5 Lions Dance Slot Review
Dawn light on a Chinese rooftop, red plaques stamped with gold characters swaying on their chains, blue-glazed temple roofs dissolving into a pink haze. That’s the stage for 5 Lions Dance, and Pragmatic Play has built something more disciplined than all that gilding suggests: a slot so committed to paying often that even its showcase bonus is a single guaranteed payout rather than a gamble. Frequency over fireworks, all the way down.
The numbers sit at 96.5% RTP, low volatility, a 5×4 grid with 1,024 ways to win and a maximum win of 2,700x the bet. It sits alongside 5 Lions Megaways, 5 Lions Megaways 2 and 5 Lions Reborn in the studio’s lion stable, and it’s the gentlest of the pride.
Base Game & Features
Five reels, four rows, and wins counted across 1,024 ways rather than fixed lines. Symbols pay left to right on adjacent reels, and wins on several ways at once all go into the total. Where combinations overlap on a single way, the best one is the one that pays.
It’s a layout built for frequency, and with low volatility behind it, small wins arrive at a steady clip. Bets run from 0.20 to 240.00 per spin, which is a wide enough ladder for most bankrolls. Every win is multiplied by the base bet, and wins can be displayed in coins or cash depending on your preference.
The wild appears on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 and substitutes for every symbol except the scatter and the Lion Reel symbol. Because it never lands on the first reel, it completes combinations rather than starting them. It’s a supporting actor here – the lions do the heavy lifting, and the paytable is where the game’s character shows.
Six lion heads – gold, white, red, yellow and green – sit above the royals, with each tier paying comfortably more than the one beneath it. The values below are cash pays at the minimum 0.20 bet:
- Gold Lion – pays 2.00 for three, 8.00 for four, 40.00 for five
- White Lion and Red Lion – pays 1.00 for three, 6.00 for four, 16.00 for five
- Yellow Lion and Green Lion – pays 0.80 for three, 3.00 for four, 8.00 for five
- A and K – pays 0.40 for three, 2.00 for four, 6.00 for five
- Q, J and 10 – pays 0.20 for three, 0.80 for four, 4.00 for five
Notice how flat the top of that table is. Five royals pay a tenth of what five Gold Lions pays, which is a narrow spread by any standard. It tells you most of what the low volatility rating promises: plenty of combinations land, few of them change your day.
Two specials sit outside that table. The Bonus symbol lands on reels 1, 2 and 3, and three of them pays 1x the total bet on top of triggering the free spins. The Lion Reel symbol is restricted to reels 3, 4 and 5, and it has a bonus of its own to unlock.
Between them, the two specials cover the triggers for everything the game offers:
- Three Bonus symbols – pays 1x the total bet and starts the Free Spins feature
- Three Lion Reel symbols – starts the Lion Reel Bonus
5 Lions Dance Free Spins and Lion Reel Bonus
Free Spins
Three Bonus symbols start the round with 10 free spins. The twist is what the lions do once they’ve paid: every lion head on the screen, after its initial win is settled, transforms into a different random lion head and pays again on the new symbol’s values. A screen full of low lions can turn into a screen full of good ones in a single beat.
It works step by step. The spin lands and any initial wins pay out on the standard table. Every lion head that hit then morphs into another random lion from the same family, and those transformed symbols pay a second time. Only the lions get the second bite, so a lion-heavy grid is what you’re rooting for.
Special reels are in play throughout, so the feature runs on its own symbol set rather than the base game’s. Free spins wins are added on top of any way wins from the triggering spin, and the whole round’s total lands once it finishes. Land three more Bonus symbols mid-round and another 10 spins join the tally, with no ceiling on how often that can happen.
Lion Reel Bonus
Three Lion Reel symbols across reels 3, 4 and 5 trigger the second bonus. Reels 1 and 2 merge into a single fully expanded reel holding nothing but direct money awards, expressed as multipliers of the total bet. That merged reel spins once and pays out one random value from the ladder:
- 5x the total bet
- 10x the total bet
- 15x the total bet
- 20x the total bet
- 25x the total bet
- 50x the total bet
- 75x the total bet
- 100x the total bet
- 150x the total bet
- 200x the total bet
It’s a one-spin feature with no build-up and no decisions. The ladder’s shape is worth a look: half the rungs sit at 25x or below, and the three big ones – 100x, 150x and 200x – pay more than most full free spins rounds here will manage. The floor of 5x keeps even the worst outcome from stinging.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Sessions here move at festival pace: something is nearly always landing on the rooftop, even if it’s rarely more than pocket money. The reason to choose it is that steadiness. This is a game for the long evening on the balcony rather than the one big swing, and it makes no apology for that.
The free spins are the best thing in it. Paying every lion twice – once as itself, once as whatever it becomes – means a modest grid can turn expensive in a single beat, and the endless retrigger lets a good round grow legs.
The ceiling is the weakness: 2,700x is thin next to the Megaways lions in this family, and the flat paytable keeps the base game from ever producing anything that feels like an event. It’s for players who enjoy frequent returns and a game that stays talkative through a long session; it isn’t for anyone measuring slots by their biggest possible day. The lions here dance at a tempo you can settle into, and for the right player that steady rhythm is the whole point.
5 Lions Dance FAQs
-
What is the RTP of 5 Lions Dance?
The RTP is 96.5%, a shade above the typical industry average. -
Is 5 Lions Dance high volatility?
No, it’s a low volatility slot, so it pays out more often in smaller amounts while still leaving room for bigger wins. -
How do you trigger the free spins in 5 Lions Dance?
Hit three Bonus symbols on reels 1, 2 and 3, which also pays 1x your total bet. The round then starts with 10 free spins. -
What does the Lion Reel Bonus do?
Three Lion Reel symbols on reels 3, 4 and 5 merge reels 1 and 2 into a single expanded reel of cash multipliers. It spins once and awards between 5x and 200x your total bet. -
How many ways to win does 5 Lions Dance have?
The game offers 1,024 ways to win on a 5×4 grid, with symbols paying left to right on adjacent reels. -
What is the maximum win on 5 Lions Dance?
The maximum win is 2,700x your bet. -
What are the betting limits on 5 Lions Dance?
Bets run from 0.20 to 240.00 per spin. -
Can the free spins round in 5 Lions Dance retrigger?
Yes. Three Bonus symbols mid-round add 10 more spins, and there’s no ceiling on how many times that can happen.
