Smoking Dragon

Smoking Dragon Review

Hacksaw Gaming was clearly in a playful mood when creating Smoking Dragon, an unorthodox Asian-style slot game with a giant pipe-puffing dragon flanking the 5x4 grid. You’ll spin the reels to a classic Chinese soundtrack, and the peaceful lake setting amplifies the relaxed atmosphere in this cartoonish-style game. The puffy clouds are also paying attention to what is going on, as they have been anthropomorphized with expressive eyes and eyebrows.

You start by choosing your preferred bet level, ranging from €0.10 to €100 per spin, which should work for most types of players. You win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols across up to 1,024 win ways, starting from the leftmost reel. The premium symbols, consisting of Chinese mythology-style rabbits, goats, pigs, lions, and dragons, award 1x to 1.5x your stake for 5 of a kind. The low-value royal symbols all pay 0.5x your stake for the same, while wilds pay 2.5x your stake for 5 wilds on a win way.

Smoking Dragon Slot - Reels Screen

The dragon Wild and Epic Wild symbols not only substitute for pay symbols, but can also carry multipliers of up to x100. These additive wild multipliers boost wins that the wilds are part of, and the multiplier of the Epic Wild symbols doubles per cascade. Cascades are not your ordinary removal of winning symbols in Smoking Dragon, though. Instead, the bottom row is removed per cascading win, adding new symbols to the top row as the remaining symbols drop down to fill the bottom row.

Landing 3 dragon eggs in view awards an instant prize of 500x your stake, and there are 3 progressively better bonus rounds in the Smoking Dragon slot. You get more wilds and dragon eggs in the first tier, with a progressive minimum wild multiplier added in the second tier. The epic bonus round combines the best of both, while guaranteeing wins, wilds, and/or epic wilds per spin. Smoking Dragon boasts an above-average RTP of 96.3% (albeit with adjustable RTP ranges), and it’s a low volatility slot game (2 out of 5) offering a max win of 10,000x your stake.

Smoking Dragon Features

The time has come to give you an overview of all the features in this game, and we also encourage you to test the Smoking Dragon free play demo to see for yourself how they work. Anyway, let’s jump in to check it all out!

Row Cascades

Unlike the more traditional cascading reels mechanic, Cascading Rows removes all symbols on the bottom row after each win. The remaining symbols drop down as new symbols are added to fill the top row, and this process repeats as long as you keep adding to the initial win and/or forming new winning combinations. The Row Cascades end when the cascade doesn’t create any new wins or add to the existing wins.

Wilds, Epic Wilds, and Multiplier Wilds

Wild and Epic Wild symbols substitute for any pay symbol to help complete or improve wins, and they may land with multipliers ranging from x2 to x100. If more than one multiplier wild is part of the same win, the multipliers are added together before boosting the win. Epic multiplier wilds have their multiplier doubled on each row cascade as long as the wild is present.

Dragon Eggs

When you land 3 Dragon Eggs on the same spin, or within the same row cascading sequence, you win an instant prize of 500x your stake. The Dragon Eggs then serve as blanks until they are removed from the grid via the row cascade mechanic. The maximum number of Dragon Eggs that can be present at the same time is also 3.

Puff of Luck Free Spins Bonus

You need 3 FS scatter symbols in view on the same base game spin, or within the same row cascading sequence, to trigger the Puff of Luck Bonus Round. This awards 10 free spins, and the feature plays out like the base game but with an increased hit rate for wilds, epic wilds, and dragon egg symbols. Landing 2 or 3 FS scatters on the same free spin, or within the same row cascading sequence, awards +2 or +4 additional free spins, respectively.

Smoldering Riches Free Spins Bonus

You need 4 FS scatters in view, either on the same base game spin or within the same cascading sequence, to trigger the Smoldering Riches Bonus Round. Once again, you get 10 free spins for starters, and you can win additional free spins the same way as in the Puff of Luck feature. In addition to the Puff of Luck features, you’ll now benefit from a Multiplier Bar that indicates the lowest multiplier for all wilds and epic wilds that appear. It starts at x1 and increases by one level for every 10 row cascades.

