9 Burning Dragons Slot Review
Dark-red dragons curl along the edges of a glowing crimson screen, gold sparkles scattered across the backdrop and dragon-head ornaments crowning the frame. Wazdan‘s 9 Burning Dragons goes all-in on Chinese dragon imagery, and it’s a lush, glossy piece of work for a game built on such a small grid.
It’s also a game that asks one thing of you and repeats it until it pays: count symbols. This is a 3×3 layout of nine independent reels where wins pay for four or more matching symbols anywhere, not along lines, running at 96.12% RTP with the studio’s adjustable Volatility Levels™. The top prize is a 2,187x Grand for filling the grid during the sticky-symbol respin round. 9 Bells and 12 Coins Grand Gold Edition walk the same road, but few of the studio’s outings look this ornate.
Nine Reels, No Paylines
The setup sounds like a classic three-reeler and plays nothing like one. Each of the nine positions is its own reel, and a win needs at least four identical symbols anywhere on the grid. There are no paylines to trace and no direction to the wins – it’s pure symbol counting.
The counting has consequences worth understanding. Because any four matching symbols will do, a screen full of one icon can pay several times over in a single spin, and the royals-heavy symbol set means near-misses are a constant presence – three of a kind pays nothing, no matter how temptingly they’re arranged.
The symbols themselves are classic fruit-machine fare given the gold-and-crimson treatment: card royals from nine through ace, horseshoes and pots, plus a fiery dragon alongside the special symbols. No individual symbol values are published, so the paytable’s interest lies in how the counting works rather than what each icon pays.
Two housekeeping rules tidy up the edges. If two combinations of equal value land together, only the one higher up the paytable pays, and only the highest single win is paid on any spin. The Wild symbol substitutes for everything except the Bonus symbol, which it can never stand in for.
Betting, Volatility and Autoplay
Betting works through the standard Wazdan control set. The bet value buttons step the stake up and down a level at a time, a click-and-hold jumps straight to min or max, and the last button sets the maximum bet outright. The on-screen counters keep Win, Total Bet and Balance in view at all times, so there’s no digging through menus to check where you stand.
Then there’s the Volatility Levels™ system. The game carries your setting through the bonus: the Hold the Jackpot round is played at the same bet level and Volatility Levels™ as the spin that activated it, so there’s no surprise gear change mid-session.
Autoplay can be configured to stop on any of these conditions:
- Any win
- Entering a bonus game
- A single win exceeding a set amount
- The balance increasing by a set amount
- The balance decreasing by a set amount
You also choose how many spins the run lasts, from a handful to a long session, and any stop condition you’ve set overrides the count the moment it’s met. Between that and the volatility switch, the game hands over more control over its pacing than most three-by-three slots ever offer.
Hold the Jackpot Bonus
A draw of at least three Bonus symbols in the base game sets the round in motion. Those symbols stick where they landed, and the bonus opens with three respins to try to add more.
The round plays out as a simple loop:
- Three or more Bonus symbols land in the base game and lock in place.
- Three respins begin, with only empty positions spinning.
- Each new Bonus symbol sticks and resets the respin count to three.
- The round ends when three respins pass without a new symbol, or when all nine positions are filled.
- The prize is paid for the total number of Bonus symbols collected.
The paytable for collected symbols steps down a clean ladder, with named jackpots marking the top four rungs:
- 9 Bonus symbols – GRAND – 2,187x the bet
- 8 Bonus symbols – MAJOR – 729x the bet
- 7 Bonus symbols – MINOR – 243x the bet
- 6 Bonus symbols – MINI – 81x the bet
- 5 Bonus symbols – 27x the bet
- 4 Bonus symbols – 9x the bet
- 3 Bonus symbols – 3x the bet
Look at how the ladder is spaced and the round’s tension becomes obvious. The jump from six symbols to seven triples the prize, and so does every step above it, which means the difference between a forgettable round and a memorable one can be a single sticky symbol in the final respins. Filling all nine positions for the Grand is the round’s whole ambition, and the reset mechanic is what keeps a run alive: one symbol at the death restarts the countdown from three.
Even the bottom of the ladder isn’t wasted. A minimum entry of three symbols returns exactly three times the triggering bet, so the round always pays something, while the real money sits in the four named rungs at the top that most rounds never reach. That split – a small guaranteed floor under a steep climb – is the shape of the whole game.
Gamble, Shop and Settings
Wazdan’s usual toolkit sits around the reels. A Gamble option risks any win for a chance to double it, and there are two flavours: a standard risk mechanism and a quicker card-based version for players who’d rather not sit through the ceremony. To Credit banks the win without the next spin, for those who’d rather not gamble it at all.
A Shop button lets you buy one of the game’s bonuses directly rather than waiting for the base game to deliver it. Play-speed options run from normal through fast to ultra fast, and the settings menu covers the rest:
- Full screen mode
- Space-bar spinning
- Energy saving mode for longer sessions
- Big win animations on or off
- Game history view
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.1/10
This is a game built around one round, and it’s honest about that from the first spin. The base game ticks along on small symbol-count wins while the real draw is the Hold the Jackpot grid slowly filling with gold, and that slow build under all the crimson and dragon ornament is exactly why you’d pick it over a dozen shinier alternatives.
The bonus round is the best thing here by some distance. Because every new Bonus symbol resets the respins to three, a run never dies quietly – there’s always one more countdown, and the ladder’s steep top steps make the final fill genuinely tense. The Grand sits at 2,187x the bet at the top of the jackpot ladder, so the payoff never quite matches the ornate wrapping.
It suits players who enjoy the tight loop of a three-by-three respin hunt and don’t need five-figure maximums to stay interested. Chasing the biggest numbers in the studio’s catalogue means looking elsewhere; this fire burns steady rather than white-hot, and for this kind of game, that’s rather the point.
9 Burning Dragons FAQs
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What is the RTP of 9 Burning Dragons?
96.12% is the game’s total average return to player. -
How do you trigger the Hold the Jackpot bonus in 9 Burning Dragons?
Land three or more Bonus symbols anywhere in the base game and the round begins. Those symbols lock in place and you get three respins to add more of them. -
How do respins work in the Hold the Jackpot bonus?
Every time a new Bonus symbol lands during the bonus, it sticks and resets the respin counter to three. The round ends when the respins run out or all nine reels are filled with Bonus symbols. -
How many paylines does 9 Burning Dragons have?
None in the traditional sense. The game has 9 independent reels on a 3×3 grid, and wins are paid for at least 4 identical symbols on any of the reels. -
Can you buy the bonus on 9 Burning Dragons?
Yes. The game has a Shop feature that lets you buy one of the available bonuses directly instead of waiting for it to trigger naturally. -
What is the top prize on the 9 Burning Dragons jackpot ladder?
Filling all nine positions with Bonus symbols awards the GRAND prize, which pays 2,187x your bet. The ladder steps down through MAJOR at 729x, MINOR at 243x and MINI at 81x. -
When is 9 Burning Dragons released?
9 Burning Dragons’ release date is 21 April 2022. -
Who makes 9 Burning Dragons?
9 Burning Dragons is made by Wazdan, the studio behind the Hold the Jackpot series and titles such as 9 Bells and 12 Coins Grand Gold Edition.
