Book of Dead: Expanding Symbols, Payout Examples and Alternatives

Book of Dead’s free spins select one regular symbol to expand when it creates an additional win. Its paytable uses line-bet units, so a prize on one line differs from the same symbol filling every active line. Legacy of Dead adds expanding symbols on retriggers; GO Collect adds a separate Treasure Vault.

Where to Play

18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.

How the Game Works

Reviewed by Brian Taylor
Published: April 2026 · Updated: July 2026

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Book of Dead has five reels, three rows and up to ten active paylines. Ordinary line wins run from the first reel towards the right. The line count, coins per line and coin value combine to make the total stake; the historical screenshots show these as separate controls. Read the total-bet display in the loaded version rather than treating a coin amount as pounds. Available settings and limits can differ between versions and casinos.

The golden Book is both wild and scatter. It can substitute in an ordinary line combination, while three or more Books anywhere trigger the free spins. A scatter award does not need the Books to follow a payline. The Book is also separate from the regular symbol selected to expand during the bonus: the selected character or card symbol keeps its own paytable value.

Symbols and Pay Values

Rich Wilde is the highest-paying regular symbol. The paytable pictured below lists five of him at 5,000 times the line bet. Five Pharaoh masks pay 2,000 times the line bet, while five Anubis or scarab symbols pay 750 times. Five Aces or Kings pay 150 times; five Queens, Jacks or 10s pay 100 times. These are line-bet figures, so they need to be converted before comparing them with a total-stake win. With £1 spread across ten lines, each line carries 10p: five Rich Wilde symbols on one line pay £500. If Rich Wilde is the special expanding symbol and fills all five reels during free spins, the combination pays across all ten active lines. At that same stake, the combined £5,000 payout is 5,000 times the £1 total bet.

The Free Spins Feature

Three or more Books anywhere award ten free spins. Before the round starts, one regular symbol is chosen as the special expanding symbol for the sequence. Ordinary wins are paid first. The chosen symbol then expands to fill its reel when the expansion creates an additional win on an active line. It does not expand merely because one instance has landed. Expanded symbols can pay across separated reels, so gaps between them do not prevent a qualifying combination. The paytable still determines how many matching symbols are needed for that symbol’s prize.

The selected symbol stays the same when three or more Books retrigger another ten free spins. A retrigger extends the sequence; it does not give another chance to select Rich Wilde. The premium characters and the card symbols have different prizes and different minimum matching counts. The symbol choice therefore changes which expanded combinations qualify and what they pay, but it does not determine how many of those combinations will actually land.

The Gamble Feature

The optional Gamble feature stakes an existing win on a card prediction. A correct red-or-black choice doubles that amount; a correct suit choice quadruples it. An incorrect answer loses the amount gambled. Collecting the win ends the choice without risking it again. This is separate from the expanding-symbol feature: a card prediction does not change which symbol is selected in later free spins. Availability and limits are shown in the loaded game’s rules.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The special symbol can form winning combinations across separated reels during free spins
• The paytable separates premium-character and card-symbol prizes, making the line-bet calculation possible to follow
• Retriggers extend the original expanding-symbol sequence without introducing a second bonus meter
• One recognisable Book symbol handles both ordinary wild substitution and the scatter trigger
• The compact five-by-three grid and ten-line layout are shown clearly in the original screenshots

Cons

• A free-spin trigger does not guarantee a large award or recover the stakes used before it
• The expanding symbol is selected randomly; the player cannot choose the premium character
• A published RTP figure identifies a configuration and should not be assumed to apply to every demo or casino version
• The original has no collecting meter like the one added in Book of Dead GO Collect

The demo is useful for identifying the Book, opening the paytable and following an expansion after ordinary wins have been paid. A short demonstration does not establish how often a feature will occur or what a cash session will return. Check the loaded help screen for its configuration; free credits are not a way to verify the return used by another casino.

Why two characters can pay but two cards cannot

The two original paytable pictures show a useful distinction. Each premium character has a two-symbol prize: Rich Wilde pays ten times the line bet, while the Pharaoh, Anubis and scarab pay five times. The card-symbol table starts at three matches. Two Aces therefore do not become a winning expanded combination merely because both fill their reels.

