Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax: Slot Overview

Yggdrasil Gaming’s DoubleMax slot mechanic has already been passed around a number of its partner studios, including Peter & Sons and Reflex Gaming, and now it’s Boomerang stepping up. The twist is that, rather than going for the obvious route and delivering another Raptor DoubleMax-style entry, Boomerang has put together a game that deliberately breaks from the usual formula. Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax still features a win multiplier that can double, but it only does so in the base game—where it can also drop by half. Once free spins arrive, the developer changes direction by freezing the multiplier and instead relying on roaming wild stacks to keep the action moving.

As you’d expect from a dragon-themed slot, Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax is set in a fantasy realm filled with these imposing creatures. The backdrop, which is well executed, shows a dragon beating its wings above mountains, a valley, a castle, and more. Overall, the visuals are polished and should appeal to fantasy fans, particularly anyone who enjoys airborne serpents. On the audio side, the soundtrack is appropriately dramatic, and the wild symbol’s character design also adds a faint anime-like vibe. So far, so good.

By selecting the Total Bet area on the info bar, you’ll find Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax offers a fairly restrained staking spread, running from 20 c to $/€12 per spin. There’s also a bonus buy option, and under standard play the return to player is 96.2%, increasing to 96.5% when purchasing free spins. Volatility has been rated high, and both the base game and bonus action play out on a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 20 win lines.

Wins are formed left to right starting from reel one, and there are 9 standard paying symbols. These include rough-edged J to A card ranks for the lower values, followed by a scythe, a pendant, flaming claws, a necklace, and a dragon for the higher payouts. A 5 OAK low-pay line returns 0.75 times the bet, while 5 of a kind on the premium symbols pays 1 to 2.5 times the bet. Wilds replace any symbol apart from the scatter.

Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax: Slot Features

If you already know DoubleMax, then the unusual way Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax applies the mechanic may come as a pleasant surprise—or not, depending on taste. For starters, Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax does not include cascading wins. What it does offer is free spins featuring roaming wild stacks, along with a bonus buy.

DoubleMax

Whenever a win occurs in the base game, the win multiplier doubles for the following spin. If a spin lands without producing a win, the win multiplier is reduced by half for the next spin. The multiplier cannot drop below x1, and there is no cap on how high it can climb.

Free Spins

Free spins start when at least 3 scatter symbols land. Players also receive a scatter payout of 1x, 2x, or 5x when 3, 4, or 5 scatters, respectively, appear. When the feature begins, the multiplier reached on the triggering base game spin carries over into the round. However, during free spins the multiplier cannot be doubled or halved. It stays at the same value throughout. At the beginning of the feature, a stacked wild appears on the rightmost reel. Any wild that lands in free spins expands to fill the full reel, and wild stacks move left one position on following spins. Once wilds reach the leftmost reel, they are removed on the next spin. Free spins end when all expanded wilds have reached the leftmost reel.

Buy Bonus

The free spins feature can be purchased for 86x the bet. When bought, a wheel selects a win multiplier of x2, x4, x8, or a random Mystery result of x16, x32, or x64, which remains in effect for the entire round.

Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

Having looked at quite a few DoubleMax titles at this point, Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax doesn’t deliver what you might normally anticipate. Up to now, these games typically share a pattern where the multiplier doubles after wins, cascades keep things rolling, and then the base game resets back to x1 for the next spin. In free spins, the multiplier usually doesn’t reset until the feature ends, which can allow it to reach extremely high levels. Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax throws that template out and heads in a different direction. Credit to Boomerang for taking the risk, though it’s fair to question whether the changes will bring in more players than they turn away, or the other way around.

For anyone undecided, it’s worth noting that Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax comes with a 20,000x the bet maximum win, matching the upper-end DoubleMax releases. So even with the reworked mechanics, the game can still land in exciting territory. The slower doubling/halving progression in the base game feels like it cuts both ways. You lose the rapid-fire tempo created by cascades in a more traditional DoubleMax slot, but a steadier build may be exactly what some players prefer. Bear in mind, however, that the multiplier is stored per bet level, meaning you can’t grind up a multiplier on minimum stakes and then jump to max bet once a big multiplier is showing. More debatable is the decision to lock the multiplier during free spins—particularly when using the bonus buy—since you could easily be stuck with x2 for the entire feature. That’s not especially aligned with the usual DoubleMax vibe, although persistent, fortunate base game play could still pay off nicely. On the plus side, free spins aren’t fixed, and roaming full-reel wilds are a feature with a strong track record.

All told, it’s an unexpectedly distinctive DoubleMax slot that explores territory most others avoid. That alone makes it worth a look for DoubleMax enthusiasts, though whether Legend of the Dragon Wins DoubleMax ultimately outshines the more standard approach for this style of game is something time will tell.