Ape King

The Jungle Canopy Over in Full View

Load Ape King and you get jungle canopy over a ruined temple, vines strung across a drop before you get anything else. At the centre of the picture: a colossal gorilla wearing a gold crown. That motif is both the highest-paying symbol in Ape King and the face on the tile.

The rest of the premium symbols are a golden idol, a bunch of bananas, a carved totem and a tribal drum; the low-value positions are card ranks. The colour work is dense green, ochre and smoky haze, and it is cinematic rather than subtle.

The soundtrack is cinematic, and it is worth leaving on — the feature trigger is easier to catch by ear than by eye. On a phone held upright the grid keeps the same proportions and the dense green survives the shrink, which is not true of every title in the lobby — some lose their backgrounds entirely at that width.

Ape King identifies itself quickly, which counts for more in a lobby of this size than it would in a small one.

How the Ways Pay

Ape King is laid out as 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 ways to win, and it reads exactly as it looks. There are no lines to select: matching symbols on adjacent reels pay from the left, so a run of ape king counts whatever row each one lands on. The ape king is the top symbol, a golden idol sits under it, and the card ranks below those are what most Ape King spins return.

Ape Wild does the substituting (the king completes combinations and holds his position for the rest of the run), and it is worth learning what it does not substitute for, which is the scatter. Top end on Ape King is 2,000× the total bet, and nothing on the base grid gets close to it — the number assumes 243 ways lines up.

On Ape King one entry does the heavy lifting — 243 ways: there are no lines: adjacent matching symbols pay from the leftmost reel. So the honest way to read Ape King is as two games stacked: the base grid, which ticks over, and the feature, which does not.

Choosing a Stake for Ape King

Because Ape King pays 243 ways, there is no line count to adjust: you set a total bet and the whole Ape King grid is live for it. That is also why 2,000× the total bet is written as a multiple rather than an amount — the Ape King ceiling moves with the stake.

Volatility on Ape King is high, which means it concentrates its return into a small number of spins, which means most of them give back nothing. Be careful with any RTP figure you find for Ape King elsewhere. RTG sets the return per operator, not per game, so Ape King runs differently from one casino to the next. The only figure worth trusting for Ape King is the one printed in its own paytable.

One practical note on staking Ape King: changing the bet between spins changes nothing but the price, and no state carries across — each Ape King spin is settled on its own. Ape King lets autoplay run until 243 ways lands, which is the sensible configuration — there is nothing on its base grid worth watching spin by spin.

Bonus Rounds Worth Waiting For

There are three things worth waiting for in Ape King, starting with 243 ways. None of them fire often; all of them change the shape of a Ape King session when they do.

243 ways. The paytable entry reads: there are no lines: adjacent matching symbols pay from the leftmost reel. 243 ways is the part of Ape King most worth having a balance left for.

Free Games: three or more idols award up to twenty free spins. Free Games does not fire often on Ape King, and the game is built on the assumption that you are waiting for it.

Ape Wild: the king completes combinations and holds his position for the rest of the run. In a high-volatility game like Ape King that matters more than it sounds: Ape Wild is the round the quoted ceiling is calculated from.

Taken together the set is what separates Ape King from the rest of its shelf. The base grid is common enough across the catalogue; 243 ways is not, and it is the reason the game has its own page here.

Getting the Most From Each Spin

On Ape King the stake wants to be small relative to the balance: the game can go a long way without paying, and the only protection against that is spin count. Whatever balance you bring to Ape King, decide in advance what leaves with you; the limit tools sit in the account area.

Bonus play on Ape King is straightforward: slots clear wagering at 100%, and the detail is on the bonus page. Before staking Ape King, run it in practice mode until 243 ways has landed at least once — that wait tells you more about Ape King than the paytable does.

One thing not to do with Ape King is chase 243 ways by raising the stake after a dry run: its trigger frequency does not change with bet size, only the cost of waiting does. Our responsible gaming page has the limits, the self-exclusion options and the contacts for independent help — none of it requires talking to support about Ape King or anything else first.

Ape King in Short

Ape King suits a player who wants a game that can do very little for a long time and then do a great deal at once. If it lands well, Kung Fu Rooster is the next one to try — same family of mechanics, different rhythm.

Ape King and Kung Fu Rooster both run in practice mode, so comparing them costs nothing but the time. Start with Ape King if you are prepared to sit through the quiet. Full specifications for Ape King — the 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 ways to win, volatility, the top end (2,000× the total bet), the feature list and the release year — are in the table at the top of this page.

Kung Fu Rooster