Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Overview

Leprechauns are hardly rare in online casinos, but one of the better-known ones is Finn, who first appeared in NetEnt’s 2017 slot Finn and the Swirly Spin. As the title suggests, Finn games are recognised for reel grids that rotate symbols in a swirling path instead of the standard top-to-bottom drop. The last entry covered, Finn and the Candy Spin, didn’t impress, yet Finn and the Dragon Tales looks like a step up, thanks to factors such as a higher max win and a fresh, transformative free spins round built around scatter wins.

As noted, Finn’s trademark is the swirly, whirly grid, and Finn and the Dragon Tales keeps that identity. Reel symbols travel clockwise, beginning in the bottom-left corner and finishing in the centre. Any base-game win triggers an Avalanche that removes the winning symbols, with the remaining ones following the spiral route to occupy the gaps. Fresh symbols enter at the bottom left, and Avalanches continue until no further win lands. Surrounding the grid is a pleasing fantasy backdrop of mountains, woods, and floating islands. The visuals—and, to a smaller degree, the audio—stand out as clear positives.

To set the swirl going, players pick a wager of 20 c to $/€120 per spin, and they also have five Elevate feature buy choices available. Finn and the Dragon Tales is a highly volatile slot on a 7×7 gaming matrix, with a top RTP of 96.04%.

Standard symbols pay with 3 OAK or more in vertical or horizontal lines, and as explained in the features section, they can also sometimes create scatter wins. The pay symbols are arranged into Green, Blue, and Red sets, with 3 symbols per set. A 7 OAK line returns 0.3x to 1.05x the bet, while scatter wins of 41+ award 0.65 to 2.5 times the bet. Wild symbols substitute for regular symbols in a winning line and can carry an x1 or x2 multiplier, depending on the feature in play.

Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Features

Finn and the Dragon Tales brings a feature line-up that differs from other Finn slots, including wild mechanics, a Dragon feature, random wilds, free spins that combine scatter wins with treasure chest elements, and feature buys.

Wild Feature

In the base game, landing a win of 3 or more symbols without a wild on the grid activates one of these effects: a 3 OAK win drops a wild x1 symbol into the centre position before the next Avalanche, while a 4 OAK win places a wild x2 before the next Avalanche.

Dragon Feature

This feature triggers whenever there is a win of 5 or more symbols. A Dragon symbol is added before the next Avalanche with an x1, x2, or x5 multiplier when the triggering win contains 5, 6, or 7 symbols, respectively. The Dragon’s colour and multiplier are determined by the win length and the colour group of the winning symbols. Once the Dragon symbol lands, every symbol on the reels belonging to the same colour group is transformed into the same symbol type as the win that triggered the Dragon feature, producing a scatter win.

Random Wilds

When a scatter win clears from the grid, any Dragon symbols still present collectively randomly place 2 to 4 random wilds over existing symbols. These wilds can randomly receive an x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier. Wilds will not be placed on top of other wilds, Keys, or Dragon symbols.

Free Spins

The Key symbol appears only in the base game, always at the bottom-left corner at the start of each spin. If the Free Spins Key ends up in the Bronze, Silver, or Gold Zone at the centre after all Avalanches have completed, free spins begin. The Bronze Zone grants 5 free spins and the green Dragon symbol, the Silver Zone awards 8 free spins and the blue Dragon symbol, and the Gold Zone awards 10 free spins and the red Dragon symbol. The matching Dragon symbol is then positioned in the middle of the reels.

In free spins, a multiplier starting at x1 is set at the beginning of each spin. Throughout the feature, gemstones and rock symbols can land. At the start of every spin, the central Dragon symbol transforms all regular symbols into one randomly selected symbol type from its colour group, resulting in a scatter win. Before the win is counted, rock symbols are removed, and a random number of them may uncover treasure chests. Treasure chests are opened in the following order:

• Multiplier Treasure Chest – reveals a value of x1, x2, x5, or x10 which is added to the free spins multiplier.
• Cash Prize Treasure Chest – awards 0.25x to 1x the bet.
• Extra Free Spins Treasure Chest – each chest awards +3 free spins.
• Extra Dragon Treasure Chest – each treasure chest awards a random extra Dragon symbol, which fills all the empty positions on the reels with regular symbols according to its colour group. The Dragon then transforms the placed symbols into symbols of the same type, generating a scatter win.

Elevate Bonus Buys

At 5x the bet, the Wild Hunt makes sure every spin produces at least 1 winning combination. For 10x or 50x the bet, the Single Dragon or Double Dragon ensures that 1 or 2 Dragon symbols are triggered in the base game, respectively. Alternatively, Bronze, Silver, or Gold free spins can be purchased for 100x, or players can buy free spins with the Key symbol landing in the Gold Zone for 300x.

Finn and the Dragon Tales: Slot Verdict

Whether the Finn series is your thing or not, it’s nice to see the friendly leprechaun still drifting around the casino universe, doing his signature swirling-grid routine. This time he’s cruising around with dragons, which is a slightly unexpected twist, but the slot itself can be a decent pick for the right audience. It’s difficult to suggest any Finn title to hardened players who won’t even power up their device unless there’s enormous win potential backed by brutal maths. That simply isn’t what Finn and company are designed for.

The upside is that Finn and the Dragon Tales is clearly stronger than its predecessor, Finn and the Candy Spin. The artwork is more engaging, the feature ideas feel more inventive, and the overall win potential is more tempting. Still, with a max win of 3,828x the bet, Finn and the Dragon Tales isn’t a true mega-win slot. One reason is the very low payouts for line wins and scatter wins—getting only 2.5x for 41 of the top symbol on the screen, for instance, is unusual. Multipliers do feature, but even so, the balance can feel a bit strange. Even with that in mind, the free spins round is far from poor. Filling the grid with matching symbols, then ramping results with treasure-chest multipliers, can deliver some genuinely tense moments.

In some ways, Finn and the Dragon Tales has a few built-in restraints. Even so, a player who isn’t chasing an extreme, high-risk path to huge payouts (or disaster), and who appreciates the polished leprechaun-meets-dragon theme, may find Finn’s latest trip to the reels a pleasant surprise.