Dragonrise Slot Review
A stone crypt hung with red banners, four carved dragon heads watching from the lintel above the reels. Dragonrise asks more patience than almost any slot around, and it pays for that patience with structure rather than money: the first dragon doesn’t wake until you’ve collected 50 wilds, the last needs 580. Most games would hide that grind behind a flashy screen. This one leaves it sitting in a cauldron in the corner, quietly filling while you play.
Black Cat have built it on a 5×3 grid with 20 paylines, with RTP settings of 96%, 94% or 92% (94% is the default, and what the demo ran) and a win cap of 8,000x the bet. Black Cat’s other games on the site include Captain’s Curse and Druid’s Drop. Here, waking the dragons is the whole game.
Base Game & Features
Wins pay left to right across 20 fixed paylines, starting from reel 1, with only the highest win on each line paid. Wins on different lines are added together, and every win in a round is totalled at the end of that round.
The Basic Wild substitutes for everything except the Scatter, and the four Elemental Wilds do the same once their dragon has been unlocked. The Scatter doesn’t pay a line win; it triggers Free Spins. The paytable runs from a purple dragon at the top down through three tiers of gems, and it’s a flat ladder rather than a steep one. Values are multiples of the total bet:
- Purple dragon mask, and every Wild (Basic, Fire, Earth, Ice and Storm): 2.5x / 5x / 20x for three, four or five of a kind
- Chalice: 2x / 4x / 10x
- Green tome: 1.5x / 3x / 8x
- Ring and sword: 1x / 2x / 5x
- Blue and purple gems: 0.5x / 1x / 3x
- Teal, orange and green gems: 0.2x / 0.5x / 2x
The Flaming Cauldron
Every wild that lands feeds the Flaming Cauldron: a Basic Wild adds one point, an Elemental Wild adds 0.2, so five of those equal a single point. Fill it far enough and dragons wake in a fixed order, Fire first, then Earth, Ice and Storm. Unlocking a dragon adds its Elemental Wild to the reels permanently, though it doesn’t change what anything pays.
The targets are counted as total wilds collected, and they climb steeply:
- Fire: 50 wilds
- Earth: 160 wilds
- Ice: 410 wilds
- Storm: 580 wilds
After each unlock the cauldron changes flame colour and keeps filling towards the next total, with stage fills of 110, then 250, then 170. Once all four dragons are awake, collection stops granting anything further.
Progress, unlocks and Enrage state are all saved against your account and your chosen bet amount, so switching to a different stake loads a different cauldron.
Enrage
An unlocked dragon isn’t active by itself. Landing its matching Elemental Wild has a small chance to Enrage it, and only an Enraged dragon applies its effect. There’s no hidden meter building towards that chance, and it doesn’t grow over time; it’s a flat roll every time the wild lands.
Enrage lasts a fixed number of base-game spins: 70 for Fire, 80 for Earth, 85 for Ice and 90 for Storm. Free Spins don’t burn any of that duration, and rage bars don’t reset when the feature ends. More than one dragon can be Enraged at once, the state survives between sessions, and unlocked dragons wake with their saved Enrage when you return.
The Four Dragon Effects
Each Enraged dragon does something different when its wild lands, and several can resolve on the same spin, in the order Fire, Earth, Storm, then Ice. Effects resolve before the final win evaluation.
- Fire: low-paying symbols may burn into extra Fire Wilds, usually one, occasionally two. High symbols are never converted, and the new wilds count for wins on the same spin.
- Earth: low symbols adjacent to the Earth Wild, horizontally or vertically, may upgrade to a high symbol, usually one, sometimes up to four. All upgrades on a spin convert into the same high symbol, and an upgrade never breaks an existing win.
- Ice: the Ice Wild sticks in place for one extra respin at no additional cost, once per spin. A further Ice Wild during the respin doesn’t award another.
- Storm: one extra Storm Wild is always added if a low symbol is free to convert, plus one or two low-to-high upgrades, occasionally three or four.
