Crystal Scarabs: Dual Bonus System, 95.60% RTP, 1,660-Spin Session

Egypt-themed Hold and Win is my territory, and Crystal Scarabs is 3 Oaks' take on it: jackpot ladder, booster row, Egyptian aesthetic. I ran 1,660 spins in the 3 Oaks direct demo at $1.00 per spin. The result that surprised me most: Free Spins triggered exactly as often as Hold and Win - 12 events each - in a game where the 5,000x Grand Jackpot gets almost all the marketing. Same trigger frequency, completely different ceilings.

How Crystal Scarabs Works

Crystal Scarabs runs a 5x4 grid - five reels, four rows, 20 symbol positions. 15 paylines, fixed, paying left to right. Only the highest win per payline is counted on any given spin, and wins from different paylines add together.

The paytable at a $1.00 total bet runs clearly. The Crystal Scarab (a glowing blue-white crystalline beetle) is the top premium symbol: five of a kind pays 50x. Pharaoh and Queen portraits share the next tier at 25x for five-of-a-kind. The three mid symbols - Eye of Ra, Blue Crystal, and Ankh - pay 15x at five. The four card royals (A, K, Q, J) pay 5x at five.

The WILD appears on all five reels and substitutes for every symbol except Scatter and Bonus - no expanding, no sticky, no multiplier attached. The SCATTER appears exclusively on reels 2, 3, and 4 - that constraint is the critical limiter on Free Spins trigger frequency. The BONUS symbol (a blue crystalline scarab) appears on all reels and pays nothing in the base game - its purpose is entirely in the Hold and Win phase. The BONUS GOLD (a golden scarab variant) is the jackpot-eligible upgrade created by the GOLD booster.

The BOOST Feature activates when a BOOST symbol lands alongside any BONUS symbol in the same spin. All BONUS symbol values on the reels at that moment are summed and added to the spin result as a direct payout - a base-game micro-reward from the BONUS system without requiring the full Hold and Win threshold.

Bonus Features in Detail

Three separate bonus paths run in this game: Free Spins via Scatters, the Hold and Win Bonus Game triggered by 6 or more bonus-type symbols, and the Boost Feature that fires when a Boost symbol lands alongside any Bonus symbol in the base game. I tracked all three across 1,660 spins.

Free Spins

Three Scatter symbols landing on reels 2, 3, and 4 simultaneously trigger Free Spins. The rules list 8 spins per trigger; my session recorded 9 in most completed rounds, likely counting the trigger spin. I use 8 as the correct in-game count. Three Scatters landing during Free Spins adds 8 more spins - the feature can retrigger.

During Free Spins, the reel composition shifts - more BOOST and BONUS symbols than the base game. The Hold and Win Bonus Game can trigger during Free Spins, playing at the triggering bet. In my 1,660-spin session, Free Spins triggered 12 times (once every 138 spins on average). Ten events ran the full 9-spin format with wins between 7x and 23x. Two events ran fewer spins and produced 0x and 13.5x.

Hold and Win Bonus Game

When 6 or more BONUS, BONUS GOLD, or BOOST symbols appear on the reels simultaneously, the Hold and Win Bonus Game triggers. The main reels clear and only BONUS symbols appear during the bonus phase. A respin counter starts at 3 and resets to 3 each time a new BONUS symbol locks into position. The round ends when the counter hits zero with no new symbols landing.

BONUS symbol values range from 0.5x to 10x Total Bet - seven possible values: 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x. At $1.00/spin that is $0.50 to $10 per symbol. The total H&W payout is the sum of all locked BONUS symbols when the round ends.

The top row of the 5x4 board is reserved for three booster symbol types only:

• PLUS: reveals a random reward and adds it to all BONUS symbols below
• MULTIPLIER: reveals a random multiplier and applies it to all BONUS symbols below
• GOLD: converts one BONUS symbol to a BONUS GOLD symbol in the column below it

If the entire main field (all 20 positions) fills with BONUS and BONUS GOLD symbols, all accumulated values are doubled. In my 1,660-spin session, Hold and Win triggered 12 times with wins ranging from 8x to 258x, averaging around 67.6x per event. No jackpot tier was collected in any of the 12 H&W rounds - BONUS GOLD symbols appeared but not in the quantities required for even the Mini tier (2x BONUS GOLD needed).

