Dragon Drop Slot Machine
Dragon Drop is a 5 reel, 25 pay line slot machine that NextGen developed for land based and online casinos.
Dragon Drop is one of many slot machines that center on these fire breathing creatures. It also includes other common elements found in dragon themed stories, like castles, knights, and treasure.
But does this game include anything that sets it apart from typical dragon knight games?
Keep reading to find out as we cover Dragon Drop’s background, music, animations, pay table, graphics, bonus features, and betting options. We’ll also compare Dragon Drop to a couple of similarslot machines.
Dragon Drop Slot Machine Overview
Atmosphere – Background
Most dragon stories revolve around caves, castles, and mountains. Dragon Drop is different, though, because the main action takes place in a rural setting.
The foreground features colorful flowers and a fence, while the background shows rolling hills and small trees.
You’ll also see a windmill and castle in the far distance, although this background is more fitting of the windmill than it is the castle.
Based on the background, this game feels like a mixture of a farming and medieval slot machine. This mix doesn’t make for a great dragon themed atmosphere, but it’s interesting nonetheless whencompared to other dragon slots.
Music and Sound Effects
The main game doesn’t feature music, but you’ll hear birds chirping and other nature sounds. This is a change from most dragon slot machines, which feature dramatic music to set the dragon vsknight tone.
When you spin the reels, you’ll hear a tune that sounds like it could be in a game show.
The sound effects during winning pay outs are generic and could be in any random slot machine. Based on this, the music and sound effects don’t measure up to the other aspects of this game.
Animations
Dragon Drop features several animations during winning pay outs and in the background.
Animations during winning pay outs include: the dragon spinning around in circles, dragon eggs wobbling back and forth, and the knight and sheep moving towards the screen.
Background animations include: butterflies flying out from behind the reels, three dragons hovering above the reels, and day turning to night when you trigger the bonus.
We’d like to see more dynamic animations during winning pay outs. But Dragon Drop makes up for this by offering more background animations than most slot machines.
Dragon Drop Pay Table and Graphics
Dragon Drop’s symbols and pay outs include the following:
Appearing only on reels 2, 3, and 4, this green dragon substitutes for every symbol except the scattered eggs. You’ll see 3 dragons at the top of the reels, and they randomly drop down to giveyou random wilds. The dragon doesn’t form any wins itself, but it doubles any pay out that it helps form.
If 3 or more of these symbols land anywhere on the reels, you’ll trigger free spins. The dragon eggs also pay a multiple prize on your triggering bet, including 100x your triggering wager for 5symbols, 20x for 4, 5x for 3, and 2x for 2.
Filled with gold, this treasure chest pays 5,000 credits for 5 symbols, 200 for 4 symbols, 50 for 3, and 2 for 2. As you can see, the top pay out of 5,000 coins is far greater than the prizes forlower symbols.
The castle pays 500 credits for 5 symbols, 50 for 4, and 25 for 3.
These symbols are odd for this game because the knight carries a pitchfork – not a sword – while it’s strange that the sheep is even in this slot to begin with.
These two letters pay 200 credits for 5 symbols, 20 for 4, and 15 for 3.
The Q and J offer 150 credits for 5 symbols, 15 for 4, and 10 for 3.
The letters pay 100 credits for 5 symbols, 10 for 4, and 5 for 3.
Symbol Graphics
The symbol graphics look excellent, offering a mix of bold colors, 3D graphics, and strong detail.
We especially like the detail in the castle, sheep, and treasure chest. The dragon, dragon eggs, and soldier aren’t as detailed, but they still look nice.
The letters and numbers are also well designed, but we think that NextGen could’ve been more creative with the low paying symbols beyond using generic letters / numbers.
Dragon Drop Slot Bonus Features
Free Spins
When you trigger 8 free spins by landing 3 or more dragon eggs anywhere on the reels, the eggs will hatch and a big green dragon flies across the screen.
The background also turns to a starry sky, while you’ll hear a fast paced tune playing throughout free spins.
The biggest perks to this bonus is that all wins are doubled during free spins, and any dragon wild that lands on the reels remains there until the free games are over.
Gamble Feature
Following any win, you can click the Gamble button at the bottom of the screen. This takes you to a second screen, where you can either double your pay out by guessing if a playing card will bered or black, or quadruple it by guessing the card’s suit.
You can continue playing the Gamble feature until you choose to collect your winnings, or win 5 consecutive times.
