Dropz

Dropz: Slot Overview

You might need a new toothbrush after playing this one, folks. Dropz is a game from developer ELK Studios that dresses up its action in one of the more sugary slot themes out there, the candy, sweet stuff, lollies one, or whatever you happen to call it. To provide some balance, ELK has stuffed a few fruity items in there, as well as a stack of features from Avalanches; symbol unlocks, level upgrades, a progressive win multiplier, and free spins.

Pick the candy theme, and you kind of have to design a game that looks like Dropz. Players familiar with the genre will know the drill – a world full of candy, cakes, and doughnuts; basically, all manner of treats are on display. Some of them appear to have been given eyes, which instead of being totally cute, are actually a teensy bit creepy, bringing on one or two memories of Chucky or Mr Hopp. The jazzy 70s symphonically swingy soundtrack brings the happy vibe back, though, and Dropz provides a fairly tasty snack for both eyes and ears.

Picking a bet is step one, where options range from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, playable on both desktop computers and handheld devices. In its default base game state, Dropz is played on a 6x6 sized grid, but only three symbols on each reel are active – the rest are covered in value-less chocolate blocker tiles, which can be removed as part of the Avalanche function. Behind the scenes, Dropz runs on a medium/highly volatile math model, producing a maximum return to player value of 94%.

When symbols drop into the grid, they form regular ways wins when three or more identical symbols land on consecutive reels starting from the left. The four low pay symbols on the pay table are hard candies of various shapes and colours, then come lemons, grapes, apples, strawberries, and liquorice '7s'. Landing a six-of-a-kind winning way pays 0.25x for the candies, 0.5-5x the bet for the fruit, and 50 times the stake for six 7s. Lastly, Wilds and Locked Wilds appear in the game to replace any normal pay symbol to help form winning ways.

Dropz: Slot Features

Dropz is one of those games that might be a little confusing if diving right in without looking over the rules first. Let's do so, and the first feature to cover is Avalanches, which triggers when a win lands. The winning symbols are removed from the grid, as are any chocolate blocker symbols next to an exploding winning symbol. Empty spaces are filled by symbols falling from above, and the Avalanche feature ends when no new win hits. If removed chocolate blocks hold any special symbol or features, they are activated.

Special Symbols

One special symbol to unlock is the wild, which substitutes for any normal al pay symbol – regular wilds are removed by the Avalanche mechanic when used in a win. Another is the Locked Wild, displaying the number 3, signifying the fact it stays on the board for three wins. Dropz symbols award 1-2 extra drops in both the base and bonus game. Lastly, the Level Up symbol activates the next level:

• Level 1 (starting level) – six rows with 3 active rows and 3 rows of chocolate blockers.
• Level 2 – seven rows with 3 active rows and 4 rows of chocolate blockers.
• Level 3 – eight rows with 3 active rows and 5 rows of chocolate blockers.

Levels unlock when no more wins happen, and any multipliers, Pair Matching meter progress, or collected bonus symbols carry over to the new level.

Symbol Pairs & Multipliers

On the top left is the Pair Matching meter, indicating specific symbol pairs. Any pairs present on the game grid contribute to the meter, which, when full, adds a value to the win multiplier. Pairs removed from the board also remove symbols and chocolates above or below them, making room for symbols to Avalanche in. Multipliers reset between paid spins.

ReDropz

Collecting 3 bonus symbols through an Avalanche sequence awards 5 free ReDropz on an 8-row high game grid with 3 active rows and 5 chocolate rows. No extra chocolate blockers are added during the feature on future spins, but new features can appear in the chocolate which is there. Wilds remain between spins, and there is no level progression used in Free Dropz.

X-Iter

Where available, the X-iter menu provides five ways of playing Dropz. All have an RTP of 94%.

• Bonus Hunt – 2x the bet to buy a game round with more bonus symbols, doubling the chance of triggering the bonus game.
• Feature Crescendo – 5x the bet to buy a game round with more features or '7' symbols on the grid.
• Feature Wilds – 25x the bet to buy a game round with 3 locked wilds on the grid.
• Buy Bonus – 100x the bet to buy the bonus game.
• Super Bonus – 500x the bet to buy the bonus game with a starting win multiplier of x10.

Dropz: Slot Verdict

Okay, it's actually pretty clear what the goal of Dropz is after perusing the rules, but it is one of the more complex sweet-themed slots we've crossed paths with. It's a snowballing machine of a game, where winning ways lead to Avalanches, which lead to chocolate block removals, symbol unlocks, Multiplier Pairs boosting the win multiplier, level ups, with ReDropz tied on top like a bow. Pretty straightforward, in theory, but not always so straightforward in practice. A lot of things have to come together to overcome any inertia and coax Dropz into doing something cool.

It's certainly got the ability to do so, yet numerically speaking, Dropz is a game of two halves. A Jekyll and Hyde, if you will. On the positive side is the massive 25,000x the bet max win; on the Hyde side is the 94% RTP which some may find a little hard to stomach. It doesn't prevent Dropz from being an entertaining slot, with more integrants to keep tabs on, more features that can meld, mould and drip off each other, plus bigger potential than most competitors in this category possess. All in all, Dropz ended up being quite a unique game, similar in some ways to earlier slots ELK has done, like Tropicool, Tropicool 2, or Illogicool at a stretch, but delivers its own sticky, sugary morass of gameplay and features regardless.

Dropz isn't all sugar, spice, and all things nice, though. For example, if shopping around for the most generous return values out there is a must, then Dropz might struggle to pass muster. Its 94% top value is another example of ELK's downward trajectory and may be as palatable as a bad batch of Salmiakki. If that's not a concern, then there is a load of glazed goodness here to digest.