For example, suppose Rich Wilde is selected and appears on reels two and five during free spins. If expansion creates the qualifying additional prize, the gap between those reels is allowed. Each active line can then contain the two expanded Rich symbols. With ten lines and a £1 total bet, the line stake is 10p: ten times that line stake is £1 per line, or £10 across ten lines. This is an illustration of the pictured paytable, not a predicted result.

The same two-reel arrangement with Aces would not meet the minimum three-Ace requirement. That distinction is easy to miss if the feature is described only as “symbols expand wherever they land”. The minimum count, the selected symbol and the active lines still matter. The Book’s scatter prize is calculated separately from these regular-symbol line prizes.

Three ways to misread an expanding-symbol result

The first mistake is to apply the scatter rule to an ordinary character. Three Books anywhere trigger the feature, because the Book has a scatter role. Three Rich Wilde symbols scattered across an ordinary paid spin do not gain that role. Before free spins, ordinary symbols need their qualifying line combination from the left. The selected expanding symbol gets its additional separated-reel behaviour during the bonus.

The second mistake is to assume that every appearance of the selected symbol fills a reel. Expansion happens when it can create an additional prize on an active line, after ordinary wins have been recognised. If the selected card symbol needs three matches, seeing it on only two reels does not supply that minimum. The condition belongs to the selected symbol’s paytable, rather than its artwork or size.

The third mistake is to multiply a line-bet award by the total stake. With ten active lines and a £2 total bet, each line carries 20p. A hypothetical ten-times-line-bet award is £2 on one line. If the selected expanded symbol creates that prize across all ten lines, the combined award is £20. These two totals differ because of the number of paying lines, not because the same paytable suddenly changed currency.

The full-reel premium example follows the same logic. Five Rich Wilde symbols pay 5,000 times the line stake in the pictured original paytable. At a £2 total bet over ten lines, that is £1,000 on one line. If the chosen symbol expands across all five reels and pays every active line, ten such awards total £10,000. The resulting 5,000x total-stake figure depends on that full expanded pattern, rather than one ordinary five-symbol line.

Active line count also matters. Where a version allows line selection, the total wager and the number of active paths must be read together. Do not take a calculation made for ten lines and assume it is the same one-line cash amount. The loaded game’s paytable is the practical reference for how its interface expresses the wager and prizes; historical coin controls are not evidence that every current version has identical buttons.

These calculations explain awards after a result has formed. They do not identify the chance of selecting Rich Wilde, filling all five reels or retriggering free spins. A large printed paytable value is different from an expected return. The original’s useful distinction remains its one selected symbol and ten-spin extensions, while the alternatives below change either the selected-symbol set or the feature that accompanies it.

What stays the same when the feature retriggers?

In Book of Dead, another three Books add ten free spins without choosing a new expanding symbol. If the first choice was an Ace, the extension keeps that Ace. The remaining-spin counter changes, while the selected-symbol state stays the same. A retrigger is therefore not another opportunity for the player to select the premium character.

Legacy of Dead changes that relationship. Its documented version starts with eight spins and can add another expanding symbol on an eight-spin retrigger. More turns and more active symbol types are different changes to the round. This is the closer comparison if you want to follow a growing set of eligible expanders; the original keeps one symbol throughout the sequence.

GO Collect adds a different state again: Gold Staters and a Treasure Vault lead into held coin respins. A new coin resetting that counter is not the same event as three Books extending the original free-spin sequence. The game name must stay beside the trigger, because a screenshot of the later collecting feature cannot explain an extra mode in the older original.

Eye of Horus provides a wild-and-upgrade contrast. Its expanding wild substitutes in combinations, while Book of Dead’s selected regular symbol keeps its own prize values. Both can increase visible coverage, but that does not make an expanding wild and an expanding regular symbol equivalent. Book of Ra Deluxe remains the more direct compact Book-format comparison.

Closest Alternatives

Legacy of Dead keeps the five-reel, ten-line Egyptian format and special-symbol wins that can cross gaps. Its supplier game-help sheet awards eight initial free spins for three or more scatters. A retrigger awards eight more and selects an additional expanding symbol. That is the central difference from Book of Dead, where retriggers retain the original selection.

