Ankh of Anubis: Awakening Slot by Play'n GO

Diamond Grid, 576 Payways

The reel layout forms a diamond shape - three symbol positions on reels 1 and 5, four on reels 2 through 4. That gives you 3 × 4 × 4 × 4 × 3 = 576 ways to win, paying left to right with adjacent matching symbols. Only the highest combination per symbol type pays on each spin.

Play'n GO released the original Ankh of Anubis in December 2019 with a futuristic Egyptian look that had nothing in common with their Book of Dead franchise. Five years later, Awakening keeps the same grid and payway structure but drops volatility from High to Medium and introduces one new mechanic: the Anubis Re-Spin.

Low-value symbols are card ranks from 10 through Ace, paying between 0.10x and 0.80x for five of a kind. Four high-paying Egyptian artifacts - a winged scarab, ornate scepter, golden scales, and purple scarab beetle - range from 1.50x up to 10x for a full line. The Anubis Wild tops the paytable at 25x for five, substituting for everything except the Ankh scatter.

Anubis Wilds and the Re-Spin

Two wild mechanics work in tandem. On any spin, Anubis randomly activates and drops 4 to 8 wild positions onto the grid. No special trigger - it fires at random in both the base game and free spins.

The Re-Spin is the new addition for this sequel. When an Ankh scatter and a wild land on the same spin without forming a winning payway, the Re-Spin activates. Wilds lock in place and expand vertically, spreading up and down one position per respin until they fill their entire reel. Once a reel is fully wild, that wild gets removed on the next respin. Up to 3 respins per trigger.

There's a catch that matters: it only fires on non-winning combinations. The wilds start in positions that aren't helping you, and the respins are the correction mechanism. Sometimes the expanding wilds build into something big. Sometimes they don't connect at all. The 576-way structure gives them enough paths that partial connections still pay, which takes some of the sting out of the misses.

Ankh Collection in Free Spins

Three, four, or five Ankh scatters award 10, 15, or 20 free spins. Inside the bonus, every Ankh that lands feeds a collection meter. Hit five collected Ankhs and Anubis injects a batch of wilds onto the grid, then the meter resets and starts counting again.

Retriggers are possible. Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters during free spins adds 3, 4, or 5 extra spins respectively. The Re-Spin mechanic stays active throughout the bonus, though Ankh symbols won't appear during a respin sequence. Play'n GO caps the total at 500 free spins - generous on paper, irrelevant in practice.

The collection loop is where the bonus round builds momentum. Each wild injection from the meter stacks on top of whatever the Re-Spin mechanic is already doing. Land new scatters alongside wilds and you're extending the round while the meter keeps filling. At 15,000x max win, a good free spin run with multiple collection cycles produces the kind of payout that justifies the session.

Five RTP Tiers and a Volatility Shift

Default RTP sits at 96.20%, identical to the original. But the 2019 game shipped with a single RTP version. Awakening gives operators five tiers to choose from: 96.20%, 94.20%, 91.20%, 87.20%, and 84.20%. That bottom tier is rough, and there's no in-game indicator showing which version your casino runs.

Volatility dropped from the original's High rating to Medium (6 out of 10 on Play'n GO's internal scale). The max win stayed at 15,000x - competitive within Play'n GO's Egyptian catalog, where Book of Dead and Legacy of Dead both cap at 5,000x. Medium volatility means hits come more frequently at smaller sizes, which changes the session feel entirely.

This is a conservative sequel. Same grid, same payways, same max win, same default RTP. The Re-Spin adds a layer the original lacked, and the lower volatility makes sessions smoother. But the two games are similar enough that having both in a casino lobby feels redundant. If you've played the 2019 version, Awakening won't surprise you. If you haven't, the futuristic Egyptian aesthetic and the diamond grid payway structure make it a solid pick in a category saturated with expanding-symbol Book clones. No buy bonus option, no ante bet - just base game and free spins with the collection mechanic doing the heavy lifting.