Smoking Dragon

Smoking Dragon: Slot Overview

Load up an Asian-themed slot, and chances are a dragon, or two, isn't far behind. Such is the case with developer Hacksaw Gaming's release, Smoking Dragon. In this cartoon adventure, players catch up with an entity know as the Smoking Dragon, who uses a pipe to blow out clouds and influence when the sun will rise. The dragon also likes polishing its treasure, of which players may be able to get their hands on, in the form of golden Dragon Egg prizes, or just straight ways wins augmented by wild multipliers, and an unusual Row Cascade mechanic.

Asian dragon slots are old news and they often come across as generic slop, but Hacksaw Gaming has used a particular graphical design that makes Smoking Dragon look somewhat fresh. It might sound like 500 other games, yet its vivid cartoon style helps the game stand out and grab attention. Behind the grid, a soft blue sky decked out in fluffy clouds makes for a cheerful backdrop, and the dragon character himself adds a light, fun feel to the scene. On the reels, many of the symbols resemble mythical creatures inspired by Asian culture, such as lions, dragons, and other animals, drawn with friendly expressions, contributing to Smoking Dragon's amiable personality.

This is a ways-to-win type of game with 1,024 win ways built into the 5x4 gaming area, paying left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost side. Gamblers may stake $/€0.10 to $/€100, and when doing so, a theoretical RTP of 96.3% is to be expected at the most. Smoking Dragon isn't one of Hacksaw Gaming's big volatile beasts, as its 2 out of 5 rating puts it in the lower-medium part of the scale.

Smoking Dragon's ten regular paying symbols are 10-A card royals, and five animal premium symbols. A 5-of-a-kind way win is worth 0.5x for the royals, or 1x to 1.5x for the high pay symbols. When wilds or Epic Wilds are on the reels, they are able to substitute any of these regular paying symbols. They may both land on any reel and are worth 2.5x for five of them.

Smoking Dragon: Slot Features

Smoking Dragon cooks up a Row Cascade feature, wild/Epic Wilds possibly with multipliers, three bonus games - Puff of Luck, Smoldering Riches, and Fire and Fortune, as well as feature buys.

Features

• Row Cascade - When a winning combination happens, all symbols on the bottom row are removed, and all remaining symbols move down one row. Symbols fall in at the top to fill the grid. A new Row Cascade sequence triggers when the same win is on the grid, the same win grows, or new wins are created. When no new win appears, the Row Cascade ends.
• Wild Symbols - Wilds or Epic Wilds may be wild only or have an additive multiplier value of x2 to x100. Multipliers multiply the win they are part of. Multipliers are added when more than one of them is part of the same win. When an Epic Wild is present during a Row Cascade, the multiplier doubles its value on each Row Cascade sequence the symbol is part of.
• Dragon Eggs - When 3 Dragon Eggs are in view, they award an instant prize of 500x the bet. After the win is awarded, the Dragon Eggs become inactive until cascades remove them from the grid. No more than 3 Dragon Eggs can be on the grid at once.

Puff of Luck Bonus Game

Hitting 3 FS scatters in the base game triggers this feature with 10 free spins. It keeps the base game mechanics but has an increased chance of landing wilds, Epic Wilds, or Dragon Egg symbols. In this feature and the next, landing 2 or 3 FS scatters awards +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Smoldering Riches Bonus Game

Landing 4 FS scatters in the base game triggers Smoldering Riches' 10 free spins. On top of Puff of Luck's mechanics, a Multiplier Bar appears outside the grid. It indicates the lowest possible multiplier of all wild and Epic Wild symbols that land. The Bar starts at x1. Each time 10 Row Cascades accumulate, the Multiplier Bar increases by one level up to x25.

Fire and Fortune Epic Bonus

This feature and 10 free spins are activated by landing 5 FS scatters in the base game. It keeps the rules of Smoldering Riches while guaranteeing a win and a wild and/or Epic Wild on each spin. The multiplier bar starts at x5. Scatters are not present in this round.

Feature Buys

Smoking Dragon's feature buy section provides players with five options. They are BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, or Flaming Hot Feature Spins at 50x to guarantee at least 1 wild and 1 Dragon Egg land on each spin. From there, it is possible to buy Puff of Luck, Smoldering Riches, or Fire and Fortune for 80x, 200x, or 1,000x the bet, respectively.

Smoking Dragon: Slot Verdict

Deciding to make an Asian themed slot full of dragons might not be the most original idea a studio makes, but Hacksaw Gaming has chopped and changed Smoking Dragon to ensure it has a freshness to it. Close your eyes, and you could be playing any one of a vast number of these sorts of games, but with eyeballs open, there's something relatively novel for fans of this style to feast their eyes on, and the charming presentation is easy to make friends with. Visually, Smoking Dragon is a refreshing contrast to the more heavily ornate designs which may appear in this slot category, showing that a lighter touch can be just as satisfying.

Mathematically, Smoking Dragon isn't as volatile as some of the more extreme stuff Hacksaw Gaming might be better known for producing, suggesting it has been made with casual gamblers in mind. What's interesting is that the Epic Bonus is not hidden this time, so players have the choice of buying it rather than waiting patiently for 5 pipe scatters to hit, though it comes with a hefty price tag. Either way, buy it or not, the three bonus rounds are similar, though they naturally get better the more scatters trigger them, with the latter two rounds best, since that's where the Multiplier Bar can guarantee minimum values.

Along with the art shake, Hacksaw Gaming has made a subtle yet interesting change to the cascading wins system, so instead of removing winning symbols, the bottom row is removed. What makes this approach appealing is the way it's able to set up consecutive payouts, as winning symbols can remain on the board, dropping a row each time, or new wins appear. The Row Cascade system does resemble Pragmatic Play's Powernudge in some aspects, though, without copying it entirely.

Smoking Dragon provides a charming space for Asian slot enthusiasts to get a dose of dragon-themed gambling, while chasing winning potential of 10,000x the bet. However, there are enough interesting elements here, such as the Row Cascade mechanic, to whet the intrigue of general players, provided the maths fits their preference.