5 Dragons Slots

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Developed by Aristocrat Games and another in the long line of Asian-themed slots, 5 Dragons slot celebrates Eastern culture’s love for mysticism and majestic magical beasts, namely the dragon. The dragon plays an important role in many cultures in Asia and as such, it is a hugely popular choice as a subject for slots.

In this version, you’re on the lookout for five different-colored dragons who you will encounter when you trigger the Free Spins Bonus game. Each dragon has their own reward offering for the player to pick from. So does the 5 Dragons slot provide you with hours of fiery fun, or is this one dragon who has had their flame extinguished and is simply blowing smoke? Let’s take a closer look at the slot and find out.

Overview: 5 Dragons

5 Dragons is a relatively simple-looking slot that actually has a bit more depth to it than you would initially imagine. What you have is a 5×3-reel slot which has 243 ways to win instead of having paylines. This means symbols can win in any position consecutively across the reels from reel 1 up to reel 5. The good news is that spins start at just $0.25 per spin, though you can opt to pay $0.30 per spin if you prefer a slightly higher unit stake.

You can also increase the cost of each spin by changing the cost of each reel from $0.01 up to $2, which offers a minimum spin of $0.25 and a maximum spin of $60.00.  The backdrop for the slot is a somewhat unusual pattern. The bottom half is green, while the top half is in blue. I would guess this represents a stylized version of the land and the sky, but in truth I’m not 100% sure what this is meant to be.

Who will the 5 Dragons slot appeal to?

The 5 Dragons slot is one that revolves very much around the Free Spins bonus game so any slots player that enjoys the free spins aspect of a slot, will certainly get plenty from this game given the wide choice of options available when you trigger that round. It’s Asian and mystical theme will also make it a real hit with players across the world that enjoy these type of slots (and there are seemingly a great many).

The size of the bets available mean that this is aimed more at the medium to lower stakes player. The relatively simplistic nature of the base game—even though this is a 243-ways to win slot—means that it is a decent slot for novice players to get to grips with before they start to play slots with more involved and complicated features.

Gameplay: 5 Dragons

The first thing to do on the 5 Dragons slot is to decide whether you want to wager 25 or 30 coins per spin, and then the size of these individual coins, which will then give you the size of your total bet. You can then either set the Auto Play to run through a set number of spins or you can hit the Play button to get the reels spinning. Clicking the Play reel while the reels are spinning will end the reel spin more quickly and can speed up the pace of the game considerably.

The reels are a mix of higher and lower value symbols. The playing card low symbols, from 9 through to the Ace, pay out the smaller amounts on the slot with wins of up to 200 coins available if you land five across the reels. Higher value symbols include a red envelope (which is synonymous with good luck), a golden tortoise, golden fish, a gold-and-green-colored dragon and another golden winged creature which looks a little like a 5-headed dragon. You can win up to 800 coins if you land five of the highest value symbols across the reels.

Additional features

The Green Dragon symbol, which breathes fire when landed, is the Wild in the game and this can be used to substitute for any of the high or low value symbols to create winning paylines. This symbol only appears on the middle three reels during the base game.

The key to triggering the bigger wins available in the 5 Dragons slot however is to hit the Free Spins bonus. To achieve this you need to land three or more of the golden coin scatter symbols from the first reel on the left across the reels. When you do you will then set the free spins game into action and a new screen will load up and a new set of reels to accompany them will be where the free spins are played out.

Bonus games

Once triggered you have the choice of the following games:

• White Dragon Free Spins – 20 free spins with any win where the White Dragon Wild substitutes for a symbol, paying out a multiplier of 2x, 3x or 5x the win.
• Red Dragon Free Spins – 15 free spins and any Red Dragon Wild substituting for a symbol on a win, offering a 3x, 5x or 8x multiplier on the win.
• Black Dragon Free Spins – 10 free spins but the three multipliers that are in action on a win are 5x, 8x or 10x the standard win.
• Blue Dragon Free Spins – 8 free spins with any win subject to a 8x, 10x or 15x multiplier.
• Yellow Dragon Free Spins – 5 free spins, but any win comes with a 10x, 15x or 30x multiplier.

