Sherlock Bones Slot Review

Sherlock Bones - Game Overview

Sherlock Bones is a video slot from Electric Elephant, built as a 5x3 adjacent ways game that starts with 243 ways to win. The theme puts a dog detective centre stage, backed by cartoon style visuals and a light-hearted take on Victorian London. Most of the time you are spinning a fairly straightforward base game, waiting for the special Sherlock wild to appear and wake things up.

Under the main reel set sits a horizontal bonus reel that decides whether the dog gets “thrown a bone”. That small twist defines how Sherlock Bones plays, because there is really only one significant feature here. When the base game runs cold it can feel quite flat, but the engine does have enough punch to deliver decent hits once the wild starts doing its thing.

Sherlock Bones Slot RTP, Volatility & Bets

On the numbers side, Sherlock Bones comes with an RTP of 96.21%, which sits right on the basic standard you would expect from a modern slot. Official material calls this a medium volatility game, though other sources go as far as high, and my sessions backed that up with long dry spells between stronger hits. The bet range runs from 0.20 up to 100 per spin, so bankroll coverage is broad.

The base setup gives you 243 ways to win across the 5x3 grid, but the Rolling Respins mechanic can expand the reels up to 7 rows, raising the ways to 16,807. Payout potential is quoted around the 2,300x to 2,400x mark on a single spin, with some reviewers mentioning 2,430x and others 2,324x. So the game sits in that medium to high reward bracket, without drifting into insane jackpot territory.

Sherlock Bones Symbols and Paytable

Sherlock Bones sticks to a mix of themed icons and lower tier symbols. The weakest symbols cover the cheaper hits that keep the balance ticking over, while premium symbols such as sidekick characters and classic detective props drive the bigger line wins when you land full combinations. The published paytable shows top wins of 5x for five of the best symbol, sliding down through 3x, 2x and 1x tiers for the rest of the premium set.

Lower tier symbols drop into the 1x and below range for a five-of-a-kind, with values such as 1.00, 0.75, 0.50 and 0.25 for the cleaner hits. At the very bottom you are looking at 0.20 or 0.10 for five across, which fits the 243 ways model where volume matters more than single-line power. The Sherlock Bones wild symbol itself does not carry a direct payout, but its substituting role is far more important.

I always suggest having a quick look at the in-game paytable before cranking up the stake, just to get a feel for how the symbol ladder scales. In Sherlock Bones the gap between a screen of premiums and a handful of low icons is easy to spot. That pay distribution ties in neatly with the medium to high volatility, as most spins sprinkle in smaller results while you wait for a stacked run of premiums alongside the wild.

Symbols and Paytable

Symbol	Quantity	Payout
	5	x5
	4	x3
	3	x2
	5	x3
	4	x2
	3	x1.5
	5	x2
	4	x1.5
	3	x1
	5	x1
	4	x0.5
	3	x0.4
	5	x0.75
	4	x0.4
	3	x0.3
	5	x0.5
	4	x0.3
	3	x0.2
	5	x0.5
	4	x0.25
	3	x0.1
	Wild

Bonus Features in Sherlock Bones

The whole feature package in Sherlock Bones revolves around the Sherlock wild and the horizontal bonus reel underneath the main grid. The wild can land on reels two to five and substitutes for regular pay symbols. Whenever it lands, the bonus reel spins once. If a bone symbol stops directly under that wild, you trigger the Rolling Respins feature that defines the slot, and this is where the game finally wakes up.

Once Rolling Respins is active, the triggering Sherlock wild expands to cover its reel and you are guaranteed at least one win. After each winning respin, the wild walks one reel to the left and an extra row is added to the grid, pushing the ways count higher. You can gain up to four extra rows this way. Respins continue as long as there is at least one walking wild on the reels, which keeps the tension high.

Fresh Sherlock wilds can land during Rolling Respins, and if another bone appears beneath, that new wild also turns into a walking stack. Even regular wilds that land without a bone will expand during the feature, though they will not walk unless they hit a bone. In practice I found that one walking wild often gives a decent but unspectacular return, while two or more at once can finally drive those bigger, more satisfying hits.

Design, Theme & Audio in Sherlock Bones

Sherlock Bones leans into a simple, cartoon style presentation rather than gritty realism, which suits the dog detective angle nicely. The visuals sketch out a playful take on Victorian London with steampunk touches, and everything sits cleanly around the 5x3 grid and the bonus reel. Electric Elephant have backed it up with a rich sound-scape that shifts gear once Rolling Respins kicks in, making that feature feel like the real highlight of the audio work.

Review Summary of Sherlock Bones

After putting a fair number of spins through Sherlock Bones, I came away viewing it as a simple slot carried almost entirely by one neat mechanic. The combination of walking wilds and expanding reels is genuinely engaging the first few times it hits, especially when the ways climb towards 16,807. On the flip side, the base game can drag while you wait for the dog to find a bone, and single-wild features often fall short of thrilling.

For players who enjoy medium to high volatility and prefer one strong core feature over a bundle of side games, Sherlock Bones has enough to offer, backed by fair RTP and solid visual polish. If you need constant features and varied bonus rounds, the pacing might feel a bit too sparse. Personally I slot it into the “decent for focused sessions” category rather than something I grind for hours, but those Rolling Respins are good fun when they land.

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