Lucky Pharaoh

Quick verdict: a slot built around one collect-or-convert choice

Lucky Pharaoh, spelled "Lucky Pharoah" in some catalogues including ours, came out on 5 January 2017. It is one of Blueprint Gaming's plainer slots on paper: 5 reels, 3 rows, 10 fixed lines, gems and card royals, and no wild symbol. There are no traditional free spins either. What it has instead is Power Spins. Any win worth 4x the total bet or more stops the game and asks a question: collect the win, or turn it into spins on four reel sets at once, where the Mystery symbol comes into play.

That choice is where the game's value sits. Blueprint lists the base game at 94% RTP, below most modern releases, but play inside Power Spins runs at 96.25%. Volatility is high and a single game is capped at 10,000x the bet. It suits players who like a clear decision point more than a busy feature list. Players who want wilds, scatters and a classic bonus round should look elsewhere.

Lucky Pharaoh: key rules

The moment a 4x win lands

Most slots hand out their feature through scatters. Lucky Pharaoh does it through the size of a win, which makes the trigger easy to understand and easy to spot.

Here is the sequence, based on Blueprint's help file:

1. A spin, or a spin's combined line wins, produces a result worth at least 4x the total bet.
2. The game pauses and offers two options: collect the win, or play Power Spins.
3. Collecting adds the win to the balance and the base game carries on as normal.
4. Choosing Power Spins uses the win to fund spins on four reel sets played at the same time.
5. Before those spins start, the stake can be adjusted. The help file says a different bet level gives a different number of Power Spins.

Nothing else triggers the feature. There is no scatter, no symbol count and no meter. If a win is 3.9x the bet it is simply paid. At 4x or more, the choice appears.

That makes Power Spins feel less like a bonus and more like an optional mode the game offers whenever a qualifying win comes up. The player decides every time, which is unusual for a slot from this period.

Inside Power Spins: four reel sets and the Mystery symbol

How the win becomes spins

Each Power Spin is widely reported to cost 4x the base bet. That fits the layout: four reel sets, each played at the base stake. So a qualifying win is divided into spins at that price.

The stake adjustment works in the other direction. On the Power Spins screen, a player can pick a higher multiplier on each Power Spin. That buys fewer spins, but each result is boosted. Choosing a lower level stretches the same win over more spins with smaller results. The help file confirms only that the bet level can be changed to get a different number of spins. It does not publish a fixed table of spin counts or multiplier steps, so the exact numbers depend on the size of the win and the level chosen on screen.

Four chances on every spin

During the feature, the single 5x3 grid is replaced by four reel sets, all spinning together. The help file describes this as four chances to win on each spin. Each set is judged on its own lines, and wins from all four are added together.

What the Mystery symbol does

The Lucky Pharaoh logo is a Mystery symbol, and Blueprint's rules make it active during Power Spins. When Mystery symbols land in view, they all turn into the same randomly chosen symbol.

Two details explain why this matters:

• The Mystery symbol can land in stacks. When a stack covers a whole reel and transforms, that reel becomes a column of one matching symbol.
• Because every Mystery symbol on screen transforms into the same symbol, several stacks across different reels can line up into wins on many lines at once. The biggest results come when Mystery symbols fill the whole grid.

The help file also describes the game as having "super stacked" symbols. Together with the adjacent-pays rule, that is what lets a single Mystery transformation reach several reels at the same time.

When the spins run out

The help file doesn't set a fixed round length. The spins last as long as the converted win pays for them at the chosen stake. Wins from the four reel sets are added up during the feature.

Two RTP figures, not two versions

Lucky Pharaoh's RTP is often quoted two ways, and it's worth being precise about why.

• 94% is the base game RTP. That is the long-run return on normal spins of the 5x3 grid.
• 96.25% is the RTP of play inside Power Spins.

These are not two editions of the game. They are two parts of the same game running at different rates. Some listings put 96.25% in their headline figure, which gives a misleading picture of the base game.

In practical terms, over a very large number of spins the base game returns about 94 coins for every 100 staked. Coins staked through Power Spins return about 96.25 per 100 over the same very long run. That is a gap of 2.25 coins per 100.

This is a statement about average return across enormous samples, not about any single feature. A given set of Power Spins can easily return less than the win that funded it, especially at high volatility. Choosing Power Spins every time does not change the odds of any spin, and no pattern of collecting or converting beats the design. What the two figures do tell you is where Blueprint put the better long-run return: inside the feature, not in the base game.

What high volatility means here

With no wilds, no free spins and a feature that only starts after a 4x win, the base game is thin by design. Much of the game's return potential sits in stacked symbols and in Power Spins. Expect long runs of small or no wins between the moments that matter. Blueprint's help file does not publish a hit frequency.