In addition, during any of the Free Spins round, you also have a chance of landing a cash prize when you land the Red Envelope symbol on the first and fifth reels of a spin. When you do, you’ll receive a cash prize of your stake multiplied by 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x or even 50x. This feature can be won again during the bonus round.

Furthermore, if you elect to play the 30 coins per spin option, when you trigger the bonus game your bonus for paying the extra premium kicks in and you will receive 5 additional free spins on the free spin game of your choice.

Special features: 5 Dragons

Green Dragon Wild

In the base game, the Green Dragon is the Wild symbol and can substitute for all the symbols on the reels bar the scatter symbol to help create additional winning paylines.

Free Spins bonus

Land three or more of the gold coin Scatter symbols from the first reel consecutively onwards and you trigger a fantastic Free Spins bonus game where you get to pick one of the five dragon bonuses available. Take more free spins with smaller multipliers, or fewer spins with higher multipliers, the choice is yours.

X30 + 5 Extra option

You can elect to play the 5 reels +5 extra wager, which is 30x your unit stake rather than 25. For your extra coins you get the chance to earn an additional 5 free spins when you trigger the bonus round.

What works?

Choice of unit stake

I think the 5 Dragons slot offering you a choice of bet—the standard x25 or the x30 bet with 5 additional spins when you trigger the free spins round—is a very good option and allows players to decide how they want to play. The premium for the additional free spins is not too pricey at lower levels, so it’s a tempting choice.

Free Spins choices

The fact that when you hit the free spins round you have a choice of playing one of the five bonuses available is great. Some people like more free spins and smaller multipliers, others like fewer spins with higher multipliers. On 5 Dragons you can pick exactly what you want to play.

Simple gameplay

The base game on the 5 Dragons slot is not particularly difficult to follow. Wins are relatively regular, if a little on the small side, and the Wild symbol is very useful for triggering wins on spins that would have otherwise proven unsuccessful. It is an easy to follow slot which is fine for beginner slot gamers to learn how to play on.

What doesn’t?

Hard to hit Free Spins

The biggest issue I had with the 5 Dragons slot was that it was often a test of patience to hit the Free Spins round. As such, budgeting sensibly for this slot is vital as you’ll need to play through many spins in order to trigger the bonus. The fact that the scatters have to form a consecutive line from reel one makes this bonus more difficult to trigger than on other slots.

Low value base game wins

The vast majority of wins in the base game in the 5 Dragons slot are usually very small, often barely scraping even when you consider your full bet (especially when you opt for the 30x stake).

Not the largest jackpot

The jackpot on this slot isn’t huge and while you can win more than a single base game jackpot in free spins, you will have to do that by being lucky on several spins and getting a very good multiplier. Even so, the amount you can win in total doesn’t compare well to some other slots which offer considerably larger jackpots.

The scores

Graphics & soundtrack 2/5

The 5 Dragons slot does look a little basic but the graphics are fine and bright and the music that accompanies it is unusually atmospheric. This slot does the basics well but offers little beyond that in terms of presentation.

Originality & creativity 3/5

The fact you can pick from five Free Spins rounds and have to land the scatters consecutively across the reels are original features, as is the chance to opt for different Unit Stakes and the Red Envelope wins in free spins.

Play value 3/5

There are a lot of lower value wins on the 5 Dragons slot, but you also do hit the occasional bigger value win to keep your balance topped up. When you trigger free spins much larger wins are available and if you have the patience, play value over time isn’t too bad.

Jackpot potential 1/5

The jackpot potential on this slot is around 800 coins multiplied by the highest multiplier of 30x but that still doesn’t compare well with some of the prizes available on other slots. This is not a slot that will appeal to the big jackpot hunters.

Repeat play 3/5

There is more than enough enjoyment in the slot to keep coming back for more. The different free spins round are each worth a try to see which is the most consistently lucrative and the other features of the slot make it enjoyable to play.

Total score: 12/25

5 Dragons is a decent slot that has some nice features but which doesn’t really have the wow factor to move it above the average. A small jackpot and small wins and difficult to hit bonus also go against it but if you have patience you can get plenty of enjoyment from the slot.  It is more fun and more rewarding if you play the x30 stakes game rather than the x25 stake version.