The Book of Ra paytable, top to bottom
The single most valuable icon in Book of Ra Deluxe is the Explorer: five on a line pays 5,000× your line bet, the headline figure the game is known for. Below it sit the Egyptian picture symbols, then the low-value playing-card royals. The Book itself is a special case - it doubles as wild and scatter and carries the free-games feature. The table below reads straight off the in-game Deluxe paytable, expressed as a multiple of the line bet (not your total stake).
One thing worth saying up front, because the free-play hosts rarely do: these are symbol pays on a payline, not a promise. The Explorer 5,000× is the maximum for one line hit, and the real ceiling only shows up in free spins when the expanding symbol fills whole reels.
| Symbol | Type | 5 of a kind | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explorer / adventurer | Premium | 5,000× | Highest pay; the source of the 5,000× headline |
| Book of Ra | Wild + Scatter | 2,000× | Pays anywhere on the reels; 3+ triggers 10 free games |
| Pharaoh / gold mask | Premium | 2,000× | Pays from 2 of a kind |
| Statue (winged figure) | Premium | 750× | Same tier as the Scarab |
| Scarab (beetle) | Premium | 750× | Shares the Statue's pay ladder |
| A, K | Royal | 150× | Pays from 3 of a kind |
| 10, Q, J | Royal | 100× | Lowest pays; 3 of a kind minimum |
The premium symbols (Explorer, Pharaoh, Statue, Scarab) start paying from two matching symbols on a line. The royals - 10, J, Q, K, A - only pay from three. Only the highest win counts per line, and wins run left to right across the paylines you have active (nine on Classic, ten on Deluxe).
Those sub-Explorer tiers are the ones I would treat with a light hedge. AboutSlots lists the Deluxe Explorer as 10 / 100 / 1,000 / 5,000× for two to five, which lines up with the coin values I read off the demo, but no single certified Novomatic math sheet exists for the whole ladder, and figures drift a little between versions and market builds. Casino.guru even leaves the Deluxe max win at "Unknown," since there is no official ceiling published by Greentube. The 5,000× top symbol is solid; treat the middle rungs as strong estimates, not gospel.
Why the Book is really two symbols
Most slots keep their wild and their scatter separate. Book of Ra folds both jobs into one icon, which is the mechanical heart of the game.
As a wild, the Book substitutes for every other symbol to help complete a line. As a scatter, it pays no matter where it lands - it does not need to sit on a payline - and three or more anywhere on the reels open the bonus round. Five Books alone are worth 200× your stake. That dual role is why a screen with a couple of Books can pay in ways a normal wild never would.
The scatter pays for the Book (400× / 4,000× / 40,000 coins at the demo's line bet for three, four, five) are position-independent, which is unusual and easy to miss if you are only watching the paylines.
The special expanding symbol
Once the Books drop you into the feature, the game draws a single regular symbol at random to serve as the special expanding symbol for the free games. During those spins it can grow to cover its entire reel - all three rows - and then pays like the regular symbol but on any position and across all lines you played, even non-adjacent ones, provided enough of them are on screen to form a win.
This is where the paytable and the payout ceiling part ways. If the Explorer is picked as the expanding symbol and lands well, a full reel of Explorers on every active line dwarfs a single 5,000× line hit. If a royal is picked, the same feature can fizzle. It is the same 10 free games either way, but the symbol you draw swings the outcome enormously. The full mechanic - trigger, random symbol, retriggers - is laid out in the free games explainer.
Royals versus picture symbols
Book of Ra keeps the old card-suit convention: 10, J, Q, K and A are the filler symbols. They pay little (100-150× at five of a kind) and only from three of a kind, so they mostly serve to keep the reels busy between the meaningful hits.
The four Egyptian picture symbols carry the game. The Explorer is the jackpot symbol; the Pharaoh mask sits just under it; the Statue and Scarab share a middle tier. Because premiums pay from two of a kind while royals need three, the practical gap between a "picture" line and a "royal" line is wider than the raw numbers suggest. If you are tracking what a spin is worth at a glance, watch the pictures, not the letters.
Book of Ra Deluxe Two Symbols
"Two Symbols" is a distinct release, not a setting inside standard Deluxe, and it draws its own steady search demand - so it is worth being precise about. Book of Ra Deluxe Two Symbols keeps the same reels, paytable and Book wild/scatter, but changes the free games: instead of picking one special expanding symbol, the feature selects two different expanding symbols at the start of the round.
Two active expanding symbols means more ways for a free-spins screen to connect, which can smooth out the volatility of the single-symbol version a touch - you are no longer entirely at the mercy of one draw. The flip side is the same as ever: whether either symbol is a premium or a royal still decides how big the round runs, and the base game stays just as thin. RTP and exact behaviour vary by operator build, so confirm it on the game's info panel before you read across from standard Deluxe. If the standard single-symbol feature is what you are after, the demo and the mechanics sit on the Deluxe page and the free spins guide.
Classic pays differently
The paytable above is Deluxe. The 2005 Classic uses the same symbols and the same wild-scatter Book, but runs nine paylines instead of ten, with different top-symbol values and a lower default return - roughly 92.13% against Deluxe's 95.10% (both operator-configurable, and I cover the numbers in full on the RTP page). If you have seen a Book of Ra paytable elsewhere with slightly different figures, it is almost certainly a Classic sheet, a different market build, or one of the spin-offs like Deluxe 6. Same symbols, different maths.
Verdict
The feature is the whole story here, and the paytable is really a map of what the expanding symbol can turn into. Explorer at 5,000× is the number everyone quotes, but the Book doing two jobs at once - wild and scatter and feature trigger - is what makes the game tick, and the random special symbol is what actually pays the big rounds. Read the pictures, ignore the hype around the royals, and remember the 5,000× is a line-bet symbol pay, not a guaranteed single-spin cap. Try the pays yourself in the free demo before committing real credits.
Common questions about the symbols
What is the highest-paying symbol in Book of Ra?
The Explorer (the adventurer) pays the most: five on a line returns 5,000× the line bet in Deluxe, the highest single-line pay in the game. The Pharaoh mask and the Book are next at 2,000×.
Is the Book a wild or a scatter?
Both. It substitutes for every other symbol like a wild, and it also pays from any position and triggers the bonus like a scatter. Three or more anywhere on the reels start the 10 free games; five Books pay 200× stake.
Do the 10, J, Q, K and A symbols pay much?
Not really. The card royals are the low-value fillers, paying 100-150× at five of a kind and only from three of a kind. The four Egyptian picture symbols carry the game, and they pay from two of a kind.
How is Book of Ra Deluxe Two Symbols different?
Its free-spins feature picks two special expanding symbols instead of one, giving more ways for a round to connect. The reels, symbols and Book wild/scatter are otherwise the same, though RTP can vary by operator build.