Introduction to Smoking Dragon
Smoking Dragon is a casino slot from Hacksaw Gaming, where you'll meet a terrifying ancient serpent that levels ancient cities and villages to the ground with its blazing breath. Just kidding, it's not another heroic fantasy story about legendary warriors battling a menacing creature that hoards gold. Well, actually, this one collects valuables too, but this is a tale about a quirky dragon casually puffing on a pipe and revealing wins up to 10,000x the bet from the clouds of smoke. And you won't need to flash your sword before him to grab a piece of those riches; all you need to do is chill out, have a polite conversation, and befriend him. He'd be more than happy to grant you powerful multipliers up to x100 on Wild symbols or even share the most precious gift of all, the golden Dragon Egg.
The demo mode available at the top of this page will teach you how to approach the Smoking Dragon to gain his grace and walk away with big wins.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Smoking Dragon is a video slot from Hacksaw Gaming with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 1,024 ways to win. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1, which makes the game particularly affordable, up to a Max.bet of 100. The math profile offers a default RTP of 96.30%, which is in line with the industry standards. You can expect more emphasis on the frequency of wins rather than their average value due to medium-low volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 10,000x the bet.
Smoking Dragon's main scene brings a lighthearted atmosphere wrapped in a cartoony design with emphasis on Asian culture. The traditional red Chinese serpent, and the star of this show, stands on the right, casually puffing on his long pipe, while the clouds of smoke on the left look around curiously, as if they had no idea where they came from. On the left, his precious gold eggs lay in a cauldron, waiting to be activated and award great prizes. The landscape behind the reels fits the overall relaxed vibe, showing a natural view of a vast lake meeting blue skies along the horizon. You can enjoy the game on any modern device, thanks to the optimised design that allows it to be played on desktops, smartphones, and tablets alike.
Winning combinations require regular symbols to land in sets of 3 to 5 matching instances running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one. That setup allows forming wins along all 1,024 ways. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons. Low-paying ones appear as green playing card emblems, including 10, J, Q, K, and A, awarding 0.5x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind combination. High-paying symbols depict a rabbit, a ram, a pig, a wolf, and a lion, and they bring payouts of between 1x and 1.5x the bet when matching 5 on a winning way.
Wilds are represented by the red and gold dragon icons, and they will substitute for other regular symbols during win evaluation, while awarding payouts worth 2.5x the bet for an independent 5-of-a-kind hit. A pipe with the letters FS made of smoke is the game's FS Scatter that opens the way to the bonus rounds.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Smoking Dragon?
You can win up to 10,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Smoking Dragon?
The features are Row Cascade, Wild Symbols, Dragon Eggs, Puff of Luck Bonus, Smoldering Riches Bonus, Fire and Fortune Epic Bonus, and Feature Buy.
Row Cascade
Smoking Dragon features a cascading mechanism, although one that works slightly differently from the standard format. Instead of the winning combinations being removed after creating a win, it's the entire bottom row of symbols that disappears, causing all the remaining ones to drop. Following that, a row of new icons is added at the top, and a new evaluation occurs. The process continues until no more successful combinations can be formed.
Wild Symbols
Wild symbols exist in two versions, regular and Epic. Both perform a traditional role of substituting for standard symbols during win evaluation. Additionally, they can land with a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, or 100x. An Epic Wild also doubles its value with every consecutive Row Cascade within the same spin. If more than one Wild contributes to a winning combination, their multipliers are added together before being applied to the payout.
Dragon Eggs
Gold Dragon Eggs may land on the grid anytime among regular symbols. If three of them are present in view at the same time, they activate and award an instant prize of 500x the bet. The prize can be awarded only once, and further Row Cascades cannot activate the Dragon Eggs again.
Puff of Luck Bonus
Landing 3 FS Scatters within the same base game round activates 10 free spins. All base functions in this stage are maintained, although there's a greater chance of landing Wilds, Epic Wilds, and Dragon Eggs.
Smoldering Riches Bonus
With 4 FS Scatters on the screen at the end of a base game spin, you'll trigger 10 free spins with additional features. A Multiplier Bar will appear next to the grid, tracking the current minimum value of multipliers attached to all Wilds landing during this bonus. It starts from 1x and increases to 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, and 25x for every ten Row Cascades triggered.
In both bonuses, landing 2 or 3 FS Scatters at the same time awards 2 or 4 extra spins, respectively.
Fire and Fortune Epic Bonus
If you manage to gather 5 FS Scatters on the grid simultaneously, you'll receive 10 free spins, where all the previous bonus mechanics are maintained, but the Multiplier Bar will begin from 5x. Also, each spin in this mode comes with at least one guaranteed win and a Wild or Epic Wild. This variant cannot be retriggered.
Feature Buy
If you don't wish to chase after features in the base game, you can make use of the Buy Bonus menu, where certain functions of the game can be triggered instantly for a fixed price that scales with your current bet.
3x = Bonushunt Featurespins with a 5 times better chance to activate a bonus game.
50x = Flaming Hot Featurespins guaranteeing at least one Wild and one Dragon Egg symbol to land.
80x = Puff of Luck Bonus with 10 free spins.
200x = Smoldering Riches Bonus with 10 free spins.
1,000x = Fire and Fortune Epic Bonus with 10 free spins.
Final Thoughts on Smoking Dragon
Dragons in Chinese culture, how many times have we met in online slots? It's probably safe to say that the numbers are at least in dozens, but more likely in hundreds. However, in most cases, we're dealing with a relatively traditional depiction, with an almost tacky excess of shining gold, omnipresent red, and orthodox Asian decorations. Smoking Dragon has a bit of that, too, but on the whole, it takes an alternative approach to the subject, treating us with a casual, lighthearted version dressed in a cartoon design. The most emphasised cultural elements are the animals acting as high-paying symbols and the titular serpent, although their quirky forms blur the lines between an orthodox and universally amusing look. Altogether, it's a pleasant scene, empowered by Hacksaw's usual attention to detail and flawless sync of all the elements making up the gameplay.
Row Cascades and Wild Multipliers proved to be a genuinely potent combo during our testing, even if these features look plain on paper. Using ways instead of paylines also fits this setup perfectly, as it would have been annoying to land a combo that cascades down and does not always result in a win. That way, whenever you score a hit on the upper part of the grid, you can enjoy several guaranteed wins in a row with the possibility of improving them. Dragon Eggs added into the mix amplify that suspensive effect further, teasing with a 500x instant prize if you manage to hold three of them in view at the same time. Three bonus rounds don't bring many surprises if you're familiar with the studio's usual toolset, mostly empowering the base game features further and adding a Multiplier Bar that allows for increasing the minimum value on Wilds. However, contrary to many releases before this one, Epic Bonus is now also available in the Buy Bonus menu, although with a price tag of 1,000x the bet.
Smoking Dragon is a chilled-out alternative Chinese slot, offering straightforward yet potent gameplay utilising Row Cascades and Multiplier Wilds.
