Beat the Beast Dragon’s Wrath

Beat the Beast Dragon's Wrath: Slot Overview

Back in 2020, developer Thunderkick launched its five-slot Beat the Beast series with Kraken's Lair before finishing up around 8 months later with Griffin's Gold. The series was a showcase of fantastical beasts and simple yet punchy gameplay. The studio also started its Crystal Quest range around that time too, but it seemed to fizzle out after 3 releases. Anyway, here we are several years later, and for some reason, nostalgia perhaps, Thunderkick has revisited its Beat the Beast range and dropped Beat the Beast Dragon's Wrath, blasting another dose of simple yet punchy gaming soaked in beasts.

Being a dragon game, players are transported to a fantasy world of mountains, castles, and a clean natural environment. Like a déjà vu hit, Beat the Beast Dragon's Wrath also transports players several years back in time since it looks and feels so much like a Beat the Beast game of yore. This is not a criticism, as slots in the range have that clear, bright, chunky look and feel to them of the sort Thunderkick excels at creating.

One of the 'simple' parts of a Beat the Beast slot is the gaming setup, and this means a setup made up of 5 reels and 9 paylines, which has been used in all of them so far, including Dragon's Wrath. Winning combinations are awarded for landing matching symbols left to right from the leftmost reel along a payline. They've all been highly volatile slots, as is Dragon's Wrath, which produces a default RTP of 96.18% when betting 10 c to $/€100 per spin.

Stone encased 9 to A card royals are Dragon's Wrath's low pays, awarding 4 to 5 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit. Then there is a sword, a helm, a ring, a dragon statue, and a dragon head as the highs, paying 10 to 50 times the bet for 5-of-a-kind.

Beat the Beast Dragon's Wrath: Slot Features

Wild multipliers are the thing around here, and players get a taste of them in the base game through the Dragon Emblem symbol, but they really come into their own once free spins have been organically triggered or bought.

Dragon Emblem

The Dragon Emblem is the scatter symbol and also the wild, substituting for all other symbols in the base game. Dragon Emblems have a multiplier of x2. A win on a payline that includes one or more multiplier wild symbols adds up its multiplier.

Bonus Game

Hitting 3 Dragon Emblem symbols in any position awards 3 free spins. In free spins, the Dragon Emblem symbols transform into Roaming Wild symbols, substituting for all other symbols and remaining on the reels till the round ends. Before each new free spin, Roaming Wilds move to a new position. When a win includes one or more Roaming Wilds, +1 extra free spin is awarded.

The Roaming Wild symbols also have a multiplier starting at x2. When a Roaming Wild is used in a win, its current multiplier is randomly added to one of the other Roaming Wild symbols up to an individual maximum of x50. When more than one Roaming Wild is used in a win, the multipliers are added, meaning a total maximum value of x150.

Feature Buy

In Dragon's Wrath, players can buy access to the free spins round from the base game. The cost is 125x the bet and has a default RTP of 96.44%.

Beat the Beast Dragon's Wrath: Slot Verdict

Like a drunk hook-up with an old flame you haven't seen in years, reviewing Dragon's Wrath felt both questionable yet oddly comforting and, okay, fun while it lasted. It bears many similarities to the final Beast the Beast slot, Griffin's Gold, with a number of alterations sprinkled in here and there to make the experience somewhat different overall. Not shockingly different, but there are markers separating the two slots, which connoisseurs will pick up on.

The apex of the game is naturally the Jammin' Jars-esque roaming wild free spins round. Now you've got 3 spins to start out, so good luck (plus an extra spin for each wild-involved win) and multipliers that can get much higher this time than before. Where Griffin's Gold's wild multipliers tapped out at x5, now they can reach x50, and free spins rounds always start with 3 of them active. However, bear in mind that wild multiplier values are added in Dragon's Wrath when more than 1 is used in a win, whereas they multiplied each other in Griffin's Gold. In some ways, this ride is sharper and more focused, though no more potentially intense than before. For some reason, payouts in Dragon's Wrath max out at 11,111x the bet, yes, half of Griffin's Gold's top prize. Having said that, we are yet to see these games from Thunderkick hit anything even remotely close to their advertised max win potential.

By the end, Dragon's Wrath came across maybe as good as the previous slot at best, maybe a bit less, but certainly not noticeably better. This led to a bit of speculation, where there was a thought that Dragon's Wrath might have been a contender for the final instalment in the Beat the Beast range back in 2020, but a majority vote at the Thunderkick office meant gamblers got Griffin's Gold instead. Perhaps player feedback led to this one, or it was lying around the studio gathering dust, unloved but for a few passionate Thunderkick supporters who eventually got the green light to let it loose upon the world. Whatever the game's genesis or raison d'etre, Beat the Beast fans should be satisfied by the outcome while perhaps wondering why the game didn't have extra oomph or forward-thinking innovation. It's an alternative to Griffin's Gold, which some may prefer (others not so much), while serving up a predictable yet healthy bout of relatively simple gaming, neatly presented, with features that can shock.