What you should know about Mega Vault Millionaire slot's base game

When you have a game that offers access to a massive prize, a life-changing prize, such as the new Mega Vault Millionaire with its Mega Moolah-powered progressive jackpot prize, then it is unsurprising that many of the words written about the new slot will tend to focus on your chances to win a potentially vast sum of money.

However, often with top progressive jackpot games, you can get a little blinded by the jackpot bonus aspect of the slot and perhaps underplay how the base game itself actually works and plays. That is a mistake as it is the base game that players will be playing the vast majority of the time when they load up the slot and in truth, it is the more likely method by which a player could land a decent sized win in the game.

Admittedly, it won't match the top two progressive jackpot prizes, but there is still enough cash up for grabs in the slot to make it very worth your while to win one of the bigger cash prizes and you can win more playing the base game of the slot than you would win for either the Mini or Minor jackpot prizes.

So let's forget about the jackpot bonus game for this article only and focus on the part of the game you will play the vast majority of the time when you load up the Mega Vault Millionaire slot.

Mega Vault Millionaire's base game explained

When you look at the base game of Mega Vault Millionaire, it is perhaps best described as your typical slot from Microgaming. We have a 5x3 reel set up, 25 non-selectable pay lines in play across the reels.

This last fact is important. In the original Mega Moolah slot, you can select how many of the 25 pay lines you want to play, but if you do not play all 25 lines, then your bet would not qualify for the progressive jackpot prize, a legacy from some of the older progressive jackpot games where you would trigger the progressive jackpot by landing a specific set of symbols on the final pay line.

In Mega Vault Millionaire, the fact that all the pay lines in the game are fixed, which means you play 25 lines on every spin regardless of how much you want to bet, means that every single spin on the Mega Vault Millionaire slot can be a jackpot trigger. This is, of course, good news for players.

In addition, as is the case in other games part of the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot network, in Mega Vault Millionaire, the more money you wager on each spin, the more your chances of triggering the jackpot game increase in proportion. Bets range from 0.25 up to 6.25.

We also know that the RTP rate of the slot is just over 88%, which is lower than your typical slot game, but typical for a progressive jackpot slot and it is the same RTP as you get on any of the other slots in the Mega Moolah progressive network.

On the reels there are a number of lower value symbols in the game, and these are the playing card symbols, from the 10 through to the Ace. These offer the lower value wins in the game when you land three or more across the reels from left to right.

Higher value symbols link in more obviously with the theme of wealth and bank vaults and they include items such as precious gems, gold bars and artistic masterpieces. Alongside these symbols are the two bonus symbols on the reels that access the main bonuses of the base game. The Wild symbol (which is the jewellery box) and the Scatter symbol, which is the Faberge egg.

The Wild symbol can appear anywhere across the reels and offers the highest payout in the slot if you can land it five times on the reels on a single pay line. It also acts as a replacement, so you can use it with other symbols to create a win and when you do, you will also receive a 2x multiplier on that win.

The Scatter will trigger the Free Spins bonus game when you land three or more of the Scatters across the reels. You will also trigger a bonus pay out based on how many Scatters are landed and this bonus is calculated as a multiple of your total bet.

In the bonus game, you receive 15 Free Spins on the reels and each win you land with these bonus spins will automatically receive a 3x multiplier. As such, with that multiplier in play, all standard wins in the base game are automatically trebled. Another positive is that this Free Spins game can be retriggered by landing three or more Scatters on the reels during the bonus, which means you could actually play through many more Free Spins than you originally win, if you get lucky.

What are the top prizes on offer in the base game?

Outlined below are the prizes you can win in the base game with all the different symbols. As you can see, as is standard on slots, those winning lines with more symbols pay considerably more, especially those that contain five symbols. The prizes shown are for a 1.00 bet and are scaled up and down based on the size of your bet accordingly.

10 Symbol

• 3 x - 0.08
• 4 x - 0.40
• 5 x - 1.60

Jack Symbol

• 3 x - 0.12
• 4 x - 0.60
• 5 x - 2.40

Queen Symbol

• 3 x - 0.16
• 4 x - 0.80
• 5 x - 3.00

King Symbol

• 3 x - 0.24
• 4 x - 1.20
• 5 x - 4.00

Ace Symbol

• 3 x - 0.32
• 4 x - 1.60
• 5 x - 6.00

Cash Symbol

• 3 x - 0.40
• 4 x - 2.00
• 5 x - 10.00

Watch Symbol

• 3 x - 0.80
• 4 x - 4.00
• 5 x - 16.00

Painting Symbol

• 3 x - 1.20
• 4 x - 5.00
• 5 x - 20.00

Gold Bars Symbol

• 2 x - 0.16
• 3 x - 1.60
• 4 x - 6.00
• 5 x - 24.00

Sapphire Earring Symbol

• 2 x - 0.24
• 3 x - 2.00
• 4 x - 10.00
• 5 x - 30.00

Faberge Egg Scatter Symbol

• 2 x - 2.00
• 3 x - 3.00
• 4 x - 20.00
• 5 x - 100.00

Jewellery Box Wild Symbol

• 2 x - 0.60
• 3 x - 5.00
• 4 x - 60.00
• 5 x - 600.00

As you can see, the value of the prizes increases markedly as you progress from the lower value symbols to the higher. The maximum prize in the base game is 600x your bet for five of the jewellery box.

It is worth remembering that using a Wild in any combination will see the amount you win doubled in the base game and in Free Spins, every win is 3x the amount stated above, so you could in theory win 1,800 in the Free Spins round if you can land five of the Wild symbols across the reels on a single pay line.

A final thing to note here is that the higher value symbols offer small pays for just two symbols landed on the reels.

How rewarding are the non-progressive bonus features?

It is fair to say that in the base game, you tend to land the lower value wins in the Mega Vault Millionaire slot, which means that often, the amount you win back is not as much as the amount you are betting. Some of the wins are very small, especially for the 2 or 3 symbol wins and as such, you do need to ensure you have budgeted sensibly for the slot.

However, as this is relatively volatile slot, these lower value wins are often interspersed with the bigger value wins in the base game and that really does help your bank balance bounce back. Especially when you can land a Wild as part of a win and that 2x multiplier kicks in.

For the best chance at a sizeable win however, the Free Spins bonus round is the best option and what is great about the Mega Vault Millionaire game is that launching this bonus is not as difficult, I feel, as on some other slots. When you land Free Spins, you could win some serious money, sometimes way in excess of even the top single value win in the game. It is by combining wins in Free Spins that you can win some of the largest amounts of money without triggering the jackpot bonus game.

How does Mega Vault Millionaire's base game compare to Mega Moolah?

In truth, although they are very different games and based on very different subjects, there are a lot of similarities between the two base games. While the Mega Moolah slot base game jackpot is 75,000 coins and this rises to 225,000 in Free Spins, I feel that the bonus features on Mega Vault Millionaire are more player-friendly and are generally a little easier to trigger.

Mega Vault Millionaire has been a huge hit at Casino Rewards casinos since it was released a short time ago and we hope that this base game guide will give you the knowledge and tools to enjoy this key aspect of the slot.

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