Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead Slot Overview
Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead is a 5x3, 10-payline Egyptian slot from Play'n GO, released in June 2020. I see it as a direct descendant of Book of Dead, built on the same 'Book of' formula with one meaningful twist: Expanding Wilds that substitute for the special expanding symbol during Free Spins. For serious players, the key question is whether that single addition justifies putting real money into yet another clone. The max win sits at 5,000x, volatility is rated 10/10, and the default RTP is 96.29%.
Cat Wilde, Rich Wilde's daughter, headlines the game. Five undead pharaohs serve as wild symbols, each assigned to a specific reel. Scatters land only on reels 1, 3, and 5. With a proper bankroll, you will be grinding through long stretches of low-value base game returns before seeing anything meaningful.
Symbols and Paytable Breakdown
Premium symbols include Cat Wilde (100x for 5 of a kind), Sphinx, Anubis, and a scarab figurine, paying between 7.5x and 100x for a full line. All four premiums pay from just 2 on a payline, which helps slightly during dry stretches. Low-pay royals (10, J, Q, K, A) return 2x to 3x for five matches. The wild, depicted as an Eye of Horus that transforms into one of five pharaohs, pays 150x for a full line of five.
Honestly, the paytable is noticeably nerfed compared to the original Book of Dead. Regular symbol payouts feel trimmed to compensate for the added wild mechanic. A full payline of expanding wilds only awards 100x (not 150x), which limits the theoretical ceiling in bonus rounds. For high rollers looking at max exposure, these reduced payouts mean the slot leans on the expanding symbol mechanic almost entirely to produce anything worthwhile.
Symbol Payouts
Wild
Highest-paying regular symbol, awards 100x bet for 5 on a line.
Expanding Wilds and Free Spins Bonus
Each of the five reels has a designated undead pharaoh wild. When the Eye of Horus lands, it expands to cover the full reel and transforms into that reel's pharaoh. Available in both the base game and Free Spins, this is the slot's core mechanic. During base play, I found wild reels appeared roughly every 2-3 spins, but nearly always paired with low-pay symbols, returning somewhere between 0.2x and 3x.
Landing 3 golden compass scatters on reels 1, 3, and 5 triggers 10 Free Spins. Before the round starts, a random symbol is chosen to act as the expanding symbol. Critically, expanding symbols do not need to follow the left-to-right adjacency rule. Expanding Wilds also substitute for this special symbol if they appear on a winning line. Retriggers award 10 additional spins with no cap.
Here is where the maths gets interesting for bonus hunters. You want Cat Wilde selected as the expanding symbol, because she pays 100x for a full line. Wilds on any other reel then complete combinations without adjacency. On average, it takes about 180 spins to trigger the bonus. No bonus buy exists, so you cannot skip the grind. For players used to buying features at known cost, this is a drawback.
Bonus Buy Options
Each of the 5 undead pharaohs resides on an assigned reel. Upon landing, the Eye of Horus wild expands to cover the entire reel and transforms into the corresponding pharaoh, substituting for all regular symbols. Available in both the base game and free spins.
Landing 3 compass scatters on reels 1, 3, and 5 awards 10 free spins. A random symbol is chosen to act as the expanding symbol, growing to cover the entire reel when it appears. Expanding symbols do not need to follow left-to-right adjacency. Expanding Wilds substitute for expanding symbols if part of a win. Retrigger with 3 more scatters for 10 additional spins, unlimited retriggers.
Volatility, RTP, and Max Win Ceiling
Default RTP is 96.29%, though operators can select lower presets down to 84.26%. Always verify. Volatility is rated maximum (10/10 on Play'n GO's scale). A 200-spin test returned just 92.3x total, with the best single hit at 11.7x. That confirms severe dry spells between features.
Max win is capped at 5,000x. One source claims 10,000x is possible with a screen full of Cat Wilde or wilds, but the majority of data points to 5,000x as the confirmed ceiling. Either way, the ceiling is too low for this variance. Comparable slots in the Wilde series like Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena or Cat Wilde and the Pyramids of Dead both offer 10,000x. Putting serious money into a 10/10 volatility slot with a 5,000x cap feels mismatched. You are absorbing maximum risk for a mid-tier reward.
