Witchcraft Academy

We’re certain everyone, at some point, wished they had magical abilities to help themselves out of a tight spot. Magic is something inherently fascinating, that humans both feared and admired in equal measures throughout history. The popularity of the Harry Potter franchise speaks volumes to that much – we certainly wish we could just teleport our way to work and not worry about being late! Sadly, no such luck yet exists for us mere mortals, so we’ll have to keep dreaming and hope scientists pull off a miracle in that regard. To make ourselves feel better, we can indulge in the magical world of Witchcraft Academy by NetEnt. The slot offers players a 5×4 playing field with 20 fixed paylines and a free spins bonus that can be somewhat difficult to unlock, requiring not one, but two collections of Scatters to get it started. To make up for it, however, each free spins bonus is slightly different, and brings a myriad of smaller features to make it stand out.

As always, NetEnt impresses with its graphics. The backdrop is immensely detailed, and shifts entirely to a different one to accompany the bonus once it’s activated. On top of that, you will occasionally see a translucent ghost flying past the reels, a floating broom, books that rearrange themselves in the magical library you can see behind the reels, and additional, very small details like the grandfather clock ticking or thundering clouds that float above the globe. It’s clear a lot of effort went into the visuals of Witchcraft Academy.

The gameplay in the title is also relatively focused on special features. While some decent wins can be won without their presence, it doesn’t take long to realize the convoluted bonus is yours for the taking if you can activate it. The feature itself consists of two parts, with the first rewarding cash prizes and additional, smaller features that upgrade the second part. This makes any prizes won during the bonus really lucrative.

You can play Witchcraft Academy for as little as $0.20 up to $200 per spin by adjusting the bet level and coin value. The title sits with a comfortable medium to high volatility and an RTP of 96.38%, slightly above average for video slots. Its feature heavy nature means that most gamblers will look at its jackpot of 800x the wager as nothing more than a pipe dream, but once it happens, it promises to be glorious.

The symbols are split into two groups – generic playing card icons such as diamonds, clovers, spades and hearts, and the unique symbols such as Elora the sorceress and Earthan the wizard, and their familiars – a majestic owl for Elora and a hatchling dragon for Earthan. The unique icons look very cool, but we were quite impressed with how NetEnt handled the playing card symbols – using them as shapes for various, different coloured potions.

As we already mentioned, there is only one bonus, comprised of two parts. The first part of it is triggered when three or more Scatters land anywhere on the playing field. The board shifts into a different 5×4 playing field that has coin win symbols, armour guard icons and Scatter symbols that reward free spins with the following modifiers: a 2x multiplier, +5 free spins, overlay Wild reel 1 and overlay Wild reel 5. You can use Efora or Earthan to fire their elements onto the reels, and depending on what they hit, you can activate one of the three symbols we mentioned above. Collecting three or more Scatters during this bonus activates the free spins with all of the modifiers you’ve unlocked by collecting Scatters. It is possible to collect additional Bonus Spin symbols to add more free spins once the feature is already active.