Fire and Fortune Epic Free Spins Bonus

Landing 5 FS scatters on the same base game spin, or within the same cascading sequence, triggers the Fire and Fortune Epic Bonus Round. This awards 10 epic free spins, and it plays out similarly to the Smoldering Riches feature. However, in the Fire and Fortune feature, you’re guaranteed both a win and a wild and/or epic wild per spin. Also, the multiplier bar starts at x5, but you cannot win additional epic free spins.

Smoking Dragon Slot - Free Spins

Smoking Dragon Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players can take advantage of the Bonus Buy menu, located below the grid. Simply hit the circular yellow button, and you can choose from the following options in the Smoking Dragon slot:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - pay 3x your stake to increase your bonus round chances by 5x.
• Flaming Hot Feature Spins - pay 50x your stake to get at least 1 wild and 1 Dragon Egg on each spin.
• Puff of Luck FS Bonus - pay 80x your stake to buy this bonus round.
• Smoldering Riches FS Bonus - pay 200x your stake to buy this bonus.
• Fire and Fortune Epic FS Bonus - pay 1,000x your stake to buy this bonus.

Theme & Graphics

The Smoking Dragon slot game is different from most Asian-themed games with its characteristic cartoon-style visuals and non-serious vibe. Even the puffy white clouds in the background are paying attention to what is going on; there they hang out peacefully over a tranquil lake. A massive red dragon dressed in Chinese clothing and puffing on a pipe stands tall on the right-hand side of the grid. The reels are populated by what looks like the baby versions of mythological creatures from Chinese folklore, and the soundtrack is a classic Asian melody.

Smoking Dragon Free Play

Now that you’ve learned all about the game’s many features, you’re probably eager to try the free Smoking Dragon demo to see how it all plays out in practice. The good news is that you can play as much as you want by heading to the top of this review page, which is where the demo is located. We also hope you take the time to read our verdict of the game below, and perhaps even tell us what you think in the comments field. However, the Smoking Dragon free play session awaits you at the top, and casinos carrying this game are found below the demo.

Pros and Cons of Smoking Dragon

Our Verdict

Hacksaw Gaming has done a great job with the Asian theme of Smoking Dragon, at least as seen with the eyes of a Westerner like myself. This genre is filled with overly ornamented slot visuals that may please players from the Far East, but tend to come across as too similar or generic for us in the West. Hacksaw is walking a fine line with this approach, seemingly trying to please players from either side of the globe. I cannot speak for Asian players, but the non-serious cartoonish style is a refreshing twist in my view.

The core mechanic, however, while also refreshing, seems borrowed from Relax Gaming’s Winter Champions. This is hardly one of Relax Gaming’s most successful releases, though, and Hacksaw can perhaps get away with claiming ignorance. Either way, the row cascades feature is an interesting twist that deserves to be included in more games, not least since it allows you to improve upon your original win, unlike the regular cascading mechanic.

The soundtrack is a tad boring and standard Asian, a stark contrast to the visuals, but it’s hardly a deal-breaker. Another surprise is the low volatility of Smoking Dragon, as Hacksaw is mostly known for their many volatile beasts and heavy hitters. Perhaps this is done to have a stronger appeal in the Asian market, who knows, but the good news is that you can still win up to 10,000x your stake, which is pretty solid for this volatility level. The only thing that felt a bit superfluous was the dragon egg instant prize feature. It’s theme relevant, sure, but still feels unnecessary.

I like that the bonus rounds build upon each other, piling on features that may lead to massive payouts. Multiplier wilds are at the center of the action in all stages, which is fairly standard for Hacksaw slots, but being able to purchase the Epic bonus round is probably a welcome addition for those who are eligible, despite the 1,000x price tag. Granted, you will hardly see this feature all that often otherwise, but when it hits, you’re most likely in for one heck of a ride. Smoking Dragon proves, once again, that Hacksaw knows how to wrestle out unique games where others resort to tried and tested clichés.