Dragon Hunter

One of the issues that the online slots industry faces is that players tend to want things that are outside of the box, but if software companies go too far outside of the box, then players actually end up not actually playing the titles in most cases. The Dragon Hunter slot, powered by Ganapati, avoids this problem by giving players a play style and approach that's a bit different than the usual, but it's not so different that players will feel unfamiliar and want to avoid playing it in the first place.

Format and Layout

The layout is actually pretty simple to understand. You'll see that there are five columns and five rows of symbols to form a square, 25-spot grid. Three or more matching symbols in any position, vertically or horizontally (not diagonally), will give you a payout. All of the wins are based on multiplying the amount that you've wagered on that spin, and you can pick between $0.10 per turn at a minimum and $30 per spin at a maximum. Even penny players will feel comfortable with this game's minimum bet size, and you can see how higher rollers will have plenty of options to pick from as well.

Cascade Wins

One important aspect of the gameplay, and the feature that you will most likely encounter the most often when you play this title yourself, is the cascading wins feature. Whenever you get a winning combination, it's paid out as usual. Once all of the wins are paid, you'll see the winning symbols disappear, and this allows new symbols to fall into place. As a result, you can end up with extra wins on top of your original payouts, and this process can continue until there are no new wins to trigger the cascade.

Three Gauges

Players will see three gauges under the reels. One is red, one is blue and the third is a yellow spiral. The red gauge offers a repeater feature whenever it's triggered, and that basically just means that you can repeat some of your wins on that spin for extra payouts. Likewise, the blue gauge offers a multiplier on your next payout, which also amounts to extra prizes that you wouldn't have received without it. Notice that neither of these gauges will trigger without awarding you some kind of extra winnings because they both trigger on the very next win after filling them.

The third gauge, however, is a bit different. It fills up after every single win that you get, and once it's full, it triggers a feature spinner to determine one of three different features. You can get sticky wild symbols, expanding wild symbols or the dragon fight feature. The first two features are self-explanatory, but the third needs some additional explanation for players to know just what's going on with it.

Dragon Fight Bonus Feature

This bonus feature is actually pretty straightforward. Two characters from the reels will show up, and you'll control one while the other assists you. You'll be fighting the dragon with options to attack or guard. The dragon will attack, and if you use the right timing with the guarding, then your health will actually increase. The better you do in this mode, the better payouts you get.

Payouts and Prize Structure

The DH symbol in red and gold pays out 500x for five of a kind. Note that this win, like all of the others, is based on a multiple of how much you've wagered in total. The red, white and black dragons give you 50x, 30x and 15x, respectively. From there, you get into the card rank symbols, and there are several of them in this game.

The red A and blue K pay 12x and 10x each. You can earn 8x for five of the yellow Q, and the green J gets you 6x for five. The dark red 10 and orange 9 pay 5x or 2x, and you'll earn 1x or 0.6x for five of the purple 8 or green 7, respectively.

Things wind down with the two characters. The girl pays 0.50x for five, and the boy gets you 0.40x for five. Finally, the Dragon Hunters logo itself will get you a win of 0.30x for five of a kind.

Our Thoughts

There are some pros and some cons to the Dragon Hunter slot. Ganapati has made the gameplay a lot of fun, and the top prizes and features are all pretty good. The main drawback is that the lower five-of-a-kind winning payouts are extremely small, so that's something you'll want to keep in mind when you play.