For me, what is cool about this game is that Dead Rider’s Trail really comes in 3 parts. The first part is all about demolishing ALL the stone blocks from the reel set. This is done with the help of Cascading Wins. Then you have a Bonus Wheel spin that can unlock parts 2 and 3 which are the Free Spins and the Trail itself.
With all that in mind, let’s have a look at how the game unfolds at each stage.
Cascading Wins Remove Winning Symbols AND Stone Blocks
This is the Cascading Wins part of the game. Your objective at the start of each spin is to blast ALL the stone blocks away to trigger the Bonus Wheel.
How does it work? By now, we all know the drill – winning symbols explode off the grid after a winning spin to be replaced by new ones.
But in this case, there is more …
In Dead Rider’s Trail any stone block ADJACENT to a winning symbol – above, below, left, right- is also removed. This creates a lot more movement than in a standard Cascade and more new symbols on the grid and a greater potential for another payout.
The process repeats until no more wins are formed, or better still … ALL stone blocks are removed.
Clearing the grid always looks good in Dead Rider’s TrailThe Bonus Wheel Is Your Entry Point To Free Spins and the Trail
Removing ALL stone blocks from the grid automatically triggers the bonus wheel, a giant outlaw Wheel of Fortune if you like, with segments in black, gun metal grey and faded yellow. Note the gun that acts as the pointer which will decide which segment you land on!
Potential wins are:
- 4 Free Spins + the chance to gamble for the bonus trail
- 7 Free Spins + the chance to gamble for the bonus trail
- Bonus Trail
- Super Bonus Trail
Should you gamble on free spins?
The odds of landing the bonus trail are 33% at 4 spins and 52% at 7 spins. Personally, I would always bank your spins and hope to unleash the wheel again for another chance at landing on the Bonus Trail or Super Bonus trail segment.
Free Spins Can Re-Trigger an Unlimited Number of Times
For once, free spins are not the main event. But they are still an interesting feature with the potential to cause dramatic changes on the grid.
During free spins, bombs are placed on some of the stone blocks. If a symbol in a winning line appears adjacent to a bomb, then the bomb explodes. ALL symbols on the bombs reel now transform to identical ones chosen as the highest payer on the reel before the bomb was detonated.
And … if you can clear ALL stone blocks during the free spins round, 3 more are added. There are no limits to how many times this can happen.
Winning 4 spins on the bonus wheel in Dead Rider’s TrailYour Final Destination Is The Bonus Trail With 1,000x Multipliers and TEN Modifiers
No question where we all want to get with this game though … the Bonus Trail and enhanced Super Bonus Trail are the headline acts. And far from being a copy cat of the original Dead Man’s Trail, this version strikes out on its own.
First, let’s look at the trail itself.
It looks like a winding path made up of positions with multipliers and special modifiers that can be collected along the way. The view is birds-eye, looking down over a dusty landscape as the path winds between the Rider encampment, crashed planes, trucks and cases of money.
Now, once you are on the trail each move takes you between 1 and 6 places further along. How far you get will depend on your fuel meter which starts at 3 and drops 1 with every move. But it’s not an absolute situation – you can re-fuel by landing on fuel cans which are dotted along the trail and set you back up to 3 when you land on one.
So, as long as you don’t run out of fuel, you will just keep going and winning more prizes. And every position you land on that isn’t a fuel can is going to be a win multiplier of up to 1,000x or a feature, represented by Golden or Silver Trucks of which there are SIX on the trail.
And finally .. if you make it around the full trail ALL multiplier positions increase by 3x AND an EXTRA FUEL CAN is added to your meter for the next round!
The bonus trail features work as follows:
CASH – 25x to 50x prize
SNIPER – Between 3 and 6 standard positions on the trail have their values doubled
PAYER – A value of between 3x and 10x is added to standard positions on the trail
TWO-KNIFE – Value of 50x to 200x is added to between 2 and 4 standard positions on the trail
RE-FUEL – 2, 3 or 4 Fuel Cans are added to the trail
SHOOT BACK – Total current win value is added to 1, 2 or 3 standard positions on the trail
COLLECT – Current values of the FOUR nearest positions on the trail are collected
COLLECT ALL – Current values of ALL positions on the trail are collected
PERSISTENT SNIPER – Same as the Sniper, but triggered on EVERY turn
PERSISTENT PAYER – Same as Payer, but triggered on EVERY turn
PERSISTENT TWO-KNIFE – Same as Two-Knife, but triggered on EVERY turn
NOTE: Silver Trucks will award ANY modifier. Gold Trucks will ONLY award Persistent modifiers or Collect All modifiers.
And … in the Super Bonus Trail feature the first truck on the trail has been changed from Silver to Gold to increase your chances of triggering the highest paying features.
