Crusader Slot by ELK Studios

Two armored knights flank the reels - one on each side, glowing halos behind their helms - and they are the game. The Crusader symbol is a 1x4 stacked wild locked to reels 1 and 5. If even one row of a Crusader peeks onto the grid, a nudge respin kicks in, shifting the knight up or down until the full four rows are visible. Land a second Crusader on the opposite reel while the first is still nudging and it stays sticky, waiting. Both fully visible at once triggers 8 free spins.

The bonus starts at 4 rows with reels 1 and 5 completely covered in sticky wilds. That leaves reels 2, 3, and 4 doing the work. Expansion symbols land on those middle reels, and each one adds a row to every reel permanently - plus one extra spin. The grid stretches from 4 rows all the way up to 12, and paylines climb with it: 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34 at full height. The expansion level never drops back down, so each symbol you land ratchets the grid bigger for whatever spins remain.

Burning castle ruins sit behind the reels under a blood-red sky full of embers. The paytable fits the medieval setting - a gold chalice at the top paying 1000 coins for five, then a jeweled cross at 500, followed by daggers, treasure chests, and templar shield medallions. No buy bonus. The 2,500x ceiling is modest, and the path to it runs entirely through the expanding grid bonus - how many expansion symbols you land determines both how many extra spins you get and how many paylines are active when those spins play out.