Dwarven Gold™ slot review

Dwarven Gold makes use of the common notion that dwarves love gold and are very good at finding it as a source of inspiration for this 2015 game. To help them, the slot features multipliers, free spins and wilds.

When you first start up Pragmatic Play’s slot, you might be somewhat surprised by the graphics. Although the drawings are colourful and cartoony, the style of the characters didn’t appeal to me at all. The exaggerated caricatures looked very ugly and even a little creepy, although that was just my personal opinion. Technically, it all looked fine and the 5-reel, 3-row playing field was populated with unique art.

Obviously, that’s not completely true as the low-paying symbols are your standard card letters. I do have to give some credit to the designers as these are at least drawn to fit the theme, entwined with vines and looking like they might actually belong in a Dwarf village. The slot features a total of 25 paylines that light up the symbols involved whenever there’s a win.

The game is slowly getting up there in years and this somewhat shows in the sounds as well, with the reels only making a ticking sound. Whenever there’s a win, you’ll be treated to a tiny jingle and depending on the symbols, a fitting clip. The most obvious of these is the cat Wild meowing.

Symbols

The symbols in Dwarven Gold are seemingly original art with a style that reminds me of classic drawings. There are some subtle animations whenever there is a win, with the dwarves taking a swig of ale or a sip of tea. I liked those animations as they bring the game to life a little more.

The symbols you’ll find in this slot include:

• Scatter: Get 3 or more Scatter symbols to activate the Free Spins mode. Max. 100x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Wild: Wilds substitute all other symbols except the Scatter.
• Treasure: Max. 20x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Purple Dwarf: Max. 10x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Red Dwarf: Max. 8x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Blue Dwarf: Max. 5x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Yellow Dwarf: Max. 5x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Ace: Max. 4x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• King: Max. 4x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Queen: Max. 3x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Jack: Max. 3x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• 10: Max. 3x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.

Players have the opportunity to pick a bet between £0.25 and £200 per spin. Considering the Low Volatility that the game comes with, this might be one of the slots where a higher bet is a wise decision, but I will leave that to each player individually. As always, I advise people to start off low and increase as they see fit.

In my experience, the game was relatively good at keeping my funds at the original level but I did see a slow decline and I did not bet any big amounts. This is definitely something to keep in mind. The max. win of 3,000x your bet is nice but it also never felt like I was close to winning it.

Features

Dwarven Gold has only a small number of features, all of which I would consider rather standard to current day slots. They all function about the same way as you’d expect as well, not giving players any surprises. It makes this game a good entry-level slot for new players but will probably get rather boring for experienced people.

The features include:

• Wild: Wilds substitute all other symbols in the game except the Scatter Symbols. Wilds always pick the highest possible symbol on the payline.
• Multiplier: When the Free Spins mode is activated, a multiplier up to 6x your wins is applied to all free spins.
• Free Spins: With 3 or more Scatter symbols on the screen the Free Spins mode is activated, granting up to 33 free spins.

All 3 features work exactly like you’d expect them to, with the Wilds appearing in both the base game and the free spins mode while the multiplier is only active during the free spins mode. The free spins themselves didn’t activate very often, only appearing a handful of times during my time playing.

If you get a Wild on the screen the cat will meow which might get annoying, but only because the Wild appears frequently. This is obviously a good thing so not really something to complain about. I didn’t find the Wilds to really help in creating wins all that often though, but with its low volatility it would still happen more often than most other slots.

The Free Spins mode feels like it should be a big winner but it is essentially the base game with a multiplier, so it’s perfectly possible to have a dozen spins without a single win. Wilds appear as often as during the base game and the multiplier only applies when you win. It is possible to activate additional wins but it’s not easy.

As I said before, the features in this slot are very basic and the simplest version of themselves. Very nice for new players to get a grasp on popular concepts in video slots, but not very interesting for experienced players. Still, it guarantees that the gameplay is at least solid.

In Conclusion

Dwarven Gold does not have a type of art that I enjoy, but I have to say that the game looks lively and colourful. There is clearly attention put into the design of the game, which always helps with the enjoyment.

When it comes to the gameplay, there is a lot less variation. The features are simple and toned down and even when they do activate they don’t have a big impact on the gameplay. With its low volatility, the game does not depend on big wins but rather passes you a steady trickle of small wins.

Don’t expect to win big in this game, even though it has a sizeable jackpot. You might come out on top but I would not count on it. Instead, enjoy this game as a relatively simple pastime, perfect for new players before moving on to something a bit more complicated.