike on the first drop, Prisms (25x the bet) for a game round with at least 2 prism symbols, Bonus Game (100x the bet), and Super Bonus (500x the bet).

Cygnus 5: Slot Verdict

Not long before this, another one of ELK Studios' big series, Nitropolis, reached five slots in length (not including the four clan spin-offs), so there is a certain poetry in seeing Cygnus reach the number 5 mark as well. The first two, Cygnus and Cygnus 2, were high-scoring slots that wowed through a combination of unique form and function. Cygnus 3, meanwhile, dropped the score, partly on account of its odd Cygnus Wheel, while Cygnus 4 was good but not exactly great. The same goes for Cygnus 5, really. It supplies the sort of attractive audiovisuals these games are known for, and the blend of Avalanche wins, expanding rows, plus increasing ways to win have proven to be a highly dependable mix for ELK Studios, not just here but also in the successful 'Gold' series. The core gameplay is a little overdone by now but is still dependably enjoyable when consecutive wins are stacking up, ballooning the board.

Peripheral features help set these games apart, and in Cygnus 5's case, one of the main innovators is the prism symbol. It's no paradigm shift, but it is a nice add-on. Like the multiplier symbol, you want those prisms dropping as low (or to the left for the multi symbols) as possible to activate their transformative powers. A grid that can grow to 8 rows in height provides a lot of space to transform symbols, too. Multiplier symbols are multiplier symbols - the more they grow the win multiplier, the better. But, like Cygnus 4, the way they can bestow the 50,000x max win if the top of the pillar is reached is a double-edged sword, provoking a mixed emotional reaction to the quasi-jackpot element.

Unless ELK Studios goes massive on the next game's mechanics, there isn't a huge amount of excitement at the thought of a Cygnus 6. That's not to say release number 5 is a dud. Far from it. The game functioned well enough, weaving in some newer elements to go with familiar ones. All in all, Cygnus 5 put on a decent show, but a feeling of diminishing returns has set to a degree.