The base game: 10 lines, adjacent pays and no wilds

How lines pay

Lucky Pharaoh plays on 10 fixed lines that are always active. According to the help file, a win needs 3, 4 or 5 identical symbols on adjacent reels of a line. That rule is broader than a standard left-to-right slot:

• A match starting on reel 1 pays, as usual.
• A match ending on reel 5 pays, which is where the "both ways" description comes from.
• A three-symbol match on reels 2, 3 and 4 also pays, because those reels are adjacent.

Only the highest win on each line is paid, and wins on different lines are added together. Line wins are multiplied by the stake on the winning line.

The symbol set

There is no wild symbol and no scatter, so there is nothing to fill a gap in a line. The reels carry two groups of standard symbols, plus the Mystery symbol that only matters during Power Spins.

Published five-of-a-kind values, expressed as multiples of the total bet:

Expressed per line, the three top gems are commonly listed as 500x, 400x and 300x the line bet. Across 10 lines, that matches the 50x, 40x and 30x total bet figures above. The three-of-a-kind and four-of-a-kind values have not been published in a form we can confirm, so they are not listed here; the in-game paytable shows them for the stake in use.

The paytable shows why the game needs Power Spins. A full line of the top diamond pays 50x, and the whole grid holds only 10 lines. Reaching large multiples in the base game requires stacked symbols to fill several lines at once. The 4x feature threshold means even a modest stacked result can open the four-reel-set mode.

Autoplay

Autoplay runs up to 100 spins. Blueprint's help file says it stops when a feature triggers or a loss limit is reached, and loss limits are set according to local requirements. In practice, a qualifying win that brings up the Power Spins choice interrupts autoplay so the decision is made by the player.

Where the 10,000x cap comes from

Blueprint's help file states the maximum win from a single game as 10,000x the bet, alongside a separate fixed ceiling, with whichever is reached first applying.

The published rules suggest how a result near the top could come together:

1. A qualifying win of at least 4x in the base game, converted into Power Spins.
2. A higher multiplier level chosen on each Power Spin, fewer spins but larger results.
3. Stacked Mystery symbols landing across all four reel sets and transforming into a premium gem, filling many lines on every set in one spin.

The studio does not publish the probability of reaching the cap. With a top five-of-a-kind of 50x per line, anything close to 10,000x depends on Power Spins, stacks and the Mystery transformation all lining up. It is a ceiling, not an expectation.

Some listings quote 50,000x for Lucky Pharaoh. That figure appears to belong to the later Lucky Pharaoh Deluxe Fortune Play. The original game's help file says 10,000x.

Lucky Pharaoh against Lucky Pharaoh Deluxe Fortune Play

Blueprint returned to the theme with Lucky Pharaoh Deluxe Fortune Play, released on 16 October 2022. The two are easy to confuse, and their figures often get mixed up, so here they are side by side.

The biggest structural difference is how the extra reel sets are reached. In the original, Power Spins are paid for with a win the player has just landed. In Deluxe Fortune Play, Fortune Play is a separate betting mode at a set cost of 20x the total bet. The Deluxe game also adds Money Spins, a respin round built around collecting money symbols with 3 respins. The original has nothing like it.

The RTP pattern is also different. In the original, the gap between base play (94%) and feature play (96.25%) is 2.25 points. In the Deluxe game, the gap between standard (94.95%) and Fortune Play (95.50%) is 0.55 points. The original gives a stronger long-run reason to convert wins into the feature, while the Deluxe game has a higher base figure and a far higher ceiling.

Who Lucky Pharaoh suits

This is a game for players who like making a decision more than watching animations. The collect-or-convert prompt comes up often enough to be a regular part of play, and every conversion is a real trade between a certain result and a higher-return, higher-risk mode.

It also suits anyone who likes simple reels. With no wilds or scatters, every win can be traced to one line of matching symbols, and the only special symbol appears in one clearly defined mode.

It is less suited to players who want a traditional free spins round, or who find 94% base RTP too low for normal spins. Players who dislike the idea of turning a win into spins that might return less should expect to collect most of the time, which leaves them in the lower-return part of the game.

What Lucky Pharaoh gets right, and where it falls short

Pros

• Power Spins offer a clear, repeatable choice on any win of 4x or more
• Play inside Power Spins runs at 96.25% RTP, 2.25 points above the base game
• Four reel sets and a stacking Mystery symbol give the feature real reach
• Simple 10-line adjacent-pays layout with a transparent paytable

Cons

• 94% base game RTP is low for normal spins
• No wilds and no free spins, so the base game is thin between qualifying wins
• Blueprint doesn't publish Power Spins spin counts, hit frequency or max win probability

Lucky Pharaoh FAQ