Casino Bonuses
| Provider | Elk Studios |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 4 |
| Paylines | 262,144 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 25,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 94.00% |
| Our Rating | 7.6 |
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Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Game Overview
No matter how much gold you collect throughout your life, as the old saying goes – You can’t take it with you! That being the case, it’s probably wise to make sure you have a will written to try and ensure that your treasure goes to the ones you love when you’re gone… wow, what a happy thought to start my latest ELK Studios review! But, let’s cast all that stuff aside for now, I think, as Dead Man’s Gold is a pirate or sunken treasure-themed game with up to 262,144 payways, a 94% RTP, and a huge top win of 25,000x the total stake. Arrr, me hearties, that’s a whole lot of gold ye have to offer there!
Many ELK Studios games are packed to bursting point with features – occasionally a little too much – but it seems that the developer has been slightly more restrained on this occasion. We do still get a bunch of special symbols, though – treasure targets and cannons are used to increase the multiplier for the current round, whilst the so-called ‘bottomless chest’ can add high value, wild or cannonball symbols up to the top of the reel whenever it lands. You can’t fail to spot the giant symbols, as these can land in 2×2, 3×3, and 4×4 sizes anywhere on the playfield. The main bonus round is a free spins feature also available via the X-iter bonus buy menu if you don’t have the patience to trigger it naturally!
Going after the treasure of dead men sounds a little bit heartless, but at the end of the day… what are they going to do with it? So if that entirely profound statement succeeded in clearing your conscience, why not fire up our free demo slot of Dead Man’s Gold? It’s available to play below:
Dead Man’s Gold Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I was shocked when I typed the term ‘dead man’ into our search box here at Demoslot, and the site chucked back more than a thousand results! Upon further examination, however, it turns out that most of these are simply hitting the ‘man’ part of the term – there’s only a handful of full matches, such as Dead Man’s Fingers, in amongst them. On second (or third?) thought, it could even be the dead part of the term, which is hitting the most matches – No Limit City’s excellent Dead Canary is in there, as well as huge hits like Book of Dead. One small niggle with Dead Man’s Gold compared to previous releases relates to its appearance on desktop – ELK are clearly targeting mobile devices first and foremost nowadays, and any of their recent releases suffer from a slightly squashed appearance when played on a traditional PC or laptop.
Whenever you have an online slot with a huge number of payways, the numbers on the paytable will inevitably suffer. In this case, the pirate symbol is the most valuable of the bunch, yet it still only offers 5x the total bet for a full payway of six of a kind. The eye/pyramid symbol that always makes me think of the Illuminati despite also being present on US banknotes will get you 3x the bet back for all six symbols, whilst the star and crescent moon are a little less valuable at 2.5x and 2x, respectively. There are four more medium pays – the skull and crossbones/anchor symbols share equal returns of 1x for all six symbols, whilst the octopus/blue ??? drop that to just 0.8x each. Finally, four low-paying royals all return 0.3x for a six-of-a-kind combination.
The available betting range here is way more comprehensive than it probably needs to be, offering minimum/maximum wagers of €0.20 and €100.00 per spin, respectively. Unfortunately, your choices are arbitrarily limited, with only 12 different bet levels available in total.
Base Game & Modifiers
When Dead Man’s Gold is first loaded, you’ll be faced with six reels of four rows each, for a total of 4,096 payways. Whenever a winning combination is removed from the reels causing new symbols to drop during the same round, one additional symbol row is added to the current playfield. This slowly increases the number of payways – first to 15,625, then up to 46,656, 117,649, and finally, 262,144 ways to win. You’ll need at least three matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel to score a win.
Treasure Target & Cannon Symbols
Target symbols can appear in various shapes and sizes anywhere on the playfield. When this occurs, the cannons located on either side of the reels will be activated for a chance to hit the targets, revealing hidden wild symbols and eliminating non-paying symbols located in adjacent positions. There are also multiplier target symbols which bear a cross and dagger sign.
Botomless Chest
The bottomless chest is described as a blocking symbol on the paytable for some reason – possibly because the symbol itself has no value, but it will fill any empty positions between it and the bottom of the reel with high-value, wild, or cannonball symbols.
Dead Man’s Gold Slot Bonus Features
Bonus scatter symbols bearing the sign of, I believe, the Mary Celeste are present on all six reels. Hitting three of these will award 10 free drops, increasing to 15, 20, or 25 drops for four, five, or six symbols, respectively.
Free Drops
The free drops feature plays out similarly to the base game, with one huge difference – the treasure targets, multiplier targets, and bottomless chests all become sticky during this part of the game! When the free drops are triggered, the round multiplier reached during the base game is brought over and will continue to increase from that point for the duration of the bonus round.
X-iter Bonus Buy Feature
You have five options to choose from on the bonus buy menu of Dead Man’s Gold:
- Big Block (5x Bet) – Guarantees at least one giant symbol will land during the next round.
- Chest Plunderer (10x Bet) – Guarantees a bottomless chest.
- Super Cannon Spin (25x Bet) – Guarantees a cannon activation. It also offers a chance to land the super bonus without paying for it from the X-iter menu.
- Bonus Game (100x Bet) – Triggers the free drops bonus round.
- Super Bonus (500x Bet) – The pirate’s cannons now have unlimited ammo, allowing them to continue eliminating non-paying symbols until every free drop results in a win.
Pros
- Well presented game, although it looks far better on mobile than on PC.
- The huge maximum jackpot of 25,000x the total bet.
- Tonnes of bonus features to hit and explore.
Cons
- Way below average RTP percentage of just 94%
- The super bonus is only available via the X-iter facility.
- Feels very similar to the previous few ELK slot games.
Final Thoughts
Fans of ELK Studios' typical output will know what to expect from Dead Man’s Gold, as it follows the developer’s typical conventions to the letter. The below-average RTP is a real problem in my eyes, but the huge jackpot does go some way towards mitigating this.
Decent
- Game Types:
- Cascading Reels
- Pirate Slots
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