Avalon II is the second of the games from Microgaming with this title, and in this quest we get the Quest for the Grail as the back story. It’s a much more modern version of Avalon, the design being 3D and looking like it was created on a computer, instead of being hand drawn. It’s clearly the better looking slot out of the two, plus it has the ways to win system in place, instead of regular paylines.
The more modern and cool looking of the two Avalon games, it offers 5 reels with 243 paylines on them (the system called ways to win). The bonus games that you advance through as part of the Quest for the Grail are the best features available inside, truly impressive, but there are also regular scatter symbols and expanding wilds. The payouts are very low though, going up to $750.
Features of Avalon II-The Quest for the Grail
Avalon II takes you on a real journey with its features, as there are 8 different bonus games that you can get access to, advancing from one to the next with each activation of this particular feature. You also can get an expanding wild, besides the scatter symbol which gets you the bonus features.
The Lady of the Lake is the expanding wild of Avalon II, and it’s a symbol that can appear anywhere on the 3rd reel. It doesn’t show up anywhere else, but it can still be very useful since it covers all the positions on the reel. It will replace any other symbol in the game which is trying to form a combination, but it can’t replace a scattered Holy Grail.
Merlin is another popular character from the Arthurian legends, and which in this case will make a random appearance. When it shows up, you will get a random multiplier or prize out of it.
As for the scatter symbol, because the game has one of these as well, it’s the one represented by the Holy Grail image. Like any good scatter symbol, it does two things at the same time. The first one would concern the prizes it can offer, which reach $750, while the minimum is 7.50x and given for just two symbols.
Grail Bonus Game
The second thing done by this symbol is the fact that it triggers the Grail Bonus. It’s a feature with eight levels that you advance through, triggering another one each time you get this bonus feature.
Lake of Legend is the first of the features you can trigger, and inside you are trying to reforge Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword. You simply roll a dice here, and you get fragments which you assemble. Each number on the dice corresponds to another piece of the sword. If you manage to get Excalibur forged in 10 dice rolls or less, you get a bonus payout of 15x the bet. If you have remaining dice rolls at the end, you get a bonus of 6x the bet for each one.
Misty Vale is the second bonus game, and in it you will find the free spins. 15 free spins are given in it, plus you pick a character which adds as an additional wild symbol and it will come with a 2x multiplier.
Whispering Woods is one of the three paths that you can take next, each one different. This one gives you five shields that you pick from, and you get a prize. You can keep the prize, or give it up and try again. You can change your mind two times, but then you are forced to keep the last prize.
Forest Falls is the second path that you can take at this stage, containing 20 free spins and trailing wilds. These trailing wilds create a path of wild symbols, as they slide down the reels.
The third path you can pick is called Dusky Moors. It asks of you to match two identical Helms in order to get a prize. The more individual Helms you manage to reveal before getting the two that are identical, the bigger the multiplier offered for the prize. Up to 8x the usual prize can be won this way.
Once you get through one of these three paths that I just mentioned, you move on to Morgan’s Keep. This level gives you 20 spins for free and a feature called Rolling Reels. You can get multiple consecutive wins from it, and each time you get a higher value for the multiplier. It goes from 2x to 6x, so the prizes you take home are worth this much more.
Hall of Shadows is the level that follows Morgan’s Keep. You are asked to fight Black Knight and defeat him, in order to get the Holy Grail. With each strike you land, you get a payout. Just how successful you are at blocking or striking will determine the amount that you take home.
The final level of this Quest for the Grail is called Isle of Avalon. It’s a wheel of fortune type of feature, where you spin the Wheels of Avalon and you get a prize. If you get the right symbol on the third wheel, you get access to a bonus wheel which has bigger prizes. Add up all the numbers you get from each wheel, and you find out what the multiplier will be for your prizes.
Betting options and jackpots
The betting system is made in a way that is easy to use, so all you have to do is click on the left and right arrows to adjust the value. Click on the title of the section, on Bet, if you want more control. This will allow you to change the denomination (between $0.01 and $0.05) and the number of coins per line (1 to 5). If you max out these options you end up with bets of up to $7.50, which makes it a very cheap slot to play.
You get the best payout with the Holy Grail symbol’s help, which will give you $750, or 100 times the bet. The next best payout is at $500, offered by a regular symbol. Keep in mind though, there are some very generous bonus games and multipliers in this slot, so there is always the chance to win more.
Design and symbols
If the developers would have put as much thought and work into the design, as they did into the slot’s bonus games, this could’ve been one of the best slot machines of all time. They did work a lot on the design, and it’s visible in their more modern and themed symbols, but on the other hand they also have half of the paytable occupied by ugly playing cards. The background image is another one that they got right, with an image of a mystical looking Isle of Avalon shown.
Symbols: Holy Grail (scatter, 100x bet), Lady of Lake (wild), Avalon II Logo (2,000x), Arthur (1,000x), Merlin (800x), Guinevere (600x), Morgan (400x), Black Knight (200x), Ace (100x), King (100x), Queen (80x), Jack (80x), 10 (60x) and 9 (60x).
Is It Worth Playing?
It’s a great game and I would recommend you give it a try. There are very good features to gain access to, especially the bonus game with its eight potential levels that you can advance through. You’re not going to get huge prizes, but you’re going to get paid quite often.
The Avalon II-The Quest for the Grail slot machine is offered through the Microgaming platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