If you lose at any point during this feature, you’ll also lose your triggering bet and any winnings accrued during the Gamble round.
Betting Options
You can adjust pay lines from 1 to 25 by using the arrows beneath the reels or the numbers on both sides of the screen. You can also change your coin denomination from €0.01 to €2.00 per line.
This makes the minimum bet worth €0.01, and the max wager worth €50.00 per spin.
If you’d like to bet the max coin size right away, you can click the gold coins above the reels. This automatically makes your coin size €2.00, although we don’t see any reason to bet this muchper spin.
Other Options
You can turn the sound on and off by clicking the music note in the lower left hand corner. The only other option you have is to click the information button above the music note to access thepay table.
Win Frequency
The win frequency for Dragon Drop is above average for a 25 pay line slot machine.
We had some cold streaks where we lost 6 8 spins in a row before winning. But there were also times where we won several spins in a row.
Once every several spins, one of the dragons from above the reels will drop down to give you an extra wild symbol. The dragons are usually enough to help form a winning pay out.
Return to Player RTP
RTP for Dragon Drop is 95.23%, which is average for an online slot.
Due to the above average win frequency, you should be able to play for a while, even with a small bankroll. But your long term prospects of beating Dragon Drop aren’t great due to the averageRTP.
Games Rules
Dragon Drop features standard rules for a 5 reel slot machine, which you can see below:
- All pay outs are formed from left to right, except for scatter pay outs.
- If one or more wins occur in the same line, only the highest pay out win counts.
- The dragon wild only appears on reels 2, 3, and 4.
- Scatter wins are multiplied by your total bet and added to pay line wins.
Comparison to Other Dragon Themed Slot Machines
As mentioned before, there are multiple dragon slot machines available. In fact, NextGen has made another one called A Dragon’s Story, and you can see a comparison between this slot and DragonDrop below.
NextGen’s A Dragon’s Story
The first thing that you’ll notice about this 5 reel, 25 pay line slot is that it looks very similar to Dragon Drop.
The background is a colorful scene involving Ruff the Dragon and his treasure hoard. The symbols also look good, although they’re of lower quality than what Dragon Drop offers.
One big difference between these two games is that A Dragon’s Story follows the common knight vs dragon thread, rather than Dragon Drop’s dragon farm theme.
But in an interesting twist, A Dragon’s Story paints Ruff as the hero, rather than the treasure stealing Brave Sir William.
The features are what really make this slot stand out, with two bonus rounds available and random wilds.
The random wilds are created by little green dragons shooting fire at the reels, which is similar to Dragon Drop having dragons fly onto the reels.
The Brave Sir William bonus is entertaining because the knight runs onto the screen, only to get toasted by one of Ruff’s fireballs. You select what fireballs to shoot at Sir William, and thelonger he runs around, the more bonus credits you get.
Our only complaint with this slot is that you must make Super Bet 1 35 coins or Super Bet 2 50 coins to qualify for more expanding wilds and higher payback. €0.35 or €0.50 is a large amount tolow rollers who will already struggle with making the €0.25 default bet.
This is one advantage that Dragon Drop has because you can adjust pay lines from 1 25, and you don’t need to make any special bets to qualify for top payback.
Both of these slots have their strengths and weaknesses, but the positives outweigh the negatives in each case. If you like one of these slot machines, then you’re going to like the other.
Conclusion
NextGen has a talent for developing unique slot machines. And they’ve done a good job of making Dragoon Drop different from other games in this genre.
Instead of the background being dominated by a castle or dragon’s den, you’ll see rolling hills, flowers, and a windmill. We also find it interesting how the knight wields a pitchfork, and that asheep is included in this game.
The 3D graphics are another good point to Dragon Drop since they offer bold colors and good detail.
Another nice aspect to this game is how flexible the betting options are. You can bet as little as €0.01 per spin or as much as €0.50.
The biggest downside to Dragon Drop is that the only bonus you can trigger is free spins.
Granted, the theatrics of the dragon flying across the screen and eggs hatching before the free games start is nice. But we think that Dragon Drop could’ve taken this a step further by includinga second screen bonus like A Dragon’s Story offers.
A minor complaint is that the variety of sound effects during winning pay outs is limited. We also think that there could be more dynamic animations during wins, other than the dragon spinningaround.
But these small drawbacks aren’t enough to make Dragon Drop worth skipping over. That said, we recommend playing Dragon Drop, especially if you’re looking for a different take on the dragonknight story.