Dragon Riches Progressive Slot Review
Red lacquered pillars and carved dragons frame a hall with one purpose on its mind: gold, and plenty of it. Dragon Riches Progressive is an oriental wealth slot where the first decision matters as much as any spin, because before the reels move you choose how much of your stake goes to the rich symbols and how much to the prize ladder. Tom Horn Gaming run it on a 5×3 grid with 243 ways to win and a 96.50% RTP, with a four-level Mini to Grand prize ladder sitting in the header.
It’s territory the studio has walked before in Dragon Vs Phoenix and Wild Dragon’s Fortune, but nothing in that line makes the bet level matter this much. Every rung of gold you buy changes what the reels pay and what the bonus can award – and neither choice gives you both at once. That tension is the whole point of the machine.
Gold Symbols and the 243 Ways
Wins don’t follow fixed paylines here. Symbols pay left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost side, in any position, across 243 ways to win. Only the highest win on each way counts, and scatter wins are the sole exception – they pay anywhere on screen.
The Dragon Wild
The Lucky Dragon is the game’s wild and stands in for every symbol except the scatter. It carries a second job that matters far more: one or more Lucky Dragons on the reels trigger the PickUp Bonus Game, which makes the wild the busiest symbol in the game by some distance.
Choosing Your Gold Symbols
Before you spin, you choose how many Gold symbols to play, from one to five. Each gold symbol adds credits to your bet – one Gold symbol costs 8 credits, and the cost rises with each addition. Your chosen golds appear in the Active Symbol Area, and every gold symbol on the reels pays out more than its standard counterpart.
The ladder works upward through the symbols. One gold plays the lantern, two play the heart coins, three the rings, four the ingots, and five put the Gold Buddha itself into play. More gold means a richer set of reels – and a richer bonus ladder to aim at.
The Paytable
All values below are multiples of the total bet:
- Gold Buddha – 1.1364x for three, 2.2727x for four, 11.3636x for five
- Gold ingot – 0.5682x, 1.1364x, 5.6818x
- Gold ring – 0.4545x, 0.9091x, 4.5455x
- Gold heart coin – 0.2841x, 0.5682x, 2.8409x
- Lantern – 0.1136x, 0.2273x, 1.1364x
- Silver Buddha, silver ingot, jade ring, silver heart coin – 0.0568x, 0.1136x, 0.5682x
- A / K / Q / J / 10 – 0.0568x, 0.1136x, 0.5682x
- Scatter (gold medallion) – 5x, 10x, 50x, paid anywhere on screen
That top line is worth a second look: five Gold Buddhas pay 11.3636x the total bet, the richest standard win in the game. This is a paytable built for the long game, where the ladder and the bonus round do the heavy lifting rather than the reels.
The silver tier tells its own story. Five matching royals return barely more than half your spin, which tells you where the game expects its money to come from – and it isn’t the card symbols. The gap between the Gold Buddha and everything below the lantern is where the gold-symbol bet level earns its credits.
The PickUp Bonus Game
Land one or more Lucky Dragons and the PickUp Bonus Game begins. It’s a reveal game at heart: pick symbols until you uncover three identical dragon heads, and that trio awards its bonus level. The number of Gold symbols you chose before the round determines which levels are actually available to you.
The ladder is where the gold-symbol choice shows its teeth:
- 1 Gold symbol – no bonus levels at all
- 2 Gold symbols – Mini only
- 3 Gold symbols – Mini and Minor
- 4 Gold symbols – Mini, Minor and Major
- 5 Gold symbols – Mini, Minor, Major and Grand all in play
One gold leaves the lantern as your only premium reel symbol and a triggered PickUp round with nothing to award. Five golds put the Gold Buddha on the reels and keep the Grand reachable. The interesting answers sit between the two ends.
Each step up the gold ladder buys a richer symbol and adds a rung of the bonus. Three golds – the rings – land in the middle: two bonus levels still live, and three premium symbols on the reels. Whether that split suits you comes down to what you’re spinning for in the first place.
The Prize Ladder
Four levels sit in the header throughout play: Mini, Minor, Major and Grand. The Grand sits far above the other three.
Free Spins, Scatters and the Gamble
The round gold medallion is the scatter, and it does double duty. Three, four or five of them pay 5x, 10x or 50x the total bet from anywhere on screen, and any scatter win also awards 10 free spins. Nothing promises a retrigger, so treat each trigger as a one-shot award.
After any win, the game offers a classic gamble feature: collect the money, or stake it for a chance to double it. COLLECT banks the win and GAMBLE puts it on the line, one win at a time. It’s entirely optional, and the collect button is always there when the risk isn’t worth it.
Interruptions are handled generously. If a session drops during free spins or the gamble, the game returns you to the exact point you left off when you come back. A technical fault mid-feature recovers the same way, so nothing you’ve earned is lost to a dropped connection.
The Honest Verdict
This is a slot you set up before you play, and that one choice – how many gold symbols to carry – is the reason somebody picks it over a dozen other oriental wealth games. One gold leaves the reels thin and the bonus hollow; five make the reels rich and keep the whole four-level ladder live. The middle rungs are where the machine actually works.
The PickUp Bonus is the strength: your own bet setting decides its ceiling, which is rarer in this genre than it should be. The weakness is the floor. Standard pays are small everywhere – five royals return barely half the bet – so between triggers the reels give very little back, and the wait for the Lucky Dragon dominates play.
It suits players who like configuring a machine before they spin and chasing a climbing Grand rather than a multiplier. Anyone after big line pays from the reels themselves will find this hall keeps its treasures behind the bonus door. For the patient, the dragons are worth the climb.
Dragon Riches Progressive FAQs
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What is the RTP of Dragon Riches Progressive?
96.50%. -
How many paylines does Dragon Riches Progressive have?
There are no fixed paylines. The game uses 243 ways to win, with symbols paying left to right on adjacent reels from the leftmost side. -
What is the grid size of Dragon Riches Progressive?
A 5×3 grid – five reels and three rows. -
When is Dragon Riches Progressive released?
Dragon Riches Progressive’s release date is 7 March 2018. -
Who makes Dragon Riches Progressive?
Tom Horn Gaming. -
What does the Dragon Wild do?
The Lucky Dragon wild stands in for every symbol except the scatter, and one or more of them landing on the reels also triggers the PickUp Bonus Game. -
How do you trigger the PickUp Bonus Game?
Land one or more Lucky Dragon wilds on the reels. In the round, reveal three identical dragon heads to win a bonus level – and the number of Gold symbols you play decides which levels are available. -
How do you win free spins in Dragon Riches Progressive?
Land three or more scatter medallions anywhere on screen. They pay 5x, 10x or 50x the total bet and award 10 free spins.
