Description
Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to play we go! The five-reel, four-row slot Dwarf Mine is another high-quality Yggdrasil Gaming creation, offering a whopping 1,024 ways of winning. Hunt for concealed treasures which lie deep underground in the mine. (We’re not quite sure why there’s such a link between little people and mining, but it’s certainly a strong connection.)
Graphics here are very much cartoon-style. You’ll see a background of the rocky walls of a mine, in which a Leprechaun hat is encased. A jolly, stout miner with a red beard can be seen to the right, while the reels are set inside a somewhat primitive hydraulic digging mechanism which he operates.
How to play
There’s a very broad betting range here, from a mere 10p all the way up to a high-rolling £125. And, of course, you can spin away on your device of choice, mobile or otherwise.
Symbols on the reel set include the four typically lower-paying card-suit values, plus spades, helmets, axes and lanterns. The latter shines a light on the best wins for a standard symbol, paying 1.4x stake for five.
Score a win by bagging any of the same symbols on a minimum of three neighbouring reels, working from left to right.
What’s more, if you get more than one of a symbol on the same reel, a multiplier applies, a perk which can prove a nice little earner, not least in the free spins round.
Dwarf Mine Slot special features
Special symbols
Unusually, you won’t find any Wild symbols in Dwarf Mine. Instead, there is a bonus (Drill) icon, which has the twin roles of launching the free spins round and expanding the reels during the base game (see below).
Bonus features
Expanding Reels feature
Keep an eye out for any bonus Drill symbols popping up on Reels 1, 3 and 5, where they expand the reels by a single row, and by up to three rows a time. Clearly, this gives you more ways of winning, up to a massive 16,800+!
Free spins
Play this on scooping a trio of bonus icons at the same time on Reels 1, 3 and 5. Your reward will be 10 free whirls on a fully expanded 5×7 reel grid.
But that’s not all. During the main game, the expanded rows can uncover crystals in red, yellow, green and blue. If you gather five of the same symbol, you release the Collection free spins feature.
Essentially, you play this on the same reel as the regular free spins round, but with half the freebies.
Don’t worry, though. This is a marginally more volatile feature and you get a series of super high-value icons as depicted by the quartet of collectable crystals. So, for example, five red crystals reward you with 4x stake.
Jackpot
Without a progressive jackpot, maximum payout in Dwarf Mine is over 3,900x bet.
Return to Player (RTP)
Variance in Dwarf Mine is medium, while RTP or Return to Player is an above-average 96.8%. Effectively, you ‘pay’ for that with a hit frequency that’s pretty low at 20.67%, or less than one in five.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a nice design and some cool bonus features, not to mention an excellent musical score, you’ve come to the right place. It’s true that it’s not the only slot around with a mining theme, and some reviewers have somehow found this game a bit lacking, a bit flat somehow, especially without Wilds and stacked symbols.
But only you can know if it works for you! Give it a go, and tell us what you thought.
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