Dia Muertos

Dia Muertos Slot Review

Papel picado banners with skull cutouts hang across the top of the frame, candles line the bottom edge, and a guitar and a brass trumpet each lean on a purple sombrero at either side. Dia Muertos sets its reels inside a Día de Muertos celebration, all saturated purples and warm papercut detail.

Amatic have built a game where no win is ever finished business: every one is a down payment on the next spin. The reels run on a 5×4 grid with 45 win ways, paying left to right on adjacent reels, at a generous 97.05% RTP.

That’s a different animal from the fixed-line fruit fare the studio is better known for, such as Hot Fruits 20 Cash Spins or Lucky Joker 10 Cash Spins. Each win here is the first step up a ladder.

Base Game, Symbols and Win Ways

The base game pays on 45 ways, with winning combinations running leftmost to right on any position on adjacent reels. It’s a simple setup, and the first win is where the game starts in earnest.

Leading the paytable is the WILD symbol, a sombrero-wearing skull that stands in for every other symbol in the game. Everything below is a multiple of your bet:

• Wild (sombrero skull): 10x for three, 25x for four, 50x for five
• Green skeleton dog: 8x for three, 20x for four, 30x for five
• Purple skeleton cat: 7x for three, 17x for four, 25x for five
• Guitar: 6x for three, 15x for four, 22x for five
• Tequila bottle: 5x for three, 12x for four, 18x for five
• Moth: 4x for three, 10x for four, 15x for five
• Sugar skull flower: 3x for three, 8x for four, 12x for five
• A, K, Q and J: 2x for three, 5x for four, 10x for five

The festival-themed symbols clearly outpay the royals, and the wild sits at the head of the table. The wild’s real work isn’t on the paytable at all, though. It’s in the respin chain, where a well-placed substitution can turn a losing spin into a winning one.

The middle of the paytable is where the theme does its best work. A skeleton dog and cat sit above the guitar and tequila bottle, and all four belong squarely to the festival. The moth and sugar skull flower fill out the lower festival tiers.

The royals bring up the rear at half the top symbol’s value. Five matching royals return just 10x, which tells you where the game’s priorities sit.

With no scatter symbol in the base game and no second screen to wait for, the base game has to hold attention on its own. The ways ladder does that job. Every win opens more ways, and the reels stay in motion for as long as the wins keep arriving.

The Respin Feature

Every win starts the RESPIN feature, and it’s the engine of the whole game. The sequence runs like this: a win lands, the reels respin with more ways open, and if that respin also wins, another respin follows with more ways still. The ladder climbs like this:

• Respin 1: 135 ways
• Respin 2: 405 ways
• Respin 3: 675 ways
• Respin 4: 1,125 ways
• Respin 5: 1,875 ways

That’s a long way from the 45 ways the base game starts with. The first respin triples the way count straight away, and by the fourth respin the board carries 25 times the starting ways.

A respin without a win ends the feature. The chain lives or dies on each spin it awards.

Because the ways count carries across the whole chain, each win is worth more than it looks at the moment it lands. A five-of-a-kind on the base grid pays the same line value as anywhere else, but on a 1,125-way board the same spin can find combinations the 45-way layout could never reach. The wild’s substitution value grows with the board, too.

Five consecutive winning respins take the ladder all the way to its top, and that fifth step is the most valuable one in the game. Reach it and the celebration moves to a bigger stage.

Bonusspins

Reach the fifth respin and the game pays out 7 bonusspins. That’s the only route in: five consecutive winning respins, no scatter symbol involved.

The bonusspins run at 8,125 ways, the top of the ladder. Better still, every win during the bonus extends it by one additional bonusspin. The round only ends when the spin counter runs dry, so a hot streak can keep the festival going for some time.

The symbol pays don’t change in the bonus, so the values above are the ones to work from. What changes is the board. At 8,125 ways, four times the count of the fifth respin and more than 180 times the base game’s, a single spin can find combinations the 45-way layout could never reach, and each one of those wins buys another spin.

The extension mechanic is what gives the bonus its shape. Seven spins with no win at all is the floor, and the round is over quickly if the board goes cold. Land wins regularly, though, and the counter never quite runs out: the bonus continues for as long as the wins do, on the biggest board the game offers.

The Gamble

After any win, a GAMBLE button appears on the play screen. Red or black doubles the gambled amount, and the correct suit quadruples it. Hearts and diamonds count as red; spades and clubs are black.

It’s the classic card gamble, a straight all-or-nothing play on whatever win you’ve just banked, and a wrong colour or suit loses the lot.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.8/10

This is a game about momentum, and when the wins chain up it plays beautifully – the board widening under you while the same spin finds more and more. The festival art gives it warmth the whole way through. The respin ladder is the best thing here: it makes a modest 45-way grid feel bigger every time you win, and the 97.05% return means the chains come round often enough to matter.

Five consecutive winning respins is a genuinely steep ask, and that’s the price of the top step. Any winless respin sends you back to the start with thin royal pays to show for it. There’s no scatter shortcut, no consolation for a chain that dies one respin short.

So this one suits players who enjoy the climb itself and don’t need a second screen to feel progress – patient ones, because the ladder asks for streaks, not luck. If what you want is an easy bonus round, the ofrenda isn’t set for you. But if a long chain of wins sounds like its own reward, the party’s worth the walk.

Dia Muertos FAQs

• What is the RTP of Dia Muertos?

  Dia Muertos runs at an RTP of 97.05%, which is comfortably above the industry average.
• How many paylines does Dia Muertos have?

  There are no paylines. Dia Muertos is ways-based, with 45 win ways in base play, and winning combinations pay leftmost to right on adjacent reels.
• How does the Respin feature work?

  Every win starts the Respin feature. With each respin, more win ways open up, from 135 ways on the first respin up to 1,875 ways on the fifth, and every win during a respin triggers another one. A respin without a win ends the feature.
• How do you trigger the bonusspins in Dia Muertos?

  You win 7 bonusspins after completing 5 respins. The bonusspins run at 8,125 ways, and every win during the bonus extends it by one additional spin. The round ends when no bonusspins are left.
• Can the bonusspins retrigger?

  Yes, in effect. There’s no separate retrigger, but every win during the bonusspins adds one additional bonusspin, so a run of wins can keep the bonus going well beyond the initial seven spins.
• What does the wild symbol do in Dia Muertos?

  The sombrero skull is the game’s substitute, standing in for every other symbol to help complete winning combinations. It’s also the top payer, returning 50x the bet for five of a kind.
• How does the gamble work in Dia Muertos?

  After any win, the GAMBLE button lets you risk it on a card. Red or black doubles the gambled amount, and the correct suit quadruples it. A wrong pick loses the gambled amount.
• When was Dia Muertos released, and who makes it?

  Dia Muertos is made by Amatic, and the game’s release date is 5 November 2019.