Dwarf Mine (Yggdrasil): Review

What is it with dwarfs and mines? Is there any real historical basis for short people being forced into mining as slave labour, or is the whole idea simply a legacy of Disney’s Seven Dwarfs? We wanted to find out, so we dug into the topic. Historically, mining has often been a highly dangerous job left to slaves and the very poor, yet we found no specific references to dwarfs in the records. The explanation instead points to Germanic mythology.

In the legends, dwarfs are described as “short and ugly” humanoid beings living underground and in mountains, commonly linked to mining, crafting, and smithing. Hollywood later borrowed this portrayal and helped shape the modern image of mining dwarfs we recognise today.

Get ready to head below ground and hunt for precious crystals in this 5 reel, 1024 ways to win Yggdrasil Gaming powered slot. Playable on all devices with stakes from 0.10 to 125 Eur a spin, it features Expanding Reels that can boost the layout to as many as 16,807 win ways. Dwarf Mine includes two free spins options: the regular round with 10 free spins and the Collection Free Spins, which awards 5 spins featuring super high-value symbols.

On the visual side, it uses a cartoon-like style with plenty of animation. The overall feel is light and humorous—look closely at the background and you’ll spot buried human and dinosaur remains, plus a Leprechaun hat trapped in solid rock. The reels sit inside a rough-and-ready hydraulic digging rig, run by an Irish-looking dwarf. He stands to the right of the reels, wildly yanking the lift lever as he rises and drops in sync with the reels expanding and contracting.

The reel symbols are mostly card suits, while the higher-paying group consists of dwarven tools such as shovels, axes, helmets, and lanterns—the lantern being the top payer, awarding 1.4 times your stake for on a payline.

Yggdrasil has taken an unusual approach here by excluding a wild symbol entirely. There is a bonus symbol, though, and it serves two purposes. Besides activating the free spins, it also expands the reels in the base game—each time a bonus symbol lands, the reels grow by 1 row. Thanks to this Expanding Reels feature, the grid can reach up to 3 rows and deliver 16,807 ways to win.

Dwarf Mine (Yggdrasil): Features

The standard bonus triggers when you hit 3 bonus symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5. It awards 10 free spins on a fully expanded reel set with 16,807 win ways. There’s also a second bonus route—during the base game, expanded rows can uncover green, yellow, blue, and red crystals. Gather 5 crystals of the same colour to activate 5 Collection Free Spins.

The Collection Free Spins use the same reel setup as the standard bonus, but you only receive half as many spins. Still, don’t lose heart—this slightly higher-volatility version compensates by introducing super high-value symbols tied to the 4 collectable crystals, where 5 red crystals pay 4 times your stake. It’s worth noting that no symbol can appear fully stacked, meaning you can’t land a full-screen win with a single symbol.

Dwarf Mine (Yggdrasil): Verdict

There’s plenty done right, including the strong visuals, the excellent soundtrack, and the slick flow of play—areas where Yggdrasil Gaming typically excels. Even so, something feels a bit off in Dwarf Mine, and it ultimately comes up short (pun unavoidable). With no wilds, no fully stacked symbols, and no true premium symbols to compensate, the 16k win ways end up feeling restricted. That limitation also shows in the max win potential, which doesn’t even go beyond 4000x.

Dwarf Mine isn’t a bad release, but it’s clearly not among the Swedish provider’s best. If mega win ways mechanics is the direction Yggdrasil Gaming wants to pursue, they’ll need to raise the bar—because this one doesn’t come close.