Dracula Awakening

Dracula Awakening Slot Review

Slot Provider: Red Tiger

RTP: 95.72% | Variance: High | Maximum Win: 5,317x

Our Score: 7.8

Play at Duelz Casino
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WHY YOU CAN TRUST THIS REVIEW: The information and opinions on this page are the result of an comprehensive process of information gathering and live game testing by the gambling experts who work at allslotsites.com. Find out more here.

About Dracula Awakening

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 8th November 2021

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Dracula Awakening is a 5-reel slot with 30 paylines and a high volatility from Red Tiger. It has two phases of gameplay – a daytime phase of 16 spins followed by a night time phases of 8 spins. During the night, Dracula Wilds landing on the middle reel expand to full 4 rows high and Dracula bites and converts any premium lady symbols into wilds. During the Eclipse Free Spins – which can only be triggered during the day time phase – a 1×4 Dracula Wild Mega Wild remains on the middle reel throughout and any ladys converted to wilds are sticky for the 7 spins.

You can win up to 5,317x in this game and spins start from 10p.

Dracula Awakening Game Information

  • Release Date: November 2021
  • RTP: 95.72%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 5,317x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 5
  • Rows: 4
  • Paylines: 30
  • Minimum Stake: £0.10
  • Theme: Horror
  • Features: Wilds, Mega Wilds, Free Spins

Testing Notes: Here’s What Happened When We Played Dracula Awakening

IMPORTANT: To give you an accurate assessment of the games we review our writers play 200 spins. Whilst this is a useful tool to help us review games and to give an example of what might happen when you play, keep in mind that 200 spins is only a very small sample and cannot be used to accurately predict what might happen over another 200 spins. The outcome of all slots play is always random.

Boom Or Bust? Our Session By The Numbers

I played 200 spins on Dracula Awakening for free at Casumo Casino to test the game and this is what happened.

  • Stake Size: £1
  • Start balance: £997.90
  • End balance: £910.90
  • Biggest Win: 19.6x
  • Free Spins: 0
  • Session Time: 16 minutes 14 seconds

Day turned to night, night turned to day over and over and I still didn’t manage to unlock that free spins round. Not unusual for a high volatility slot of course, but in an extended session – I actually kept going to 250 spins – usually you would expect at least one bonus round. From the base game, the night time was more exciting than the day and the only significant win –19.6x – came from the Mega Wild and 3 ladys converted into wilds in this phase.

Altogether, not an unenjoyable game but frustrating not to get a peak at those free spins.

A 19.6x win in Dracula Awakening
A 19.6x win from a Mega Wild and 3 converted lady wilds

What We Liked

  • Atmospheric Dracula theme
  • Super-sized Mega Wilds
  • Eclipse Free Spins with Sticky Wilds
  • Day and Night modes add suspense
  • Cool dracula bite animation

What We Didn't like

  • Below average RTP

Dracula Awakening Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 9
  • RTP and Variance 8
  • Maximum Win 6
  • Symbols and Paytable 8
  • Features and Gameplay 8

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"A deliciously dark vampire slot for those who like plenty of wilds and wild transformations and can handle the high volatility"

Overall Score: 7.8

Theme & Design

Our Score 9

This Slot Invoked The Gothic Atmopshere Of The Classic Vampire Story

Dracula Awakening has a sumptuous gothic feel to it with a foreboding atmosphere and dramatic scenery throughout. There is a looming castle in the background surrounded by a misty haze, while the reels are encased in grey stone with gold trim. Dracula has a princely air about him and he is accompanied on the reels by one lady whose destiny it is to be transformed into a vampire wild throughout the game as Dracula takes a bite in a dramatic animation sequence.

Dracula Awakening by Red Tiger
Dracula Awakening – Sumptuous, Gothic Design

This slot also has day and night phases and a nice feature of it is the dial above the reels which indicates how far into each phase you are and how many more spins are needed before the next phase unfolds. And in terms of production, Dracula Awakening holds its own in a crowded market of vampire-themed games.

RTP and Variance

Our Score 8

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

Dracula Awakening has multiple RTP settings so it’s worth checking how it looks at your casino before you play to be sure you are getting value for money. You can do this by hitting the ‘Help’ button on the game info screen once you’ve loaded it up, and then scrolling down to find the RTP at the bottom.

Looking at a selection of popular slot sites in the UK I found the game running at the following settings:

I would choose to play at Casumo or Duelz Casino for the best chance of a positive return on your wagering.

