Bloody Dawn

Bloody Dawn: Slot Overview

Some folk are morning people, who greet the first peep of sunlight peeking over the horizon with enthusiasm to get the day up and running. Others may prefer to smash the snooze button on their alarm clock twenty times before even thinking of rising from the warm comfort of their beds. With a name like Bloody Dawn, the assumption is this Pragmatic Play slot isn't a morning person. Then again, we're dealing with a game populated by vampires, eerie characters, and blood, so the time of day might not be as important as finding a hiding place to survive.

Pragmatic Play has dressed Bloody Dawn up in an unusual theme. It's a Western, but one where the inhabitants are either vampires or they're somehow genetically related to birds. Or they are birds, it's hard to say. A wooden shed, a smashed cart, and a rickety old fence make up parts of the background, while behind them are towering rock formations and a pastelly morning sky. It's not a bad view by any means, but there isn't much special about it, either. The theme is somewhat unique, but it comes across as more confusing than scary or blood-curdling a lot of the time.

Bloody Dawn is a 1,024 ways to win slot played on a 5x4 gaming matrix. Its math model is highly volatile, and at the highest configuration, it generates an RTP of 96.5%. Base bets range from $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin, and there is an optional ante bet. When switched on, the ante bet more than triples the chance of triggering free spins, tripling the stake in the process.

For pay symbols, Bloody Dawn has 10-A card royals, two bird cowboys and two vampiric Native Americans. A line of 5 matching royals awards players 0.3x to 0.6x their stake, while the same size win made up of high pay symbols is worth 0.75x to 2.5x the stake. The game's wild substitutes for all symbols except the scatter. Wilds can only appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 when Gold symbols explode after a winning combination is created.

Bloody Dawn: Slot Features

Bloody Dawn's features are tumbles, a win multiplier, transformative Gold symbols, free spins, and feature buys.

Tumble Feature and Multiplier

The tumble feature removes winning symbols and gaps are filled by symbols tumbling down. If a new win is formed after the tumble, the feature triggers again. In the base game, a win multiplier that applies to all wins for the current tumble starts at x1 and increases by +1 after each tumble. The multiplier resets at the end of a tumble sequence.

Gold Symbols

At random on any spin, regular pay symbols highlighted in Gold may land on reels 2, 3, and 4. When winning combinations include Gold symbols, the Gold symbols transform into wilds for the next tumble.

Free Spins

Landing 3-10 scatters triggers 12 free spins with a starting win multiplier of x1-x8, respectively. During the round, the win multiplier increases after each tumble by the amount the round started with, and does not reset between free spins. The rate of multiplier increase is increased by 2-9 when 3-10 scatters land on a free spin for the remainder of the round. Every retrigger also awards +6 free spins. In addition, Gold symbols are guaranteed to land on reel 3 on every free spin.

Feature Buy

The free spins round can be triggered from the base game by buying it. The options are 100x, 200x, 300x or 250x the stake to trigger the round with 3, 4, 5, or a random amount of scatters, respectively. When starting the random free spins feature, players can gamble to win a bigger starting multiplier and rate of multiplier increase before the round begins, up to x15. If the gamble is unsuccessful, the entire round is lost.

Bloody Dawn: Slot Verdict

Like a crow with a wing injury, Bloody Dawn initially struggled to get off the ground. Pragmatic Play deserves credit for attempting something different with this odd mix of Wild West grit and vampire folklore, but the execution didn't quite come together. The artwork is competent yet oddly mismatched, and the setting came across as more confusing than cohesive. A deeper treatment of the theme or an explanation might have helped. Online slots aren't meant to be feature-length films, but Bloody Dawn felt a little more miss than hit in the theme department. Still, Native American zombies, bird-faced gunmen, it is different, and might tickle the interest of players who enjoy unpredictable topics.

Perhaps the disjoint wouldn't have been so noticeable if Bloody Dawn's gameplay had been stronger. Admittedly, the tumble feature, combined with an increasing win multiplier, does allow for fruitful chain reactions. The key seems to be triggering free spins with max scatters. Not only to get a higher starting multiplier, but also because of the higher increment values they bring. Since every tumble increases the multi, there is the chance of building a rather chunky one. Retriggers might be a big help, too. The game didn't pop a lot during testing, but there is payout potential, with a 5,000x win cap, for lucky players who can get Bloody Dawn rolling.

Bloody Dawn is a game of odd contrasts. Its high volatility, tumbles, and escalating win multiplier offer moments of excitement, yet the game's slightly disjointed thematic impression prevented it from feeling completely polished. There is entertainment to be had here for the right gambler, maybe one with a previously unknown interest in a vampiric Wild West.