Davey Bones

Davy Bones: Slot Overview

Davy Bones is an online slot designed by Octoplay studio Twice As Nice that conjoins the old 'Davy Jones' Locker' concept with bones, or skeletons in this case. Davy Jones' Locker, as many are aware, is a nautical metaphor for the final oceanic resting place for dead sailors or sunken ships. The origins of the saying aren't clear, though one early reference to the term came from 'The Four Years Voyage of Capt. George Roberts' by Daniel Defoe, the guy who wrote Robinson Crusoe, in 1726. It's still a well-known saying even now, 300 or so years later, even amongst land lubbers and helps set an immediate tone for Octoplay's slot Davy Bones.

If a metaphor about perishing at sea is a bit grim, wait till you catch a look at Davy Bones. The base game takes place on a dark and stormy night, as the skies flash with lightning and the seas heave. Thallasophobes will not enjoy this view, which is loaded with spectral dread and dark foreboding water. There's no real backstory accompanying Davy Bones, but the heavy sights and sounds do a good enough job of saying all it really needs to say.

While the background bobs around, a steady 5x5 gaming grid sits in the middle of it all, dropping 25 symbols in on each spin, where 15 paylines evaluate combinations that start from the leftmost reel. Players can expect a base game hit frequency of 19.3% and an RTP of 95.77%. The game is highly volatile and takes wagers of 10 c to $/€80. Or, activating the Double Chance increases the stake by 40%, doubling the chance of winning the in-game feature.

Davy Bones's regular pays include nine different symbols. These are 10 to Ace card ranks paying 1x the bet for a 5 OAK combination, then a bottle of liquid, an anchor, a gun, and a chest. Winning lines made of 5 matching premium symbols pays 5 to 20 times the bet.

Davy Bones: Slot Features

In this locker, players may uncover Pirate Wilds, two forms of Cannon symbol, two forms of Monkey symbols, Pirate Spins, free spins, and a bonus buy.

Pirate Wild

The Pirate Wild expands to cover the whole reel it lands on, substituting all regular pay symbols. The Pirate Wild gets the multiplier displayed above it, which is applied to all winning lines the Pirate Wild is part of. If the Pirate Wild will not form a win, if it expands, it does not expand. A line of 5 wilds pays 20 times the bet.

Cannons & Monkeys

Cannon symbols and Reinforced Cannon symbols may land on the reels. Cannon symbols increase the reel multiplier above it by +2 to +5, while the Reinforced Cannon grows all reel multipliers by +2 to +5. Multipliers have a maximum value of x100. Monkey symbols and Monkey Captain symbols may also land on the reels. Monkey symbols multiply the multiplier above them by x2 to x5, while the Monkey Captain symbols grow all multipliers by x2 to x5.

Pirate Spins

Landing either Cannon symbols or either Monkey symbols in the base game triggers Pirate Spins. Pirate Spins continue until a spin occurs where no type of Monkey or Cannon symbol hits. Multiplier growth is persistent through Pirate Spins.

Free Spins

Scatter symbols may land on reels 2, 3, and 4. Hitting 3 scatter symbols triggers the free spins feature. The feature starts with 3 free spins. Each time any Cannon or Monkey symbol hits, the free spins are reset to 3. In addition, reel multiplier growth is persistent until the end of the round.

Feature Buy

It is possible to buy rather than naturally trigger the free spins round. The cost for this is 200 times the bet.

Davy Bones: Slot Verdict

If Iron Dog Studio's Pirate Kingdom Megaways had a fling with one or two slots in Hacksaw Gaming's portfolio, it might, just might, end up spawning offspring in the form of Davy Bones. There was something about the bones and symbols that brought Pirate Kingdom Megaways to mind, and the reel multiplier system had a whiff of Hacksaw Gaming about it. Whatever the internal or external inspiration might have been, Davy Bones turned out to be not a bad buccaneering escapade on the reels at all, with several compelling factors contributing to the game's enjoyment.

One of these factors was the use of Pirate Spins in the base game. Without this feature, building reel multipliers using either Cannon or Monkey symbols types, then hitting Pirate Wilds beneath them would be quite a task, bordering on the impossible. Pirate Spins sidestep this issue and could be quite fun, though they were often more of a teaser. Their inclusion strengthens the impression of Davy Bones being a highly volatile slot that can drift aimlessly for stretches of time before letting loose a barrage of cannon fire to turn out a solid result. Pirate Spins were responsible for this in the base game, and the free spins round itself could be a bumpy ride, dependent on the landing of those Monkey, Cannon, and Pirate Wild type symbols.

Get those symbols landing in great numbers, and Davy Bones' full reel multiplier wilds are about as effective as one could hope for. When waving its cutlass around with reckless abandon, Davy Bones' winning potential is capped at 12,500x the bet, and after mentally calculating the winlines, symbol values, and possible reel multipliers, that seems theoretically doable. Gamblers will need a few parts to converge in order to hit sizable returns, but Davy Bones has the goods to do so and is able to unleash everything it's got in exciting ways.