Description
Hammer of Vulcan, released in mid-October 2020 by Swedish slot maestros Quickspin, is literally red-hot! And by the way, it has nothing to do with Star Trek – Vulcan was also the fire god of Ancient Rome.
Played on a 6×4 format with a hefty 4,096 ways to win, metal and hot lava combine here on Sicily’s eastern coast, as you travel underground underneath the Mt Etna volcano. The grid itself is placed atop the God of Fire’s massive anvil.
The God of Fire is making jewellery and weapons for the gods of Olympus in his dangerous forge.
Meanwhile, you can hear some ‘banging’ metal tunes in the background.
Packed with exciting features, this game should have you on the edge of your seat for every single turn of the reels.
Hammer of Vulcan: Gameplay Video Demo
How to play
Prices in Hammer of Vulcan (which is playable across all devices) kick off from 10p, rising to a hefty £100 per go. Playing-card icons on the reels are joined by theme-relevant icons from swords, shields and helmets to gold golems, tongs and chalices. Standard Wilds payout at up to 12x stake for six of a kind.
Set Autoplay if you wish, to get the reels turning for up to 1,000 times, automatically and without interruption. And, if you can handle it, turbo mode offers another option.
Special features
Special symbols
There’s a regular Wild, and a Hammer one, as described below. The volcano serves as your Scatter.
Bonus features
Buy feature
Hammer of Vulcan is the first Quickspin game to adopt this feature. Pay 100x bet and gain entry into the Light the Forge! bonus round, although it may not be possible to do so in all markets. But essentially it’ll work in the same way as when it’s triggered randomly.
Hammer Strike
The Hammer Wild activates this on landing. All symbols beneath the Wild on the same reel become standard Wilds. At the same time, within the Light the Forge! perk, each Hammer Strike raises the multiplier by a factor of 1.
Light the Forge! free spins feature
This is the main event in Hammer of Vulcan. Initiate it in a conventional way on landing at least three Scatters wherever you like on the reels, off a single spin. Three Scatters will grand you 10 freebies, four 12, five 15 and six 20.
A standard 1x multiplier applies. Every time a Hammer Wild rocks up, this goes up by a factor of 1. You can also retrigger the round. Land between one and four Scatters on a spin to enjoy between one and six extra free whirls.
Strike Again
If your final free whirl doesn’t yield a win, the Strike Again feature kicks in. The reels turn until finally, you do have a winning combo. Volcano Scatters can still appear and add more free spins to extend the session, while if any Hammer Wilds land, again the multiplier goes up by 1.
Jackpot
While there’s no progressive jackpot as such in Hammer of Vulcan, you can potentially win a humungous maximum of more than 20,000x overall wager.
Return to Player (RTP)
Quickspin bills Hammer of Vulcan as its most volatile and high-variance game yet. Meanwhile, RTP or Return to Player is marginally below average at 95.81%. You’ll find most wins come from the two key bonus features.
Verdict
Audio and visuals in Hammer of Vulcan are magnificent, while one reviewer summed it up as a ‘brutal’ game, given that volcanic volatility. But the rewards are certainly there if you’re up for the challenge, and can take the sheer pace of this slot. Equally, it’s actually not that complex to understand.
Most players are going to want to enter this slot with caution. You could end up being thoroughly hammered (pun intended). Make no mistake, this is a high-risk, high-stakes game and won’t be everyone, least of all novice players.
Slots 