For example, starting with an expanding card does not mean Legacy must keep only that card throughout every extension. A later retrigger can add another symbol alongside it. This changes what to follow during the round: the set of active expanding symbols matters as well as the remaining-spin counter. Book of Dead keeps the simpler single-symbol rule. Choose the comparison on that basis, rather than assuming a darker tomb setting implies higher prizes or a different chance of winning. The Legacy rules linked here describe a particular supplied version, so the loaded help remains the reference for its settings.

Book of Ra Deluxe is a close mechanical comparison from Novomatic’s catalogue. The Greentube catalogue identifies the original deluxe game as five reels, three rows and ten adjustable lines, with a Book that acts as wild and scatter and free games using a special expanding symbol. Its table also separates premium-symbol two-match prizes from card-symbol combinations starting at three.

This is the alternative for comparing two compact Book games without changing to a cluster grid or a collection feature. The explorer replaces Rich Wilde as the leading character, but the more useful common ground is the line structure and selected-symbol bonus. Edition names deserve attention: this comparison is with Book of Ra Deluxe, not a six-reel edition or a later game with extra features. A familiar title does not make the original deluxe rules interchangeable with every release in the Book of Ra family.

Eye of Horus has ten lines but handles expansion differently. In Blueprint’s original game, the Eye expands into a stacked wild on reels two, three and four. Three or more scatters trigger up to twelve free games. During those games, expanding wilds activate symbol upgrades, and one, two or three Horus symbols award one, three or five extra games.

Here the wild substitution and the upgrading high-value symbols are separate parts of the feature. Book of Dead instead selects a regular symbol and evaluates its expanded combinations, including across gaps. Eye of Horus is therefore a useful Egyptian alternative when the interest is in a bonus that changes its paying symbols as it continues. This describes the original ten-line release, not Eye of Horus Megaways, Rapid Fire or Golden Tablet. Those editions have their own rules, so their features should not be assumed to belong to the original.

About the Developer

Play’n GO developed Book of Dead and released it on 14 January 2016. The company dates its founding to 2005. Rich Wilde also appears in games with quite different mechanics, so following the character is not the same as finding another Book slot. Rich Wilde and the Tome of Madness, for example, uses a five-by-five grid, clusters of at least four matching symbols and a Portal charged through play. It does not use Book of Dead’s ten-line, randomly selected expanding-symbol free spins.

Legacy of Dead belongs in the mechanical comparison because of its Egyptian expanding-symbol rules, rather than as a Rich Wilde appearance. The illustrated Play’n GO catalogue below groups games by developer; their shared studio does not establish that their bonuses match Book of Dead.

Book of Dead GO Collect was released on 26 February 2026. It retains a ten-free-spin feature with a special expanding symbol and adds Gold Staters collected in the base game towards a Treasure Vault. That creates another feature to follow alongside the familiar Tomb scatter and free-spin sequence.

In the Treasure Vault, three respins begin a round using coin symbols. A new Stater resets the counter to three; the feature ends when the grid fills or respins run out, and the displayed prizes are combined. The collection and the respin counter have different jobs: one leads into the feature and the other governs how it continues. GO Collect therefore gives the collection meter a role that the original game does not have. Its additional rules should not be read into the older demo shown on this page.

Chinese New Year, Cats And Cash, Battle Royal and Cash Pump are wider Play’n GO titles illustrated below. Their common publisher does not make them Book of Dead sequels. The screenshots give the actual different reel artwork, while Legacy of Dead and Book of Ra Deluxe above provide the closer selected-symbol comparison.

• Chinese New Year uses tiger and monkey imagery with its own free-spin and pick-feature events. The original screen below shows that separate reel setting. Its coin prizes must be read with the selected coin value and wager; a figure in coins is not automatically the same multiple of the total stake. It does not reproduce the original Book’s wild-and-scatter identity merely because the studio is the same.
• Cats And Cash changes the presentation to cats, gifts and wheel-feature content. The pictured bonus symbols identify its own event, rather than another ten-spin Book round. A wheel award is a different feature structure from choosing one regular expanding symbol. Use the individual help for the wheel and gift prizes instead of transferring Rich Wilde’s line-bet paytable to the cat symbols.
• Battle Royal uses a royal setting and free-spin modes with a mystery multiplier. The screenshot depicts a different feature state from Book of Dead’s tomb and selected expander. A mystery factor changes an eligible award; it is not a statement that one chosen regular symbol now fills all five reels. Compare the feature selection and multiplier rules, rather than treating an old catalogue rank as a popularity measurement.
• Cash Pump uses a fuel-station setting with stacked wild multiplier content in free spins. A wild is a substitute, unlike Book of Dead’s selected regular expander with its own character or card prize. The genuine screen shows a conventional reel area and its separate win display. The two games share a supplier, while their symbol roles and bonus states differ.

