The chronicle · entry 14263
Golden Knight II, read closely
01The chronicle opens
Entered into the roll on 26 August 2019, Golden Knight II is a five-reel, three-row pokie from High 5 Games — the studio's second muster of this particular knight, dressed in deep purple velvet and gilded royals against a green Highland keep.
My session ran at forty lines for an 80-credit bet, the banner at the foot of the reels reading 'Playing 40 lines For 80' each spin. It is a classic frame with a few sharp teeth hidden in the free games.
02Theme and atmosphere
The charge is chivalry by numbers: a fair-haired knight raising his sword, a crowned princess on her stair, a white warhorse in a green oval, and a red dragon breathing fire. Royals Q, K, J, A and a green 5 fill the lower ranks in gilded medieval type.
It is handsome in the workmanlike High 5 way — velvet reels, a stone castle to the left, rolling green hills behind. Nothing gaudy, nothing surprising, but the escutcheon is clean and reads well on a phone.
03How the game is played
Wins muster left to right across the forty lines. In my run a single line win of 15 credits fed a spin that paid 130 in total, the running tally shown as 'Game Pays 130' at the foot of the screen — around 1.6× the 80-credit bet.
The wild is a blue banner reading WILD, and it arrives stacked: I landed a full reel of it on the fifth reel more than once. The princess, knight and dragon are the paying premiums above the royals.
04Bonus features
The engine here is the stacked wild dressed as a Scatter Bucks symbol. In my session a reel of blue 'Wild' banners each carried a value of 50, and a screen of them logged as 'Scatter Bucks pay 150', pushing one spin to a 245-credit total — a touch over 3× the bet.
The Free Games are called by the dragon 'Free Games' scatter; my run flashed the scatter on the middle reels without quite landing the three needed to open the round. The feature list also flags a random multiplier and stacked symbols, both of which lean the free games toward the bigger totals.
05RTP, volatility and max win
The pool lists the return at 96.5%, which sits right on the common benchmark — a fair shake by the numbers. Volatility is marked medium, and my run matched that: steady small pays with the odd stacked-wild spike rather than long dead stretches.
The top prize is listed at 5,052× stake — an oddly specific ceiling, the sort of number that comes from a capped free-games payout rather than a round figure.
06Who it suits
This one suits players who like a familiar, mid-volatility medieval frame with stacked wilds doing the heavy lifting. The 96.5% return and the steady rhythm make it an easy one to sit with for a while.
If you want a modern feature-buy or a cascading gimmick, this older High 5 build will feel plain. Whatever you choose, set a limit before you muster in and treat it as entertainment — if the pokies stop being fun, take a spell. Free, confidential support is at safergambling.org.nz and the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655. 18+.
07The blazon in brief
A tidy, fair-priced medieval pokie whose stacked wilds and Scatter Bucks give it a bit more life than the plain base game suggests. A benchmark 96.5% return and medium volatility make it a comfortable roll, if not a thrilling one. I enter it in the chronicle at 6 out of 10.