Book of Dead Paylines: 1 to 10, What to Choose

Marcus HaleSlot Math Analyst · About the author

Quick Answer

Always play all 10 paylines in Book of Dead. Reducing paylines cuts your per-spin cost but also cuts potential winning combinations proportionally. The RTP of 96.21% applies per payline — fewer paylines does not improve your return rate, it just reduces total exposure while also reducing potential wins. For minimum cost, lower your coin value instead of deactivating paylines.

How Paylines Work in Book of Dead

Book of Dead has 10 paylines that run across the 5 reels from left to right. You choose how many to activate (1 to 10) before each spin. Your total bet per spin equals: coin value × coins per payline × number of active paylines. With all 10 paylines at $0.01 coin value = $0.10 minimum total bet. With 1 payline at $0.01 = $0.01 per spin.

The Mathematics of Fewer Paylines

The RTP of 96.21% is calculated assuming all 10 paylines are active. When you deactivate paylines, winning combinations that would have paid on those lines simply do not pay, the RNG still generates those combinations, but you receive no payout. You are effectively playing at full game cost minus some winning opportunities. The RTP per active payline remains 96.21%, but your total expected return from all active paylines decreases proportionally.

Why Players Reduce Paylines

Some players reduce paylines to lower total stake per spin. This is understandable from a budget perspective. However, the correct way to lower your stake in Book of Dead is to reduce the coin value, not the number of paylines. With all 10 paylines at $0.01 coin, you still bet $0.10 per spin — the minimum, while keeping full winning coverage.

Expanding Symbols and Paylines

During free spins, the expanding symbol covers full reels regardless of how many paylines are active. If you only have 3 paylines active, a full-screen expansion only pays on those 3 lines, missing the remaining 7. With all 10 paylines, a full-screen Rich Wilde expansion pays 5,000x × 10 = 50,000x. With only 5 paylines, the same expansion pays only 25,000x. This is the clearest argument for always playing all 10 paylines.

Why 1 payline is mathematically worse than 10

Paylines active	Bet per spin (at $0.10 coin)	Hit rate	Bonus probability
1 line	$0.10	~3%	0.52% (same)
3 lines	$0.30	~8%	0.52%
5 lines	$0.50	~13%	0.52%
10 lines	$1.00	26.3%	0.52%

The bonus trigger probability is independent of paylines because Books pay as scatters anywhere on the reels. Paylines only affect base game hits. Playing fewer paylines means longer dry stretches with no compensating advantage.

Adjustable but practically always 10

Some Play'n GO slots have fixed paylines (you cannot reduce them). Book of Dead allows adjustment, but the math means there is essentially no scenario where playing fewer paylines is correct. The only reason to play fewer would be if you genuinely cannot afford 10 lines at the minimum $0.01 coin value (in which case the slot is too expensive for your bankroll).

Statistics throughout this page are sourced from SlotTracker's public dataset of 8.3 million tracked Book of Dead spins, cross-referenced with our own 10,000-session Monte Carlo simulation calibrated to the canonical 96.21% RTP build.

Frequently asked questions

Are Book of Dead paylines fixed at 10?

Technically adjustable, but always play all 10. Reducing paylines lowers your hit rate without improving the RTP per line or the bonus trigger probability.

Can paylines run in both directions?

No. All 10 paylines run left-to-right only, starting from reel 1. A symbol on reel 5 does not count toward a payline if there is no matching symbol on reels 1-4.

Does playing all 10 paylines change my RTP?

No. The 96.21% RTP applies regardless of how many paylines you activate. But your effective return rate is closer to 96.21% with all 10 active because the win frequency is higher.

What is the cheapest way to play all 10 paylines?

Set the coin value to $0.01. This gives you $0.10 total bet across all 10 paylines, the minimum stake on Book of Dead.