Dork the Dragon Slayer (Blueprint Gaming): Overview

Dork the Dragon Slayer is a video slot that feels refreshingly different. Told through charming animated scenes, the tale follows Dork as he sets out to rescue the princess and rid the villagers of a band of troublesome dragons. The princess is locked away by a crew of oddball-looking dragons, and it’s down to Dork to face them, stop the chaos, and earn his prize. Of course, it’s also possible Dork has simply let his imagination run wild, spinning a mischievous fantasy where a knight slays dragons and earns a kiss from a beautiful princess… or maybe not?

At first glance, Dork the Dragon Slayer looks like a completely original concept. In truth, it uses the same framework as Goodfeathers, which effectively makes it a clone. If you don’t know that title, it won’t affect your experience. If you have played it and weren’t especially impressed, Dork may still be worth a try thanks to its character, humor, and enough twists to help it feel more distinctive than you might expect.

Dork the Dragon Slayer is a 5 reel, 20 payline slot from UK based provider Blueprint Gaming. This feature-rich game uses cascading reels, meaning winning symbols disappear and new ones drop in. On top of that, there are three randomly activated base game modifiers that can deliver stacked wilds, wild transformation, and symbol transformation that is guaranteed to produce a win. The headline attraction is the Dragon Slayer free spins bonus, where you fight a series of dragons—beat them all and you’ll unlock the crucial Hero Spins. You can follow Dork’s medieval quest on any device with stakes from 0.20 to €/$500 per spin.

It’s difficult not to appreciate how impressive the presentation is. The backdrop features medieval pavilions as part of a scenic tournament setting. The animation is the real highlight, though. For laughs, you’ll catch moments like Dork trotting across the screen on his hobby horse, and if you make it far enough in the bonus, you may even witness a dragon fart Dork in the face (yes, really). On the reels, J, Q, K and A sit alongside lances, swords, sunset banners, and Dork the Dragon Slayer banners. The banner symbol pays best, awarding 25 times your stake for five of a kind. The wild is the goofy dragon on a wanted poster, and it substitutes for all standard symbols except the scatter.

Dork the Dragon Slayer (Blueprint Gaming): Features

As with many Blueprint titles, Dork the Dragon Slayer is loaded with extras. On any base game spin, one of these three reel modifiers can activate at random:

• Wanted Wilds – When triggered, up to three fully stacked wilds are dropped onto the reels.
• Fireball Wilds – A dragon flies across the screen and fires at certain symbols to turn them into wilds.
• Scorched Reels – The reels are scorched, revealing a different set of symbols, guaranteed to give you a win.

The main excitement arrives when you enter the Dragon Slayer Free Spins round, which you trigger by landing four consecutive wins (shown on the dragon wanted panel to the left of the reels). After a brief animated sequence, Dork appears on the left with a dragon on the right, and the fight begins. During any spin, one of these special symbols may land:

• Dork: Attacks the dragon, reducing its health.
• Dragon: If the symbol of the dragon being fought appears, it attacks Dork, reducing his health.
• Shield: Protects Dork from the next dragon attack (can only be used once).
• Dragon Poison: Kills the dragon outright.
• Health Potion: Restores Dork to full health.

When Dork beats the current dragon, he advances to the next stage where a new opponent is waiting. There isn’t a fixed free spins count to monitor; instead, the bonus runs until Dork is either defeated by a dragon or he manages to slay all four dragon enemies. Defeating the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th dragon applies a 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x multiplier respectively to your total win. If Dork conquers every enemy, you’ll also unlock the Hero Spins. Awarding a random number of spins, this gives you one more chance to gather wins, after which the 5x multiplier is applied.

Dork the Dragon Slayer (Blueprint Gaming): Verdict

Because we’ve already played Goodfeathers and know this is a clone, some of the wonder inevitably disappears. Even where the features look different, they’re largely alternative visual takes on the same underlying maths. To be frank, we weren’t particularly taken with Goodfeathers, and Dork doesn’t completely change our mind either, as it shares many of the same issues as its counterpart. The base game returns are generally not that thrilling, and unless you reach the hero spins, it feels unlikely you’ll walk away with any truly meaningful wins (though we’ll see over time).

That said, if your main goal is a fun, entertaining slot, Dork the Dragon Slayer should fit the bill: it looks great, is packed with features, and often provides strong value in terms of playtime for your stake.