Dragon’s Domain

Dragon's Domain: Slot Overview

According to the info, if you want to take on this game, you'll be needing armour, shield, and sword. A fair amount of bravery, too, of the virtual as well as the very real kind. The slot is Dragon's Domain and presents maker Hacksaw Gaming's adventure into the realm of big scaly beasts. Dragons are famous for breathing fire, and Dragon's Domain makes use of this ability in connection to several of its features, such as boosting semi-sticky wild multiplier symbols in the base game and during free spins. Lurking deeper in the background like a particularly territorial mummy dragon is Dragon's Domain's second bonus game, a fiendish device the likes of which Hacksaw Gaming excel at formulating.

Dragons are creatures it's possible to go super cute with (e.g. Falkor the Luck Dragon) or super nasty - Smaug, for example. Hacksaw Gaming has taken the latter approach, and Dragon's Domain is a serious game with a huffing and puffing serpent on the left side of the screen guarding a mound of treasure, a huffing and puffing knight on the other side brandishing a big glowing sword. Ruins abound in the background, as do more flying dragons, while a sturdy stone structure houses Dragon's Domain's gaming grid - is it a tomb or a treasure vault ripe for the picking? Or something else?

Dragon's Domain is a scatter paying slot, so when 8 or more matching pay symbols land anywhere on the 6x5 grid, they create a winning combination. Winning pay symbols are removed from view, causing other symbols to cascade down to replace them, giving players another chance at winning something. A medium volatile math model pushes things around from the back end, and if you're playing the highest RTP version, that means a theoretical return value of 96.31%, changing up if buying features. For stakes, the choices go from 10 c to $/€100 a game round.

Greyed-out symbols displaying a skull, a cracked helmet, a shield, a sword, and an axe are Dragon's Domain's low pays. They are followed by coins, a ring, a goblet, a purple box scorpion object, a chest, and a warrior as the highs. Combinations of 8 matching symbols pay 0.2 to 4 times the bet, up to 50-800x for hits of 19+. One positive benefit Charred Land symbols bring is the ability to substitute for any regular pay symbol, amongst other things.

Dragon's Domain: Slot Features

Charred Land symbols are joined by Dragon symbols, Dragonfire, a Dragon's Lair bonus, The Hatchery bonus, and bonus buys.

Charred Land

Charred Land symbols are wild multipliers which have 3 charges when they land. When a Charred Land symbol is part of a win, it loses 1 charge before the next cascade. Each time a symbol cascade occurs, each Charred Land symbol on the reels increases its multiplier by +1. Charred Land multipliers land with values of x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10. When more than one is part of a win, the values are added together. When charges are spent, the symbol vanishes on the cascade.

Dragon Symbols and Dragonfire

Dragon symbols on the reels activate when no more wins occur and the grid has settled, breathing Dragonfire in a cross pattern from their position. All regular pay symbols hit by Dragonfire are removed from the reels, causing a cascade. If Dragonfire hits Charred Land symbols, their charges are refilled. Dragon symbols may be red or gold. Gold Dragon symbols have a multiplier of x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10. When a Charred Land symbol is hit by Dragonfire from a Gold Dragon, its multiplier is multiplied by the Gold Dragon's value.

Dragon's Lair Bonus

Hitting 3 dragon eye FS scatter symbols in the base game awards 10 free Dragon's Lair spins. In this bonus, all Charred Land multipliers are persistent between free spins as long as they have charges left. Hitting 2 FS scatters gets you +2 extra free spins, while 3 FS scatters gets you +4 extra spins.

The Hatchery Bonus

Landing 4 FS scatters in the base game triggers 10 free The Hatchery spins. In this feature only non-paying symbols, Dragon Eggs, FS scatters, or Dragon symbols appear. Dragon Eggs are cash prizes that are collected when hit by Dragonfire. Green Eggs have a value of 1x-10x, Red Eggs have a value of 20x-40x, and Golden Eggs have a value of 50x-200x. All non-paying symbols are removed when hit by Dragonfire, causing a cascade. If Dragonfire from a Golden Dragon hits a Dragon Egg, the egg's value is multiplied by the Golden Dragon's value. Hitting 2 FS scatters gets you +2 extra free spins, while 3 FS scatters gets you +4 extra spins.

Bonus Buy

These bonuses may be activated from Dragon's Domain's bonus buy:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game for 3x the bet.
• Scorched Earth FeatureSpins - each spin guarantees at least 2 Charred Land symbols for 50x the bet.
• Dragon's Lair - 100x the bet.
• The Hatchery - 200x the bet.

Dragon's Domain: Slot Verdict

Scatter paying slots aren't exactly a major Hacksaw Gaming speciality, but this isn't the first one the studio has made. Bouncy Bombs, for example, preceded Dragon's Domain, but it was somewhat reminiscent of Pragmatic Play's scatter supremo Sweet Bonanza in function. Dragon's Domain forks away from the past to give gamblers a fresh new experience. For one thing, many scatter-paying slot makers shy away from having wild symbols in their games for the presumed reason including them might cause havoc with the pay-anywhere symbols. However, dropping wilds into a game like this hasn't resulted in a scatter-win free-for-all. Hacksaw Gaming's numbers people, with their cold-hearted sadistic mathematics, have balanced the game between potential wild multiplier mayhem and far less interesting to zilch result spins as well.

For a slot with scatter wins, cascades, and multiplier symbols, Dragon's Domain executes its gameplay quite differently to Gates of Olympus and other similarly designed titans in its field. Semi-sticky wilds that last through cascades can provide a substitution assist, as well as slapping multiplier values on wins. Factor in Dragon symbols, especially Golden Dragon symbols multiplying multipliers, and you've got the recipe for exciting action sequences - if you're lucky enough to get them. If you're lucky enough to trigger The Hatchery, buckle in for more tease and possible reward. Key to note is Dragon Eggs are not sticky at all. They land on a spin like a regular paying symbol, so if no Dragon blasts them with fire, they have the same value as ash. It's a case of landing Eggs and Dragons at the same time in the right place so that Dragonfire will collect Egg values. It's the definition of hit and miss, though all game modes can hit the 10,000x max win.

Dragon's Domain contains several things Hacksaw Gaming excels at utilising - multipliers about the place and an emotionally charged bonus round. As mentioned, Dragon's Domain balances its good times with not-so-good times, so the going may be challenging. But, getting the right symbols in the right positions means Dragon's Domain can spout the sorts of flames explosive Hacksaw Gaming slots are famous for.