Dead Man’s Drop Demo
Dead Man’s Drop Slot Review
Harness the power of the deep in Slotmill’s latest release, Dead Man’s Drop – an action-packed 6×6 Video Slot that throws you into the heart of a spooktacular Pirate adventure.
Slotmill is throwing us into the darkest depths of the rough seas in Dead Man’s Drop, where Multiplier Wilds, Cascading reels, and up to 20,000x your bet can be revealed. Each spin takes you on a thrilling ride, but can you stomach the high seas, high stakes, and high rewards?
Multiplier Wilds are at the centre of the action, doubling in value for every win they are a part of and merging with others they come into contact with, creating hearty payout potential during spins.
After experiencing the farm life of Crazy Crops, Slotmill has us walking the plank of Dead Man’s Drop. The Pirate life isn’t for everyone, but it’s a lifestyle worth trying for a shot at the 20,000x max win potential…fail or refuse, and it’s a walk along the plank for you.
With a fixed RTP of 96.07% (bonus buy 96.34%) and a high volatility score, the stakes are high, but will all our hard work and determination pay off? Let’s find out.
Base Game & Features
Dead Man’s Drop is the latest Pirate-themed release from Slotmill, featuring 6 reels & 6 rows. Trading pay lines and ways to win in favour of the Cluster Pays mechanic, wins occur when 5 or more matching symbols land as part of a cluster, either horizontally or vertically.
The highest-paying symbol falls to the Pirate Captain, followed by swords, telescopes, anchors, hooks, and a series of coloured Gems. A variation of fixed payouts between 0.1x and 25x your bet is applied to the overall win, where applicable.
Given the nature of the Cluster Pays mechanic, each winning cluster is removed from the grid and paid out. All empty positions are filled with new symbols from above via an Avalanche Feature. This continues until no new wins occur in a spin.
Lastly, Wild symbols appear on all grid positions, substituting for all symbols except Scatters and Power-Ups. Each time a winning cluster is removed, a single Wild symbol is positioned on an empty position before new symbols drop in.
Multiplier Wilds
During gameplay, a winning cluster without an active Wild creates a new Multiplier Wild symbol, starting from x2. Each winning cluster with an active Multiplier Wild is automatically multiplied by its current value.
Once a Multiplier Wild is part of a winning cluster, its value will double, up to a maximum of x1,000. If two Multiplier Wilds with individual values below x1,000 are part of the same win, they will merge into a single Wild symbol, with both their values combined.
Wild Spawn Feature
During a random spin, 2-3 Wild symbols can spawn at the start of a game round, before an Avalanche event occurs. Additionally, there is a chance for Multiplier Wilds to spawn with a random starting Multiplier.
Power-Ups
Throughout a game round, special Power-Ups can appear on the grid, awarding the following Modifiers:
- Red Power-Up: Converts all instances of the same symbol into another high or low-paying symbol
- Purple Power-Up: Converts itself into a random Multiplier Wild between x2 and x32
- Blue Power-Up: Removes up to 9 adjacent symbols from the grid, excluding Scatters, Wilds, and other Power-Ups
- Green Power-Up: Removes all instances of a selected paytable symbol from the grid
Burst Mode
Burst Mode is a faster and more focused Autoplay Feature. This simulates multiple chosen rounds and displays the highest total win per game session. This may be stopped at any time, and there is also a toggle to stop it if the bonus is won.
Xtra Bet & Bonus Buy
Players within acceptable regions can participate in up to 5 Bonus Buy options:
- Super Bonus Hunt: Guarantees a game round triggering a Super Bonus Hunt for 8x your bet per spin (RTP 96.16%)
- Wild Spawn: Triggers a game round with guaranteed access to the Wild Spawn feature for 40x your bet (RTP 96.17%)
- Super Wild Spawn: Guarantees a single game round triggering the Super Wild Spawn feature for 80x your bet (RTP 96.20%)
- Bonus: Instantly triggers the Free Spins mode for 100x your bet (RTP 96.34%)
- Super Bonus: Instantly triggers the Super Free Spins mode for 400x your bet (RTP 96.47%)
Alternatively, UK players and other countries can utilise the Xtra Bet feature for double the cost of their current bet per spin. With this feature active, your chance of triggering the Free Spins mode is 5.6 times higher (RTP 96.15%)
The maximum win potential for Dead Man’s Drop is 20,000x your bet. If a single game round achieves this figure, the current mode ends, and the player returns to the base game with the qualifying amount.
Dead Man’s Drop Free Spins
Triggering the Free Spins mode requires 3 Scatters to land within the base game, awarding 8 Free Spins. Alternatively, landing 2 Scatters and 1 Super Scatter activates the Super Free Spins mode, awarding 8 Super Free Spins.
Throughout this round, Multiplier Wild symbols will remain sticky on the grid, without their current Multiplier resetting. Finally, landing a special Scatter symbol will award +1 Free Spin.
Super Free Spins
Throughout the Super Free Spins mode, the Wild Spawn Feature is enabled within the first spin. Additionally, the features from the standard Free Spins mode are persistent during this time.
Our Honest Verdict
Slotmill’s Dead Man’s Drop stands out as a menacing rival against other Pirate-themed slots, evoking fear in the crews sailing upon smaller sloops. What we mean by this is that there are plenty of Pirate slots on the iGaming market, but we feel that Dead Man’s Drop will be quite a memorable offering in comparison.
The current market trends suggest that the next ‘big thing’ is 3 Chests hype, as seen in Wild Swarm Triple Hive and 3 Magic Pots, while Slotmill decided to take their latest release down a new path, which, from our perspective, is a welcome and necessary alternative.
To begin, Dead Man’s Drop offers a timeless Cluster Pays mechanic, with the addition of Wilds that spawn after winning combinations, quite like the MultiMax mechanic created by Yggdrasil Gaming. This, along with unique Power-Ups, creates a fairly solid base game – it’s certainly not boring, and it has the capabilities to impress even the most experienced players.
In terms of modes, there are both Free Spins and Super Free Spins to contend with, making it a certified Slotmill classic. Both game modes are promising; however, the Super Free Spins mode is by far the more attractive offering given the guaranteed Wild Spawn feature at the start.
With that being said, Dead Man’s Drop doesn’t quite reinvent the wheel as such, but it does offer effective and alluring features, while staying safe mechanically and thematically.
All in all, Dead Man’s Drop has staple features and a recognisable theme, operating under the allure of a 20,000x max win potential. The game is a stellar example of Slotmill’s perseverance to go above and beyond for its audience, albeit Dead Man’s Drop is not overly inventive.
*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.
