Floating Dragon Slot Demo

Floating Dragon Hold and Spin Slot Review

Floating Dragon Hold and Spin from Pragmatic Play is a celebration of The Weifang International Kite Festival in China. The skies come alive as flyers from all over the world gather in the hope of being crowned the “Kite King”.

Read on for the full review.

SLOT FEATURES	Free Games, Collections, Respins
RELEASE DATE	15th April 2021
GAME PROVIDER	Pragmatic Play
SLOT TYPE	Video Slot
THEME	Asian
REELS, ROWS, PAYLINES	5 Reels, 3 Rows, 10 Lines
BET LEVELS	0.10/250.00
MAXIMUM WIN	5,000x Your Stake (capped)
SCATTER SYMBOL	Yes
WILD SYMBOL	Yes (Free Games only)
BONUS GAME	No
FREE SPINS	Yes
RESPINS	Yes
MULTIPLIERS	Yes
JACKPOT	No
RETURN TO PLAYER	96.71%
VOLATILITY	Very High

Features

Let’s inspect all slot features in detail.

Hold and Spin Respins:

• Win the Hold and Respin bonus when a stack of 3 COIN symbols land on the centre reel. A random value of 1x – 20x is assigned to each COIN.
• The COIN Symbols are sticky and held during the respin bonus.
• 3 initial respins are awarded where reels 1, 2, 4 and 5 spin with only COIN and DIAMOND COIN symbols.
• Sum of extra COIN values is added to sum of the initial triggering COINs on reel 3
• Any subsequent COIN symbols that land during respins reset the respins to 3.
• Possible Gold Coins values are: 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, 6X, 7X, 8X, 9X, 10X, 11X, 12X, 14X, 16X, 18X, 20X
• Possible Diamond Coins values are: 100X, 200X, 300X, 400X, 5000X

Free Games Feature:

Win the Free Games when ANY 3 or more SCATTERS land. Win 10, 15 or 20 Free Games with ANY 3, 4 or 5 scattered DRAGONS respectively.

During Free Games:

• Lady WILDS are added during free games.
• Every 4 Lady WILDS collected unlocks an additional 10 Free Games, up to 4 times.
• An additional Koi prize is awarded if at least one Koi and a Lady appear on the same spin. The values of the Koi are accumulated and awarded.
• Each retrigger also increases the Koi bonus multiplier on the Lady WILD.
  • 1x for level 1, 2x – for level 2, 3x for level 3 and 10x for level 4.
• If a Lady WILD land with no Koi present, a firecracker is thrown to the reels top create Koi symbols.

Playability

Overall, Floating Dragon is a well-built game with a few little oddities that surface as you play. It makes sense, once you understand the rules, but you may need to dip into the rules pages now and then to recap. The game plays well and is recommended for those who like the Lightning Link style Bonus Respins.

Although not a new concept, Floating Dragon Hold and Spin adds a little twist to the famous feature from Aristocrat. The difference from Lightning Link is, Floating Dragon holds the initial 3 coins from the trigger on reel 3 through the respins. During respins, coins are needed to continue, but any new coins are not held. Instead, all coin values are added up and awarded INCLUDING the initial triggering coins.

During Free Games, the dimmed-out values in the base game Koi symbols are lit and become a mini bonus pay when, at least, one Koi and a Lady land, leading to a nice little added surprise. Although a little confusing at first, the Koi prizes gather and accumulate to the Lady and are awarded as a bonus pay. The accumulated prize in the Lady symbol disappears once awarded as it should, but the prizes remain in the Koi symbols. As an added delight, the Lady symbols introduce a Bonus multiplier with each re-trigger. The Koi values are not listed in the rules but a rare 5,000x is present.

Extra Free Games with added Koi multipliers are awarded after the fourth Lady symbols are collected through the course of play up to 40 Free Games at x10. Free games can not be re-triggered in the traditional sense as scatters are removed from reels in Free Games.

As a further oddity, you may have Koi symbols gifted as a rescue if a Lady spins in without Koi symbols. This event does not occur often as there are so many Koi symbols, but nonetheless can happen.

