How to trigger the Jackpot Bonus Wheel on the Atlantean Treasures slot?

Since the release of Atlantean Treasures: Mega Moolah, as well as the more recent Absolootly Mad: Mega Moolah slots, things regarding the famous Mega Moolah progressive jackpot on both those games have become a little more complicated.

On the original Mega Moolah (and also on the Casino Rewards Network exclusive Mega Vault Millionaire) the rules surrounding the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game were pretty simple. Ensure every possible pay line was in play (25 on each game) and then play a spin. Each spin at that price could be a jackpot triggering spin. The more you bet on each spin, the more chance you have of triggering the jackpot prize. It is relatively simple to follow.

However, with new games offering different set ups to the 5x3 reel, 25-pay line slot, something different was required for this next generation of games, especially for the Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah slot which is a 10 pay line, win both ways across the reels slot that can be played for considerably less (just 0.10 per spin) than the original Mega Moolah.

One of the most underrated aspects of Atlantean Treasures is just how Microgaming and their partners on the game Neon Valley Studios came up with a workable alternative on how to trigger the progressive jackpot bonus game.

To understand that, we need to briefly recap on how Atlantean Treasures works as a game and then explore how the Jackpot Bonus Wheel trigger fits into that.

Atlantean Treasures game design

We've already established that Atlantean Treasures is a 5x3 reel slot with 10 pay lines on which you can win both ways across the reel. There is also no Free Spins bonus game on the slot, instead the only bonus feature is the Expanding Wild symbol, which can land anywhere across the three middle reels.

When you land a Wild it expands to cover the reel and gives you a free respin. You can add another Wild to the one you have already landed and gain another respin, and then you can add the third and final Wild for another respin (and likely a sizeable win). Although most often, you will land just one Wild and one respin.

So how does the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game fit into this tight and well-defined game structure? The answer lies in the clamshell which is to the bottom left of the reels underneath the list of progressive jackpot prizes.

The clamshell is the key to this. On the middle reels you will see that on every spin, randomly selected symbols will have a golden pearl overlaid above them. If you can land one of these symbols on the reels on a spin and you collect the golden pearl, it gets added to the clamshell.

Each time you land a golden pearl, it offers you a chance of triggering the jackpot bonus game. So that does mean any spin that you have where you don't land a golden pearl, you can't earn a shot at the jackpot bonus.

However, you can (and do) earn those pearls relatively frequently which means you never go too many spins without landing at least one shot at the jackpot prize (and as we know from the winner of the Mega Moolah jackpot prize on May 8^th, you most certainly can win the top Mega Moolah progressive prize playing the Atlantean Treasures slot!).

On some spins you may collect a greater number of pearls than usual, spins where you land two, three or four pearls can happen and the more pearls you land then the greater your chances are of triggering the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game. Similarly, the more you bet per spin allied to your collection of pearls will also increase your chances of triggering a shot at the Jackpot Bonus Wheel.

What is particularly clever about this method is that Microgaming and Neon Valley Studios have weighted the collection of the pearls, the size of your bet and the chances of triggering the Jackpot Bonus Wheel to be the same as playing the other Mega Moolah-linked progressive jackpot games, which has always been a key feature of any Mega Moolah progressive.

This means that although it may seem you have less chance of triggering the jackpot bonus on Atlantean Treasures compared to the original Mega Moolah, in which every spin could be a winner, when you look at the actual odds, the chances are the same.

Is the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game any different on Atlantean Treasures?

Let's now assume you have spun the reels on Atlantean Treasures, a gold pearl has appeared and been collected and rather excitingly, the Jackpot Bonus Wheel has suddenly appeared on your screen. What can you expect from this wheel?

Well unlike Mega Vault Millionaire (which took a very different approach to the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game), the Atlantean Treasures version is very familiar to players of the original Mega Moolah (as well as those who play the newer slot Absolootly Mad too).

That's because in Atlantean Treasures, this is a single spin wheel. The wheel is divided up into sectors and sectors are coloured in one of four colours. Green for the Mini jackpot, Blue for the Minor, Red for the Major and that all important golden sector for the Mega jackpot prize.

Obviously, there are more Green and Blue sectors on the wheel than red or gold. All you then do is spin the wheel and see what sector the pointer lands on. Whichever one it is, that will be the progressive prize that you have won.

One final thing to note here is that the wheel is only representative of your Jackpot Bonus Wheel spin. The size of each sector and the number shown on screen is not an actual representation of your chances of winning each jackpot prize. The wheel is simply used to display the outcome of that spin (which is in fact a random number selected by the generator). This has been standard practice across all Mega Moolah games that use a Jackpot Bonus Wheel since the original was first released.

The best approach to playing Atlantean Treasures (or any Mega Moolah-linked slot)

I always think that the best approach to playing any of the Mega Moolah progressive-linked slots is to first and foremost play the game that is there in front of you. If you are focused solely on that progressive prize, then you are going to miss a lot of the fun that has been designed into the base game and its bonuses.

This is particularly true on Atlantean Treasures as its 10-pay line, win both ways, expanding Wilds game-play is incredibly popular with players at the moment and has been the foundation on which a number of hugely popular games have been built.

As such, if you keep your focus on the base game and look to play that and then if the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game triggers, view that as a rather nice bonus, then you get the best of both worlds. It can take some time for the bonus to trigger, so if that is all you are waiting for, you could end up frustrated pretty quickly. We did just recently have a huge NZ$13.6 million win on the Atlantean Treasures, so it's definitely possible to win the Mega Jackpot on this game!

But just remember that games like Atlantean Treasures, Absolootly Mad, Mega Vault Millionaire and Mega Moolah have a huge amount to offer in their standalone games and they should be enjoyed to the full for that alone.