John Hunter and the Mayan Gods - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

Pragmatic Play’s favourite explorer John Hunter is back for yet another adventure – in John Hunter and the Mayan Gods. In this 10-payline online slot, players are treated to a number of traditional yet generous bonus features like expanding wilds, free spins and upgrading symbols. There’s plenty to like about this online slot and, even though modern slot fans may want some more outside-of-the-box features, the bonuses on offer provide generous winning potential.

Theme and Graphics

In John Hunter and the Mayan Gods, the aesthetics have returned to the more comic book-style of art that we’re used to seeing in this game – as opposed to the more realistic design of the John Hunter games from Reel Kingdom, Book of Kingdoms and Return of the Dead.

To be completely honest, we prefer this type of look. The mishmash of cartoon and realism in the other John Hunter games are a bit off-putting while games like Mayan Gods and Tomb of the Scarab Queen just look more polished and cohesive.  

John Hunter and the Mayan Gods RTP and Variance

The RTP (return to player) in John Hunter and the Mayan Gods is 96.46%, which is about average but a tiny bit higher than you see on most online slots nowadays. It’s also a high volatility slot, which makes the top prize of 2500x a little bit disappointing.

How to Win

There are 10 paylines in John Hunter and the Mayan Gods, and winning combinations are created by landing three or more matching symbols on any of the paylines. Although this is a high variance slot, the base game payouts are pretty generous. The top prizes from each of the high-paying symbols are as follows:

• John Hunter: 50x
• Mayan King: 40x
• Serpent Charm: 30x
• Ring: 25x
• Knife: 20x
• Goblet: 20x

Expanding Wilds

There is also a wild symbol in Pragmatic Play’s John Hunter and the Mayan Gods slot. Whenever it appears on the reels (only on reels 2, 3 and 4) in a winning combination, it will expand vertically to fill the entire reel.

Free Spins and Bonuses

When you trigger three or more scatter symbols, you’ll trigger the free spins round. You begin with 12 free spins, and there are 6 levels in total.

As you climb the levels in the game, you’ll upgrade the high-paying symbols and receive more free spins:

• Landing one wild will increase your level by 1 and give you 1 more free spin
• Landing two wilds will increase your level by 2 and give you 3 more free spins
• Landing three wilds will increase your level by 3 and give you 5 more free spins

As you climb the levels in the free spins round of John Hunter and the Mayan Gods, only the high-paying symbols are upgraded. So, for example, at level 2, all goblets upgrade to knives and level 3 sees all knives upgrade to rings. This continues as you level up until all high-paying symbols turn into John Hunter himself.

John Hunter and the Mayan Gods Review

John Hunter and the Mayan Gods is not the most innovative slot game on the market, but it has features that are undeniably lucrative. Expanding wilds in the base game can never really go amiss in our books, and the same goes for upgradable symbols.

The free spins round is really great, even if it is pretty elusive. Not only does climbing the levels increase your winning potential by upgrade symbols; it also provides you more free spins, so you have even more of a chance of further upgrading your symbols.

However, Pragmatic Play could spice things up a little bit by adding some different formats and features into the mix when it comes to John Hunter slots. For example, the Rich Wilde series from Play n Go has games with cluster pays and respin bonuses  - so it would be great if John Hunter discovered some new types of bonuses on his next adventure.