Book of Dead Key Stats

Book of Dead slot information last reviewed: July 2026

Game Screenshot

Free Spins Rules

Paytable Screens

Slots with the Same Features

Book of Dead combines free spins with a special expanding regular symbol and an optional gamble. The groups below offer related features, including expanding wilds, which substitute for other symbols rather than using the selected regular symbol’s own prize table.

Games with Free Spins

The top slots with Free Spins are Sheer Magic, Age Of The Gods Goddess Of Wisdom, 4 Seasons and Piggy Riches Megaways.

Slots with Expanding Wilds

The top slots with Expanding Wilds are Mega Safe, Golden Fishtank, Rich Wilde And The Wandering City and Age Of The Gods Book Of Oracle.

Online slots with Gamble Feature

The gamble-feature gallery below shows Mighty Griffin Megaways and Age Of Spartans Spin16. Their pictured reels and individual gamble rules belong to those separate releases; they do not inherit Book of Dead’s red-or-black and suit predictions.

Sources & Verification

For the game information labelled July 2026 above, the Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead product page describes the original expanding-symbol sequence. The Book of Dead GO Collect product page explains the separate Treasure Vault, while its launch announcement gives the release context. The UK Gambling Commission’s public register lists Play’n GO Malta Limited’s licensing. The published game rules state 96.21% RTP for their Book of Dead configuration. The loaded game’s help screen is the reference for the version being played; supplier product pages do not establish a casino’s individual RTP setting.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do the free spins work in Book of Dead?

Three or more Books award ten free spins. One regular symbol is chosen for the sequence. After ordinary wins are paid, it expands only when doing so creates an additional win on an active line. Expanded symbols can form a winning combination across separated reels. Three or more Books during the bonus award another ten free spins.

What is the RTP of Book of Dead?

The published game rules linked above state 96.21% for their Book of Dead configuration. Check the RTP in the loaded game’s help screen rather than assuming that figure applies to every casino or demo. RTP is a long-run mathematical return, not a prediction for a session.

What is the maximum win on Book of Dead?

The illustrated full expanded Rich Wilde pattern pays 5,000 times the total stake across ten active lines. That combination award does not establish the overall contractual round limit, which must be read in the loaded game’s rules. A line prize, the sum of line prizes and the overall payout cap are different figures.

Is Book of Dead high volatility?

Book of Dead is classed as high volatility. That label does not specify the number of spins between features or promise a large bonus after a quiet spell. The selected symbol and the combinations that land determine each free-spin award; a trigger can still return little.

What are the best slots like Book of Dead?

Legacy of Dead is the closest Play’n GO comparison, with extra expanding symbols added on retriggers. Book of Ra Deluxe shares the compact Book format. Eye of Horus uses expanding wilds and symbol upgrades, while Book of Dead GO Collect adds a separate collecting and respin feature.

Can I play Book of Dead for free?

Yes. The demo above uses play credits with no cash value. Open its help screen to identify the rules and return configuration. A demo’s settings and results should not be treated as evidence of what a particular casino version will return.

Who makes Book of Dead?

Play’n GO makes Book of Dead. The original was released on 14 January 2016, and the company dates its founding to 2005. The Rich Wilde character also appears in games with different layouts, including Tome of Madness. The Play’n GO games pictured above share a developer rather than one set of bonus rules.

Our Verdict on Book of Dead

Book of Dead has a clear identity: a compact ten-line grid, a dual-purpose Book and one regular symbol selected for expansion. Its strongest point is how easily that basic structure can be followed once line-bet prizes and expansion conditions are understood. The original paytables are particularly useful for separating premium-character combinations from card combinations.

Legacy of Dead changes the expanding-symbol selection through retriggers; Eye of Horus uses upgrading symbols; GO Collect adds a collection feature. Those are meaningful reasons to compare them. The original remains the straightforward choice within that comparison for someone interested in a single expanding-symbol sequence, but neither its familiar format nor a free-spin trigger promises a profitable session.

SlotsLike rating: 8/10