Dragonrise Free Spins & Bonus Buys
Free Spins aren’t locked behind the cauldron; they can trigger from the very first spin. Three Scatters anywhere award 10 spins, four award 15 and five award 20. Two more Scatters during the feature add another five, and the round plays at the bet that triggered it.
Enraged dragons use stronger versions of their effects inside the feature. Fire usually creates two extra wilds instead of one. Earth always upgrades at least two adjacent lows, and a reel beside a high symbol can turn fully wild.
Ice Wilds that land stay put for the rest of the feature rather than one respin. Storm always upgrades two lows and usually adds two extra wilds. Elemental Wilds appear more often during Free Spins, and Scatters do too.
Scatters collected in the feature don’t count towards the base-game cauldron, though wild collection continues as normal, and any unlock that completes during the feature applies once it ends.
Buy A Bonus
The buy menu offers three tiers, and it’s entirely separate from your saved state: it doesn’t read the cauldron, your unlocks or stored Enrage, and nothing about the purchase carries back to the base game. Any option starts the Free Spins feature immediately.
- 10 Free Spins with 1 randomly Enraged dragon: 70x the bet
- 15 Free Spins with 2 randomly Enraged dragons: 120x the bet
- 20 Free Spins with all 4 dragons Enraged: 250x the bet
You don’t choose which dragons are Enraged on the cheaper options; they’re picked at random, even ones you haven’t unlocked. Those dragons apply their Free Spins effects for the feature only, and retriggering by landing two Scatters is still possible.
Our Honest Verdict
Playing this is like tending a fire in a cold crypt: long quiet stretches, the cauldron creeping up, and the occasional dragon stirring. You’d choose it for exactly that. It’s one of the few slots where coming back tomorrow genuinely matters, because the cauldron, the unlocks and the Enrage timers all remember you.
The persistence is the best thing here, and it’s real persistence, not a cosmetic bar. The weakness is just as real: at the default 94% RTP the grind is expensive, and the flat paytable means the base game gives you very little while you work through it. The buy menu shortcuts the dragons, but at 70x to 250x it’s a dear way past a door that only patience opens honestly.
This is a slot for the long-session builder, someone who likes finishing what a game starts, and it’s a poor fit for anyone after instant spectacle. The early hours are thin. But if the slow build appeals, there’s a rare and well-made thing behind that crypt door, and it keeps.
Dragonrise FAQs
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What is the RTP of Dragonrise?
Yggdrasil offers it at 96%, 94% or 92%, and the casino chooses which; 94% is the default and is what the demo shows. The Buy Bonus doesn’t change it. -
How many paylines does Dragonrise have?
It has 20 fixed paylines, paying left to right from reel 1. Only the highest win on each line is paid. -
What is the grid size of Dragonrise?
It’s a 5×3 slot with three rows across five reels. -
How do you unlock dragons in Dragonrise?
Collect wilds into the Flaming Cauldron. Each Basic Wild adds 1 point and each Elemental Wild adds 0.2. Dragons wake in a fixed order at total wild counts of 50 (Fire), 160 (Earth), 410 (Ice) and 580 (Storm). -
What does Enrage do in Dragonrise?
When the matching Elemental Wild lands, an unlocked dragon has a small chance of being Enraged, and only then does it apply its effect. Enrage lasts a set number of base-game spins (70 to 90 depending on the dragon), isn’t consumed by Free Spins, and is saved between sessions. -
Can you retrigger Free Spins in Dragonrise?
Yes. Landing 2 additional Scatters during Free Spins awards 5 extra spins, and the same retrigger is possible during a purchased feature. -
Can you buy the bonus on Dragonrise?
Yes. The buy menu offers three tiers: 10 Free Spins with 1 Enraged dragon for 70x the bet, 15 Free Spins with 2 Enraged dragons for 120x, and 20 Free Spins with all 4 dragons Enraged for 250x. -
What is the maximum win on Dragonrise?
The maximum win is 8,000x the bet. If that limit is reached, the game round ends immediately and the win is capped there.
