It doesn’t look like Betsoft will stop releasing slot games with hold-and-win features anytime soon. After all, I can’t blame them since they’re popular especially if they come with free spins.
Fury Dragon Hold and Win is the studio’s newest slot machine with 5 reels, 3 rows, and 20 paylines. The hold-and-win bonus triggers when 6 Bonus symbols land any position across the reels.
When the dragon appears during the bonus it collects the value of all those symbols. The game also has Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand Jackpots. The Grand Jackpot offers a top cash prize of 5,000x.
The volatility is medium to high variance, the RTP is 96.06% and the hit frequency is 30.71%. Players who play the slot for real cash will get a win on every third spin.
So, on that front, it looks like a potential cash cow. I’m going to be honest here the game’s graphics didn’t do it for me since I’ve seen it all before.
You can place bets from 25 cents to $20 per spin. The audio track is Asian music, and a temple serves as the reel set’s backdrop.
The top symbol is the gold vase, which pays 10x the stake for 5. The remainder of the high-value symbols are the ship, Khoi fish, tortoise, and lotus flower.
The low-value cards from J to A pay 2x to 3x your stake for 5. You’ll start winning money when 3 matching symbols populate the reels. The rest of the symbols are the dragon and Bonus scatter.
The Wild substitutes all the symbols except the Golden Dragon and appears on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5.
Bonus Rounds
Hold and Win
The game’s only bonus round triggers when 6 or more Golden Dragon symbols appear. You’ll start the bonus game with 3 respins and every dragon that lands resets it to 3.
The Bonus symbols award additional prizes such as Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand jackpots. To win a jackpot you must have 15 bonus symbols on the reels. The bonus round ends when you run out of respins or if you win the jackpot.
Stacked Mystery Symbols
The stacked mystery symbol replaces a random symbol before a new spin initiates. The mystery symbols don’t replace the wild and the golden dragon symbol.
Buy Option
You can bypass the base game by using the buy option to trigger the hold and win. How much does it cost? If you play for the maximum stake of $20 the buy option costs $1,080.
If your average bet is $0.25, you’re looking at a small fee of $13.50. That’s also a nice way to gauge the average payouts of the bonus game cheaply.
Tips and Strategy
Don’t play this slot unless you have a bankroll of at least $1,500. I played the game for 350 spins and ended up with a decent win of $7,410.
The starting wager was $0.25, and I tested the buy feature a few times – the payouts were disappointing. I switched from $0.25 to $12.50 spins and eventually increased it to $20.
I spun the reels until I triggered the hold-and-win feature, avoiding the buy option entirely. The bonus triggers on average after 40-50 spins.
When the jackpot symbols appeared, they stuck to the reels. With $20 spins, the Mini Jackpot paid $400.
The dragon collected all coin values and the Mini Jackpot, resetting the respin counter to 3 and delivering incredible payouts.
Verdict
I wasn’t a fan because I started playing the slot machine for the lowest wager. However, it grew on me the longer I played. Increase your bets when playing medium—to high-variance games.
The payouts may be infrequent but when it pays you can strike paydirt. The strategy I used paid off handsomely.
I tested the buy option a few times for low stakes increasing my bets gradually. If the bonus game paid $1,500 plus, I’d spin the reels for 50 spins.
There were sessions where I triggered the hold and win feature twice within 50 spins. I didn’t like the wild in the base game. There were spins where I got 5 wilds to the right of the reels but no payout.
That happens because Fury Dragon Hold and Win pays from left to right. It’s a different story when 4 or 5 wilds land on the leftmost reels and combine with other symbols.
Let’s bring it home. This slot is by no means a day late and a dollar short. I enjoyed playing it and I highly recommend it. That said, play responsibly and when you win money – cash out.