Dead Riders Trail: Slot Overview

Editor’s note: This review assesses Dead Riders Trail in its early access form. In other words, Dead Riders Trail may still be in development. We intend to update this review if necessary once the final version is released.

Trailers, here’s something to rev your engines. Relax Gaming, the studio responsible for the excellent pirate-themed Dead Man’s Trail, returns with a sequel titled Dead Riders Trail. While the original sailed the seas on wooden vessels in search of treasure, Dead Riders Trail shifts to modern times, tearing up the asphalt and bending the law to grab the goods. The main attraction is an impressively crafted Bonus Trail, now joined by a Super Bonus Trail variant, with additional highlights including a Feature Wheel, Free Spins, and a gamble option.

Relax Gaming didn’t simply repaint their pirate success; they’ve properly reworked things for Dead Riders Trail. From the instant it hit our screen, a Sons of Anarchy energy took over—guns, fire, skulls, bullets, stacks of cash, and outlaws of every stripe doing what they do best. On the visual side, it feels like the artists drew inspiration from GTA V when building the setting. The game carries that ruthless, get-rich-no-matter-what attitude seen in slots such as Narcos Mexico, The Big Hit, or Cash Truck. It’s also fair to say Dead Riders Trail benefits from the path Nolimit City helped carve for this kind of gritty release to push into the mainstream.

To borrow Jax Teller’s words, ‘Every time I think maybe I’m heading in the right direction; I end up in a place I never even knew could feel this bad.’ With Dead Riders Trail, it’s “bad” in the best possible sense—letting players take a walk on the wild side from the comfort of their chosen device, whether mobile, tablet, or desktop. This multi-layered, highly volatile online slot offers bets from 10 p/c at the low end up to $/€20 per spin at the top. The RTP in the standard setup is 96.20%, increasing to 96.50% across all three feature buy options.

The base game runs on a 6×6 game grid featuring active symbols alongside worthless stone block tiles. Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels starting from the left side, allowing up to 46,656 ways to win when every spot is filled with an active symbol. When a win lands, the winning symbols are removed along with any adjacent stone blocks. The remaining symbols then fall into the empty spaces, and new symbols drop in from above, which can potentially create another win. This chain continues until no further wins appear. For standard pay symbols, clubs, spades, diamonds, and hearts serve as the low pays, returning 0.4-0.8x the bet for six of a kind, while four characters plus a logo make up the high pays, paying 0.6-2x the bet for six. The final symbol (for now) is the wild, appearing on reels 2-6 to replace any regular paying symbol.

Dead Riders Trail: Slot Features

Reaching the Bonus Trail or Super Bonus Trail is the game’s headline moment, though there are plenty of other stops along the route. First up, if you manage to remove all stone blocks in the base game, you earn a spin on the Feature Wheel. The wheel can award 4 free spins, 7 free spins, the Bonus Trail, or the Super Bonus Trail. If free spins are awarded, players may gamble them for a shot at winning the Bonus Trail. The chance is 33% chance if 4 free spins were won, or 52% if 7 free spins were won. An unsuccessful gamble means you lose whatever you had won.

Free Spins

During free spins, certain stone blocks come with bombs attached. Any win adjacent to these blocks sets off the bomb, which transforms all symbols in its reel into the same kind. The game selects the symbol that will generate the biggest possible win. On top of that, +3 additional free spins are granted whenever stone blocks are cleared.

Bonus Trail

Each turn in this feature sees a player’s pawn moves 1-6 spaces around a trail. You begin with 3 fuel cans on a meter, and 1 can is removed each time your pawn moves. Some trail spots display a fuel icon beside them—landing there resets the fuel can meter back to 3. Once you land on a fuel-icon tile, that fuel icon disappears. The feature ends when you run out of fuel cans or reach the win cap.

Landing on a standard trail tile grants a multiplier of the bet, up to 1,000x, while landing on a truck tile awards a Bonus Trail feature. Two truck types exist: silver trucks can trigger any feature, whereas golden trucks only grant the persistent versions or the Collect All feature. Completing a full lap of the trail adds +3x to the paying tiles and adds +1 fuel can to the meter. The Bonus Trail features are:

• Cash – 25-50x the bet is awarded.
• Sniper – 3-6 normal tiles have their values multiplied by x2.
• Payer – all normal tiles are increased by a value of 3x to 10x.
• Two Knife – adds 50x-200x to 2-4 random normal tiles.
• Refuel – 2-4 fuel cans are placed on random normal tiles.
• Shoot Back – the total win value is placed on 1-3 random normal tiles.
• Collect – the values of the nearest 4 normal tiles are collected.
• Collect All – all normal value tile values are collected.
• Persistent Sniper – acts like a normal Sniper on every following turn.
• Persistent Payer – acts like a normal Payer on every following turn.
• Persistent Two Knife – acts like a normal Two Knife on every following turn.

Super Bonus Trail

Activating the Super Bonus Trail changes things by swapping the silver truck closest to the start into a golden truck.

Buy Bonus

Press the Buy Bonus button to bring up three choices: a Feature Wheel spin for 50x the bet, the Bonus Trail for 90x the bet, or the Super Bonus Trail for 250x the bet.

Dead Riders Trail: Slot Verdict

The backdrop may have changed, the base game is different, and there are several fresh additions, yet at its core Dead Riders Trail remains the same roaring, trail-driven experience as its predecessor. If you’re into the adrenaline that comes with a motorcycle gang theme, it arguably lands even better. Most importantly, the two flagship trail features are just as wild as ever. Needing to manage fuel instead of dodging skull & crossbones End Tiles is a smart twist, and the pressure of running low on gas builds suspense rather than abruptly killing the feature the moment an End Tile appears. The trail is packed with character as well, capable of delivering anything from underwhelming outcomes, to steady long-build progress, to full-on explosive payoffs. As before, there’s a strong Money Train influence, where an average run can flip completely with the right Bonus Trail features—turning what looked like a quiet session into some of the most intense, white-knuckle trail action you’ll find.

And once the spotlight moves away from the main event, what about the rest? There isn’t a huge amount to add beyond the fact that the supporting features do their job well. Nothing really matches a massive run around the trail, but the Temple Tumble 2-style base game adds a roller-coaster feel, and while free spins can seem like second place next to the Bonus Trail, they’re still worth a look—especially since you can gamble them if you’re feeling bold, and the bomb mechanic is a decent perk.

Still, the crew in Dead Riders Trail doesn’t exactly look like the type to settle for second best. They seem built for chasing that single huge score, and the Bonus Trail or Super Bonus Trail is the most likely place to find it. Much like Dead Man’s Tail, Dead Riders Trail can feel weighty and dramatic when it gets rolling, the special symbols are as unhinged as you’d expect from a Relax Gaming slot, and the top outcome can reach 50,000 times the base bet. Dead Man’s Trail has already hit its win cap before, and there’s no reason Dead Riders Trail won’t eventually do the same when it really opens the throttle.