There is no prize associated with the SCATTERS meaning a potential zero win from Free Games is possible.

• WIN HIT: 1 in 8
• FEATURE HIT: 1 in 222
• RESPIN HIT: 1 in 247
• 1000x WIN HIT: 1 in 584,566
• MAXWIN HIT: 1 in 606,722

Paytable Review

Floating Dragon features a traditional pay structure with a minimum 5 of-a-kind prize of 100 coins but it’s a little odd to see all royals paying the same. A top award of 5x Ship wins 2,000 coins or 200x.

The Koi symbols are an oddity and overwhelming. There are 4 coloured Koi symbols all with a heavy full symbol border, signifying their weight should be higher, however all are the lowest of the high tiered symbols. The strong orange coloured Koi backgrounds are the most prominent colour spinning past and dominate all other symbols by far. Adding to the confusion of the Koi’s presence is the values appearing on each Koi.

The values are dimmed out and inactive in the base game but still very visible. These become distracting as their intention is to demonstrate what could land during the Free Game but it looks and feels like they should pay what they would in other similar games.

For the paytable, with the low minimum bet of 0.10 there are 23% of prizes at-or-less than the bet, making it relatively difficult to win a prize less than the bet. Only a 3 of-a-kind royal win pays less than the bet. But, with a low lines and somewhat high win hit rate, pays are few and far between.

Player Profile

Although volatility is rated at 5/5, the game isn’t as fierce as other very high volatility games from Pragmatic with the same rating. Sure, there’s volatility included but a steady flow of mixed Koi wins, a 2 of-a-kind prize from PIC1 and two features instead of one seem to soften gameplay a little. Typically, such a high volatility game married with an Asian theme signals one intended for an Avid player of Asian descent, but the softer theme of kites and hues of pink cherry blossom tell otherwise.

Audio

Finally, we have a Pragmatic game with ambient tunes that do not overpower the game sounds! You can actually hear reelstops and Scatter hit sounds while the music is playing.

The Glory Spin

The Glory Spin occurs a number of ways and is quite different to most slots. First; during Free Games landing a 5,000x Koi and a Lady Symbol, or Second; during respins with a DIAMOND COIN that reveals a 5,000x prize.

The game states a max win of 5,000x is possible, but the max win is capped to contain the game’s exposure to £1,250,000 and that is ultimately determined by the max bet of £250. The game ends the round if this value is reached, and any remaining free games are also forfeit.

Interestingly the 5,000x max win hit rate is quite frequent. This may become a barrier to market if casinos perceive it to occur too frequently, and with the 250.00 max bet pushing exposure north of 1,000,000.00 no doubt many will be reluctant to release it.

Delights and Surprises

• The increasing Koi Bonus multiplier on Lady symbols with subsequent retriggers
• The gifted Koi symbol during Free Games
• The Koi Bonus pays for EACH Lady if more than one Lady are in the same spin
• Some very large Koi bonus values available up to x5,000
• The initial triggering coin stack pays again with each additional coin
• The high frequency of the max win

Shortcomings

• 10 Lines. Considering, the respins and Koi bonus pays anywhere, the low lines bear no significance other than to boast a 0.10 entry bet.
• Themed Chinese fonts in messaging and celebrations are quite difficult to read.
• The scatter anticipation windup skips reel 3 and only winds up reels 4 and 5
• The presence of values on the Koi symbols along with their solid orange background suggests the game triggers a bonus when 2 or more complete reels land.
• Koi values are not removed after they pay
• The absence of WILDS in the base game

Conclusion

Overall Floating Dragon Hold and Spin is a worthy game to play. It includes some design oddities and quirks but nothing overly flawed. It seems all its quirks meld together intentionally as you spin.

Floating Dragon Hold and Spin gets 74 Spins out of 100 based on the following ratings:

PLAYABILITY	90
ORGINALITY	50
BUILD QUALITY	75
MARRIAGE	70
IMMERSION	85
RUN FOR MONEY	75
INTEGRITY	70
TOTAL	74