Jackpots

Won during the Bonus Game by collecting BONUS GOLD symbols. 2 BONUS GOLD = MINI (20x total bet). 3 BONUS GOLD = MINOR (50x). 4 BONUS GOLD = MAJOR (100x). 5 BONUS GOLD = GRAND (5,000x). The GOLD booster creates BONUS GOLD from standard BONUS symbols - it is the essential path to the upper jackpot tiers. The theoretical 5,664x ceiling (GRAND 5,000x plus a maximum BONUS symbol stack) accounts for the additional BONUS symbol accumulation that can stack on top of the GRAND Jackpot in a maximum board outcome.

Boost Feature and Extra Bonus Game

When a Boost symbol lands alongside any Bonus symbol during the main game, the Boost Feature activates. All current Bonus symbol values are summed and added to the round's winning. This fires in the base game and is separate from the Hold and Win trigger.

Each BONUS symbol landing during the main game also incrementally increases the trigger probability of the Extra Bonus Game - a separate random base-game event producing a multiplier on top of normal play.

Demo Session: 1,660 Spins

I ran 1,660 spins in the 3 Oaks direct demo in July 2026, at $1.00 per spin. Demo currency, virtual credits. Balance opened at $1,000.00 and closed at $970.50 - a net loss of $29.50 over 1,660 spins. At 95.60% RTP the expected loss over this run would be around $73. The favorable outcome came almost entirely from the 258x Hold and Win event at spin 1,390.

The session opened gradually downward. By around spin 396 the balance had reached $921 - a slow grind through a period with no large wins. The slide ran well past the spin-849 checkpoint ($717.50, ~28% down): the balance kept grinding lower, bottoming near $608 around spin 1,130 - roughly 39% below the $1,000 start. That is exactly what High volatility looks like in the base game when bonuses run moderate.

The reversal came from a cluster of Hold and Win events. From that low, two consecutive H&W events at spins 1,155 and 1,156 paid 167.5x and 52.0x in rapid succession - a 219.5x two-event cluster that pulled the balance back sharply. The session high arrived at spin 1,390: a Hold and Win that ran 17 respins and paid 258x. The session closed at $970.50.

Bonus results: 24 total triggers across 1,660 spins - 12 Free Spins and 12 Hold and Win events. Combined bonus rate: 1 per 69 spins. Free Spins wins ranged from 0x to 23x, averaging around 16.8x for completed rounds. Hold and Win wins ranged from 8x to 258x, averaging around 67.6x. Hit rate across the session: 14.7% - roughly 244 winning spins out of 1,660. The longest stretch without any win was 37 spins.

Pros and Cons

How Crystal Scarabs Compares

In the 3 Oaks Hold and Win Catalog

Within the 3 Oaks H&W catalog, Crystal Scarabs sits at the top end by max win (5,000x GRAND) and booster complexity. Clover Boom Hold and Win runs the same booster-row architecture but with a lower max win ceiling. Jade Butterfly Hold and Win is also a 5x4 grid with H&W jackpot structure at a comparable RTP - Crystal Scarabs is the one with all three booster types (PLUS, MULTIPLIER, GOLD) active simultaneously. The booster combination is what makes the difference at the top of the range.

Against Book of Scarab Hold and Spin (Pragmatic Play)

Cross-provider, Book of Scarab Hold and Spin by Pragmatic Play is the closest comparable: Egyptian setting, Hold and Spin mechanics, fixed jackpot ladder. The main mechanical difference: Book of Scarab does not have a dedicated top-row MULTIPLIER that applies across all accumulated values below. That is the ceiling difference between the two titles. On RTP: 3 Oaks' 95.60% for Crystal Scarabs is on the lower end compared to Egyptian H&W offerings from Pragmatic Play, which typically run higher according to aggregator sources.

Frequently Asked Questions