How to Play
How to Play Book of Dead, Step by Step
Learn Book of Dead's 10 paylines, the wild/scatter Book symbol, and how the free spins trigger, one spin at a time.
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- Lines
- 10
- Best possible win
- 5000x
- Volatility level
- high
- Reel setup
- 5x3
Set a coin value and choose how many of the 10 paylines you want active, then spin. The Book symbol substitutes for every other regular symbol as a wild and also acts as the scatter: land three or more anywhere on the reels and you trigger 10 free spins with one randomly chosen symbol turned into an expanding wild for the round.
- Line wins are read left to right starting from reel 1 only
- Free spins can retrigger during the bonus with no stated limit on repeats
- There is no bonus buy button — the feature only appears through normal play
Understanding the Rules Before You Spin
Book of Dead is a 5x3 reel set with up to 10 paylines, and the number of active lines is adjustable rather than locked. Every win on those lines is read left to right starting from reel 1 — a matching run has to begin on the first reel, so symbols landing only on reels three to five never pay on their own. There are no ways-to-win or cluster mechanics here; it is a straightforward line-based game, which keeps the rules easy to follow once you know that one detail about direction.
The paytable has three tiers. Card ranks 10, J, Q, K and A sit at the bottom and only pay from three of a kind. Above them are three Egyptian-themed picture symbols — Horus, Anubis and a Pharaoh figure — which pay from two of a kind, and Rich Wilde himself tops the regular symbols, also paying from two. The Book of Dead symbol stands apart from all of these: it is both wild and scatter at once.
As a wild, the Book substitutes for any regular symbol to complete or improve a line win in the base game, exactly as you would expect from a standard wild. As a scatter, it doesn't need to sit on an active line at all — three or more anywhere on the reels trigger the free spins, and the scatter pays its own separate award of 2x, 20x or 200x your total bet for three, four or five Books in view.
Landing the trigger awards 10 free spins and picks one regular symbol at random to act as an expanding wild for the entire round. When that chosen symbol appears during a free spin, it expands to cover the whole reel it lands on, and the game then reads the outcome across all 10 lines as if those expanded reels had formed complete combinations. The rest of the rules carry over unchanged — the Book is still wild and scatter, and three or more Books during the round add another 10 free spins on top of what's left.
Betting works on a coin-value-times-coins-per-line basis rather than one flat number: you set the coin value and how many coins go on each of the up to 10 lines, and those two figures combine into your total stake per spin. One point worth flagging once — because RTP on Book of Dead is offered in several certified configurations by different operators, the exact return you're playing to can vary by casino, so checking the in-game paytable screen before you commit real money is the only reliable way to confirm which version you've loaded.
What the Rules Mean in Practice
What works
- Line-based wins with a single wild/scatter symbol keep the rule set easy to hold in your head
- Free spins can retrigger repeatedly once you're in the round, extending a single bonus significantly
- The demo version runs on the same rules, so you can learn the mechanics before risking a stake
What does not
- No bonus buy option, so the free spins only arrive through ordinary spins and can take a long stretch to show up
- High volatility means long runs of small or no wins are part of normal play, not a sign anything is wrong
Playing a Spin From Start to Finish
- 1Set your stake by choosing a coin value and how many of the 10 paylines you want active, which together set your total bet.
- 2Press spin and watch the reels resolve — line wins pay left to right from reel 1, and any Book that lands acts as a wild for those wins.
- 3Keep an eye on the Book count: three or more anywhere on the reels trigger 10 free spins with a randomly chosen expanding symbol, and further Books during the round add more spins.
Where the Rules Come From
- Play'n GO releases Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead with its 10-line, wild/scatter Book mechanic still in use today
Rules Questions Players Actually Ask
Do I need all 10 lines active for the Book scatter to trigger the free spins?
The scatter trigger is based on Book symbols appearing anywhere on the reels, not on a specific payline, so it can register regardless of how many lines you've chosen to activate. What changes with fewer active lines is how many of your regular line wins get paid, not whether the bonus can fire.
What happens if another Book lands during the free spins round?
A fresh set of three or more Books during the bonus retriggers another 10 free spins, added on top of whatever is left in the current round. There's no published cap on how many times this can happen in a single bonus.
Does the expanding symbol change the paytable during free spins?
No. The symbol values stay exactly as they are in the base game; the only change is that the chosen symbol expands to fill a whole reel when it lands, and the game reads the resulting reels across all 10 lines as normal.
Can I use the gamble feature after any win?
Some versions of the game include an optional gamble screen where you can risk a win on a card colour or suit guess. It sits outside the main reel rules and doesn't affect how paylines or the Book symbol work.
Why don't wins pay from right to left as well?
Book of Dead only reads winning combinations starting from reel 1 moving right, so a run of matching symbols confined to the last two or three reels won't register on its own. This is fixed across every version of the game.
Simple Rules, High-Volatility Payouts
Suits Players who prefer a straightforward, line-based rule set and are comfortable with a high-volatility game where the free spins carry most of the payout weight.
Less suitable for Players who want frequent, predictable small wins between features, or who find long dry spells in the base game frustrating rather than expected.
Once you know that the Book is both wild and scatter and that wins only read left to right, Book of Dead's rules are quick to pick up. The real adjustment is temperament: the game is built around occasional expanding-symbol bonus rounds rather than steady small wins, so the rule set rewards patience more than quick reads on the paytable.
Try the Rules in Demo Mode First
Before wagering real money, run a few free demo spins to see the paylines, the Book wild/scatter and the expanding free spins symbol in action. Play is restricted to 19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC).
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