Shia Safavids Treasure Slot Machine

For those unfamiliar with the name, the Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling classes of Persia after the fall of the Sasanian Empire – and in this 5-reel video slot from the team at Octopus Gaming, you’ll have a shot at getting your hands on some of the treasure they left behind.

Featuring 20 adjustable paylines, wild symbols, free spins and a bonus round, Shia Safavids Treasure has all the mod cons that you’d expect from a Octopus Gaming video slot, while a 2,500x your line bet regular jackpot is more than enough to keep regular players on the edge of their seats throughout.

Jewels Of An Empire

With 20 adjustable paylines and a line bet amount that ranges from $0.01 to $5, Shia Safavids Treasure is an incredibly versatile slot that can be played from anywhere between $0.20 and $100 with the maximum number of lines enabled – something that we’d strongly recommend you do.

The reason for this is that there are a variety of medium-sized payouts available in the game and you’ll want to have as many lines active in order to try and hit them, especially given the rewards for matching three unique symbols start at 10x your line bet and increase up to 25x for the jackpot icon.

These three-of-a-kind wins should serve to keep your bankroll ticking over until something bigger comes along, with even the smallest five-of-a-kind payout in the game being 50x your line bet. The bonus round symbols must also feature on an active payline, so having all 20 enabled will significantly improve your chances of activating the feature and winning yourself some extra cash.

A Colourful Contrast

One of the things you’ll instantly notice about Shia Safavids Treasure is that the designers seemed to have been a bit confused over what colour scheme they were going for. On the one hand, black and gold features prominently in the background and unique symbols to give the game a sophisticated feel, but on the other, however, the regular ace-through-jack symbols are a Technicolor nightmare.

Despite this slightly odd colour scheme, the game is still reasonably well illustrated, with jewelled slippers, peacocks, sultans and beautiful princesses acting as the higher value icons. An ornate lamp, a treasure chest brimming with gold and a desert sunset complete the line-up, meaning the slot’s theme is fairly consistent throughout – though the reel animations are painfully slow to watch.

Shia Safavids Treasure remains on point in terms of audio thanks to a nice piece of Arabian-style music whenever the reels are spun and a selection of sound effects that invoke Middle Eastern luxury when a winning payline is triggered, meaning no aspect of the game feels totally phoned-in.

Urn-ing A Living

Players benefit from two bonus rounds in Shia Safavids Treasure, the first a picking game that is triggered by matching three consecutive sunset symbols on a winning payline and the second a free spins feature that is activated whenever three or more lamps appear anywhere on the gameboard.

Although harder to hit, the picking game is undoubtedly the more interesting of the two features. Once activated, the reels will begin to fill with urns and players will have three goes at cracking one open and revealing a prize. At the end of the round, the three prize amounts that they uncover will be combined and multiplied by their line bet, meaning a maximum 4,500x bonus is up for grabs.

The free spins feature, meanwhile, is a little bit more straightforward and awards players 5, 10 or 20 free spins based on the number of lamp scatter symbols that they match. Both the bonus round and further free spins can be activated during these games, which is probably just as well as most of the time you’ll only win five spins, which seems skinny compared to most other Octopus Gaming slots.

Forgotten Treasure

While Shia Safavids Treasure is no longer able to stand toe-to-toe with some of the more cutting edge titles from Octopus Gaming, the game remains well worth a spin thanks to its bonus features and a relatively kind payout structure. Players will find that with all 20 paylines active, returns are fairly frequent, enabling them to get more out of their bankroll and hopefully hit a huge jackpot win.