Finn and the Dragon Tales

Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Overview

It's no secret that leprechauns abound in online gambling, but one of the more recognisable examples of these magical entities is a chap named Finn, who first hit the scene in NetEnt's 2017 slot Finn and the Swirly Spin. As the name says, Finn slots are famous for gaming grids which spin symbols in a swirling direction rather than the usual top-down motion. The last installement reviewed, Finn and the Candy Spin, was a letdown, but Finn and the Dragon Tales is shaping up to be an improvement, helped by things like a stronger max win and an innovative, transformative, scatter win free spins round.

As mentioned, Finn is famous for his swirly, whirly gaming grid, which Finn and the Dragon Tales possesses. Symbols on the reels appear in a clockwise pattern, starting at the bottom left corner and ending at the centre. Any win in the main game triggers an Avalanche that removes the winning symbols and causes the rest to follow the spiral pattern to fill empty positions. New symbols appear at the bottom left corner, and Avalanches repeat until no new win appears. Accompanying the gaming area is an attractive fantasy world of mountains, forests, and floating islands. Visuals, and to a lesser extent audio, are one of the game's positive highlights.

Before kicking the swirl into motion, players choose a stake of 20 c to $/€120 per spin while also having five Elevate feature buy options to choose from. Finn and the Dragon Tales is a highly volatile slot, played on a 7x7 gaming matrix, and has a ceiling RTP of 96.04%.

Regular symbols can form wins of 3 OAK or more in vertical or horizontal lines, or as detailed in the features section, they can sometimes form scatter wins. The pay symbols are split into Green, Blue, and Red groups, with 3 symbols in each group. Lines of 7 OAK are worth 0.3x to 1.05x the bet, while scatter wins of 41+ pay 0.65 to 2.5 times the bet. Wild symbols replace regular symbols in a winning line and may have an x1 or x2 multiplier, depending on the feature.

Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Features

Finn and the Dragon Tales offers a different set of features than can be found in other Finn slots, such as wild features, a Dragon feature, random wilds, free spins with scatter win and treasure chest components, and feature buys.

Wild Feature

In the main game, a win of 3 or more symbols without a wild on the reels triggers one of these features: A 3 OAK win places a wild x1 symbol in the middle position before the next Avalanche, while a 4 OAK win places a wild x2 before the next Avalanche.

Dragon Feature

This feature is activated when there is a win of 5 or more symbols. A Dragon symbol is placed before the next Avalanche with an x1, x2, or x5 multiplier when the win has 5, 6, or 7 symbols, respectively. The multiplier and the colour of the Dragon symbol depend on the length and colour group of the symbols in the win. When the Dragon symbol is placed on the reels, all symbols on the reels that are in the same colour group are transformed into the same type of symbol of the win that activated the Dragon feature, generating a scatter win.

Random Wilds

After a scatter win leaves the reels, the Dragon symbols on the reels, all together, randomly place 2 to 4 random wilds on top of symbols present on the reels. The placed wilds may randomly have an x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier. Wilds are not placed on top of other wilds, Keys, or Dragon symbols.

Free Spins

The Key symbol can appear only in the base game at the bottom left corner of each spin. If the Free Spins Key reaches the Bronze, Silver, or Gold Zone in the centre of the reels after all Avalanches have taken place, free spins are triggered. The Bronze Zone awards 5 free spins and the green Dragon symbol, the Silver Zone activates 8 free spins and the blue Dragon symbol, whereas the Gold Zone activates 10 free spins and the red Dragon symbol. A corresponding Dragon symbol is placed in the middle of the reels.

Free spins have a multiplier starting at x1 at the beginning of each spin. During the round, gemstones and rock symbols may land. At the start of each spin, the Dragon symbol at the centre transforms all regular symbols into one random type of symbol in its colour group, creating a scatter win. Before the win is evaluated, rock symbols on the reels are destroyed, and a random number of them may reveal treasure chests. Treasure chests are opened in the following order:

• Multiplier Treasure Chest - reveals a value of x1, x2, x5, or x10 which is added to the free spins multiplier.
• Cash Prize Treasure Chest - awards 0.25x to 1x the bet.
• Extra Free Spins Treasure Chest - each chest awards +3 free spins.
• Extra Dragon Treasure Chest - each treasure chest awards a random extra Dragon symbol, which fills all the empty positions on the reels with regular symbols according to its colour group. The Dragon then transforms the placed symbols into symbols of the same type, generating a scatter win.

Elevate Bonus Buys

For 5x the bet, the Wild Hunt ensures each spin has at least 1 winning combination. For 10x or 50x the bet, the Single Dragon or Double Dragon guarantees 1 or 2 Dragon symbols are activated in the main game, respectively. Otherwise, players can buy Bronze, Silver, or Gold free spins for 100x, or free spins where the Key symbol lands in the Gold Zone for 300x.

Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Verdict

Whether Finn slots float your boat or not, it is heartening to know the amiable leprechaun is still out there, floating about the gambling realm, doing his swirling grid thing. This time, he's floating about on dragons, which is a bit random, but the game he inhabits isn't a bad one for the right player. It would be hard to recommend any of the Finn slots to grizzled gamblers who don't even bother switching on their device for anything less than massive winning potential delivered by frightening mathematics. But that's just not what Finn and chums are about.

The good thing is that Finn and the Dragon Tales is a noticeable improvement on the previous one, Finn and the Candy Spin. The graphics are more absorbing, the features more creative, and the winning potential much more alluring. Though, at 3,828x the bet, Finn and the Dragon Tales is not a monster win slot. Part of the reason is down to the pitiful values of lines of winning symbols and scatter wins - 2.5x for 41 of the highest paying symbols on the screen, for example, is odd. Multipliers are part of the game, but still, something feels off. Despite that, the free spins round wasn't actually terrible at all. Peppering the reels with matching symbols, boosted by multipliers from treasure chests, had its pulse-racing moments.

To an extent, Finn and the Dragon Tales has various limiters set in place. However, the right gambler, one who doesn't want a rocky ride to potentially massive rewards or ruin, who enjoys the handsomely presented meeting of leprechaun and dragon, might be pleasantly surprised with Finn's return to the reels.