The Legend of Shangri-La Review

The Legend of Shangri-La Cluster Pays is a video slot from NetEnt with 6 reels and no classic paylines. Instead any cluster of at least 9 symbols will yield a win. You’ll be able to play The Legend of Shangri-La at online casinos such as ComeOn, LVBet or Leo Vegas.

Theme and game basics

The Legend of Shangri-La comes with a mythical theme that takes us to the tranquil land of Shangri-La. It’s beautiful and peaceful there, three gurus (tiger, monkey and elephant) appear on the reels and a red panda monk observes the action on the left-hand side, intervening on our behalf every once in a while. The slot is beautifully done and comes with a serene background sound.
The three gurus are our highest paying symbols and will give us up to 10,000 coins (the tiger) when they fill up the entire screen. Elephant and monkey each pay out 5,000 coins in such a case and all low-paying symbols (flower, butterfly, dragonfly and koi fish) pay 2,000 coins in such a combination. Whilst there are no wilds in this game, we do get a mystery symbol, which almost functions like a wild, because it will transform into the best adjacent symbol that will hopefully yield a winning combination. Mystery symbols can randomly show up on the reels or be added by the red panda monk during the base game and the free spins round.

Gameplay and features

This is not NetEnt’s first cluster pays slot, but it is definitely much better done than Aloha! Cluster Pays. It simply gives us more surprises and better chances at actually scoring a win. Apart from the fact that the clusters pay anywhere on the reels just as long as at least nine of the same symbol touch vertically or horizontally, this slot has more to offer than its name-giving feature. We already mentioned the mystery symbol, but that’s only the beginning. Besides adding mystery symbols, the panda can also activate sticky re-spins. This happens when at least two non-winning clusters of the same symbol appear anywhere on the reels. Then the re-spins kick off and adds any further symbols to the cluster that happen to reel by. They also become sticky and the feature only ends when the screen is either full of the same symbol or they stop appearing.
The free spin symbol activates the free spin feature. You need 3, 4, 5 or 6 of them to receive, 5, 6, 7 or 8 free spins, respectively. Sometimes the panda is able to nudge a reel with a free spin symbol into place, if the symbol happened to land just outside the reels. During the free spins our red panda friend will add between 2 and 6 mystery symbols to the reels, which may or may not result in a winning combination, depending on where they land. Unfortunately, an ice dragon appears and will take between 1 and up to 4 mystery symbols away again. The panda will add more of them before each spin, however, just so the dragon can erase some of them after each spin. Should you have won less than 10x your bet during the free spin feature, a final spin may be awarded, which will hopefully yield a final winning combination.

Conclusion

The theoretical RTP (return to player) of The Legend of Shangri-La Cluster Pays is 96.59%. That’s really good value, though this is a low-hitting slot, meaning it is not very volatile at all. Wins may be reasonable frequent but tend to be rather small. We have seen only very few big wins and most of them occurred randomly during the base game. Still, the Legend of Shangri-La is enjoyable, and our little red panda makes the game quite entertaining. If you don’t need big wins, you can simply lean back and enjoy some relaxed fun until you’re ready for something else.