Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin Slot Review
A paper lantern glows pale over a moonlit village street, blossom trees blue with frost crowding in at the edges, a red-and-gold dragon rearing over the title. Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin hides its biggest prize outside the paytable: the best line in the game pays 50x, while individual symbols on the reels can carry up to 5,000x the bet. The reels aren’t really where this game keeps its money.
Our Floating Dragon – Year of the Snake review found a low-volatility slow burn. This one runs high volatility on six reels, with up to 147,456 ways to win and a 96.70% RTP. Pragmatic Play has stacked the festival, and sister title Floating Dragon Wild Horses covers gentler ground. This one brings the fireworks.
Base Game & Features
The grid is a six-reel Megaways setup with rows that vary on every spin, up to seven, and a separate topmost row that carries only wild symbols and blanks. Reels one and six can hold up to six symbols each. Wins pay for left-to-right adjacent combinations of any size, which is how the ways count climbs towards that 147,456 ceiling.
The wilds in the top row substitute for everything except the scatters and money symbols. That’s their entire job here – there’s no multiplier or collection attached to them.
Tumble Feature
Every winning spin sets off a tumble. Winning symbols are paid and removed, the remaining symbols fall, and empty positions fill with new ones. Tumbling continues until no new winning combination appears, so a single spin can chain several payouts together.
Fish Money Symbol
A fish money symbol can appear on every spin, carrying a random value from 2x up to 5,000x the total bet – the top prize on a single symbol anywhere in the game. In the base game it behaves like any other symbol: it explodes with a win and tumbles away.
Inside the free spins round it changes character entirely, sinking to the bottom of the reels instead of disappearing, where the Lady symbol can collect it.
Mystery Symbols
Mystery symbols can hit at random in the base game or free spins, and all instances transform into the same paying symbol. During free spins there’s a second use: after a spin that lands only Lady symbols and no fish money, mystery symbols can appear and turn into any random symbol except wild or scatter.
Paytable
Pays are multiples of the total bet, quoted at the game’s default stake:
- Frog – 1x for two, 2x for three, 10x for four, 25x for five, 50x for six
- Bonsai / Flower Pot – 1x for three, 2x for four, 2.5x for five, 5x for six
- Lantern – 0.3x for three, 0.5x for four, 1x for five, 2.5x for six
- Red Envelope – 0.3x for three, 0.5x for four, 0.8x for five, 2x for six
- Fish, A, K – 0.2x for three, 0.4x for four, 0.6x for five, 1.5x for six
- Q, J, 10 – 0.1x for three, 0.2x for four, 0.4x for five, 1x for six
Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin Bonuses
Free Spins
Landing three or more scatter symbols triggers the free spins round, with the count scaling by how many scatters hit:
- Three scatters – 10 free spins
- Four scatters – 15 free spins
- Five scatters – 20 free spins
- Six scatters – 25 free spins
Inside the round, the Lady symbol appears on all reels except the topmost row and collects the value of every fish money symbol on screen. Because fish money no longer tumbles away in free spins, values pool at the bottom of the reels waiting for her.
Every fourth Lady symbol collected retriggers the round with 10 more free spins and applies a multiplier to the fish money collection. The ladder runs x2, then x3, then x10, with a further x10 added for each retrigger after that. A round that keeps landing Ladies collects the same pool several times over at an escalating rate.
There’s a rescue mechanic as well. When a spin shows only Lady symbols and no fish money, a firecracker animation can detonate and scatter fish money symbols onto the reels. It gives the Lady something to collect on a spin that would otherwise have paid nothing.
Hold & Spin
Three or more coin or diamond money symbols anywhere on the screen trigger the Hold & Spin feature. The triggering symbols lock in place and the rest of the grid fades to blank tiles. The round starts with three respins, and every new coin or diamond that lands resets the count to three and adds its value to the total.
The two money symbols carry very different weight. Coin money takes a random value from 1x to 30x the total bet, while diamond money runs from 50x up to 2,000x. A single diamond landing mid-round changes the arithmetic completely.
The round also carries a floor: a minimum win of 20x the total bet is guaranteed. If the respins run out before that’s reached, three more respins are awarded to close the gap.
Bonus Buys & Ante Bet
Both main features can be bought directly from the base game, and an ante bet adjusts the odds on the natural route in:
- Buy Free Spins – 100x the current total bet, with three to six scatters able to hit randomly on the triggering spin
- Buy Hold & Spin – 120x the current total bet, starting with three to six coin money symbols of random values
- Ante Bet – raises the bet multiplier from 20x to 30x, increasing the chance of triggering free spins with more scatters present; it disables the free spins buy while active
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Under all those lanterns, this is a game you play for the money symbols and nothing else. Every spin is really a wait for fish, coins or diamonds, and the festival artwork is what makes the waiting pleasant rather than empty. That’s the whole reason to pick it: two bonus rounds that genuinely pay, wrapped in some of the prettiest Lunar New Year dressing going.
The free spins round is the best thing here, because it’s the one that escalates. Fish money pools instead of vanishing, and each retrigger doesn’t just add spins – it multiplies what the Lady collects, so a good round gets better the longer it runs. The base game is the honest weak spot. Six frogs pay 50x and the royals barely register, so the stretches between features are carried by tumbles and the artwork rather than by wins.
It’s for players who enjoy a volatile chase and judge a slot by its bonus rounds. Anyone who wants the regular spins themselves to pay their way will find the street a bit quiet between firecrackers. For the rest, the dragon is worth the wait.
Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin FAQs
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What is the RTP of Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
The RTP is 96.70%, which sits comfortably above the typical online slot average. -
Is Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin high volatility?
Yes. The game is rated high volatility, so wins tend to be less frequent but with a bigger emphasis on the bonus rounds paying substantially when they land. -
How many ways to win does Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin have?
Wins are awarded for left-to-right adjacent symbol combinations of any size, on six reels with rows that vary up to seven. The maximum number of possible ways to win is 147,456. -
How do you trigger free spins in Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
Land three or more scatter symbols anywhere on the screen. Three scatters award 10 free spins, four award 15, five award 20 and six award 25. -
What does the Lady symbol do in Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
During free spins, the Lady symbol appears on all reels except the topmost row and collects the value of every fish money symbol on screen. Every fourth Lady collected retriggers 10 more free spins and applies a multiplier of x2, x3 or x10 to the fish money collection, with a further x10 added for each retrigger after that. -
How does the Hold & Spin feature work in Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
Three or more coin or diamond money symbols trigger the feature. Those symbols lock in place and the round starts with three respins; every new coin or diamond resets the count to three and adds its value. Coins are worth 1x to 30x the total bet and diamonds 50x to 2,000x, with a minimum win of 20x the total bet guaranteed. -
Can you buy the bonus on Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
Yes. The free spins round can be bought for 100x the current total bet, and the Hold & Spin feature for 120x. There’s also an ante bet that raises the stake multiplier from 20x to 30x to improve the odds of triggering free spins naturally, though it disables the free spins buy while active. -
Who makes Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin?
Pragmatic Play. It’s part of their Floating Dragon series of Lunar New Year themed slots.
