Conan Online Slot Review

Conan is a video slot from NetEnt with 6 reels and 24 paylines that pays both ways. Released in September 2019, this game can be played at online casinos such as Casumo, ComeOn! or PlayOjo.

Theme and basic information

Conan has been hyped as one of NetEnt’s major releases since it was first teased at the London iGaming conference earlier this year. It’s yet another blockbuster slot, following in the footsteps of highly successful Vikings and Narcos. Conan comes with an established fan base as well and is originally based on the book character from 1932 written by Robert E. Howard. Mostly, however, is fame is based on the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from 1982.

The Conan of this newest NetEnt slot looks nothing like Arnie. But we do still get the long-haired, bare-chested muscular brute, who fights with a massive broad sword.

The backdrop is a wintry village with fires torches burning here and there. The attention to detail is wonderful and the slot is visually very well done. The soundtrack spells doom, of course, and the drums are beating.

Noteworthy is the new, more modern user-interface NetEnt presents here. It’s much more streamlined than what we’re used to and more user-friendly.

On the reels we find Conan himself, his sidekick Valeria and his arch-nemesis Thoth-Amon. A sword, a helmet and a grappling hook are the medium-value symbols and a bunch of coins are the low-value symbols. It’s a great-looking, epic slot we get here.

NetEnt also finally updated their paytable, reflecting the wins as multiples of the stake instead of just coin wins. Thus, Conan is worth 6x our stake for 6 of a kind. Thoth-Amon is worth 5.5x our stake and Valeria pays 5x our stake for such a win.

You can play this game from 0.20 to 200.00 per spin.

Extra wilds and mystery symbols and added multipliers

There is a lot going on in this slot. It’s difficult to decide where to start. For instance, this game may only have 24 paylines, but they pay both ways, which is useful.

Then we have the linked reels feature. Here reels 1 and 2, 3 and 4 or 5 and 6 may sync on any given spin and land showing the same symbols once they stop.

Additionally, each set of two reels also features a special symbol.

• Tower Wilds – Are on reels 1 and 2, where wild symbols may land and expand to cover the reel partially or fully.
• Mystery Symbols – On reels 3 and 4, where the snake symbol is a mystery symbol that randomly transforms into another reel symbol that may or may not create a winning combination. If the snake lands fully stacked, a giant snake will appear, and Conan will battle it. For every blow he lands (in an action sequence playing out before the reels) the multiplier climbs by 1x. Usually, you get at least 3x and up to 7x. Also, if a Tower Wild and a Battle Wild appear at the same time with a Mystery symbol, the Thoth Amon feature is active, and 3 to 6 mystery symbols are added across reels 2 to 5.
• Battle Wilds – These land on reels 5 and 6 and spread up to three positions sideways.

The most useful feature is are the Battle Wilds, because it will almost certainly bring wins. The Mystery Symbols are often totally useless and even an added multiplier might not yield any results if no winning combination is on the reels.

Choose your free spin adventure/feature

We need 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters to get 10, 15, 25 or even 50 free spins. Naturally, you will get 3 scatters most of the time. Thankfully, this may not take very long to happen. We once managed to trigger the free spins three times within 10 spins.

Be that as it may, however many spins you end up with, you choose your own free spin mode:

• City of Thieves – Here Tower Wilds can appear on any reel and cover it fully or partially.
• Temple of Serpent – Mystery symbols can appear anywhere, which includes landing stacked. Fully stacked mystery symbols can add multipliers just like in the base game and if we get 5 to 9 of them, the Thoth Amon feature is triggered.
• Walls of Tarantia – Battle Wilds can land on all reels and expand up to three positions sideways.

Whilst we managed one of our biggest wins with the Temple of Serpents free spins, it seems to have been more or less by accident as it only happened once. We tried all three features, though, and none seemed to be much better than the other.

Conclusion: An epic slot that comes with lacklustre wins

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) for Conan is 96.28%, which is good and above average. The slot offers medium volatility, so wins will never feel very far away. But they are never very big either. The slot pays both ways regularly and will hardly eat up your budget. So, in theory you could play for quite some time, see the free spins features a few times and watch Conan battle the giant serpent.

What you won’t see is big wins. The maximum payout is just 2,016x your stake, which is not a lot at all. Plus, eventually the slot feels a little tedious. You get a bunch of features and they light up the screen regularly. But they never really pay out and it’s even a bit too much at times. With all these features that don’t pay, you wonder what the point is. Fewer but more effective features would have greatly enhanced the gameplay here.