This game is also a high variance slot so it can be unpredictable and the win distribution will be uneven with much of that RTP weighted for the bonus round where accumulating lots of sticky wilds can help complete paylines on every spin.

Maximum Win

Our Score 6

What Is Maximum Win?

Maximum win refers to the maximum amount a player can win from one spin. It is expressed as a multiple of the stake. For example, where the maximum win is 100,000x, from a £1 stake, the maximum win would be £100,000.  

The maximum payout in Dracula Awakening is 5,317x. That is disappointing for a high variance slot. Most advertise top wins of at least 10,000x so this is definitely at the lower end of the scale. Red Tiger’s own Wanted Wildz game has a maximum payout of 15,000x for example.

If you want to chase down much bigger wins I recommend reading our article on slots with the highest maximum win.

Explore Games With Similar RTP, Variance and Maximum Win

Like the numbers? Here are some more games you might want to try.

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Gonzita’s QuestRed Tiger95.66%High2,580xPlay Here
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Break BonesHacksaw Gaming96.22%Medium3,333xPlay Here
Born WildHacksaw Gaming96.28%Medium2,500xPlay Here
Eye of CleopatraPragmatic Play96.5%4,000xPlay Here
Hellvis WildPragmatic Play96.01%High5,000xPlay Here
Magician’s SecretsPragmatic Play96.5%High5,000xPlay Here
Panda’s Fortune 2Pragmatic Play96.51%High5,000xPlay Here

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 8

Paytable Values Are Not Huge But There Are Lots of Wilds and 30 Paylines To Win On

Dracula Awakening is played on 6 reels with 4 rows on each. There are 30 fixed paylines to form wins on which is a good number. Wins are triggered when 3 or more identical symbols land across the reels on a payline from left to right.

There are 10 regular symbols with modest value, but there are plenty of wilds in the game which give you a good chance of triggering wins on each spin.

Dracula Awakening Paytable
The paytable with a maximum 10x for 5 lady symbols

The low payers are the cards, 10 through to Ace. These are valued at from 0.1x for 3 10s up to 2x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the wine glass, wine bottle, cross, broach and lady, valued at from 0.6x for 3 10s up to 10x for 5 ladys.

The best part about Dracula Awakening is the wild symbols that substitute in for any other symbol to complete a payline. There are THREE in total – the Dracula Wild, the Mega Wild (basically an expanded Dracula Wild) and the vampire lady Wild who also has a pay value of 15x for 5 on a line.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 8

The Night Phase Of The Game and Free Spins Rounds Are The Most Likely To Drive Wins

Red Tiger have built a nice twist into the gameplay of Dracula Awakening by creating two ‘phases’ of play – night and day – to reflect the different states of the count. Daytime lasts for 16 spins and night time for 8. In each phases, different things can happen.

When you load up the game it always starts in the daytime mode. During this time, standard wins are possible and standard Dracula wilds land to help complete wins, but you should be looking out for the Eclipse Scatters because 3 of these trigger the free spins round where things get more interesting.

A word of warning though – in over 200 spins in testing I didn’t unlock the free spins round once, so it’s not going to drop easily!

Dracula Mega Wild in Dracula Awakening
Dracula Wild exapands to full reel height in the night phase

During the night phase, the middle reel becomes the focus. If a Dracula Wild lands here then it expands to full reel height – Mega Wild – to help form wins. Also, if a lady lands anywhere on the reels, Dracula bites her to convert her into a wild too. You can have multiple lady wilds through this feature and it’s where the bigger wins were unlocked in my test session. Remember, there are 30 paylines, so having 4 or 5 wilds on one spin has the potential to drive some nice payouts.

Dracula Awakening Bite
Dracula bites 3 lady symbols to convert to wilds

But it’s the free spins round that is most alluring here because it’s wild heaven! You get 7 spins with a GUARANTEED expanded Mega Wild on the middle reel throughout. And any lady symbols that land are converted into wilds too that stick for the rest of the round.

Finally, if you land any Eclipse Scatter on reel 1 or 5 it will increase your free spins total by 1.

The Final Verdict

I wasn’t blown away by Dracula Awakening but nevertheless it is a fun slot that just about has enough originality to hold its own in the crowded genre of vampire, Dracula or horror slots. One of its biggest strengths is that the quality of the production carries it through some of the slower moments. The visuals are superb and there is plenty of ominous atmosphere and swirling mists to please the gothic fans out there. However, the gameplay is far from sensational with everything riding on the Mega Wilds, Free Spins and the Sticky Wilds in the bonus round. And the maths is underwhelming too, with a relatively low max win and a top RTP of under 96%.

In conclusion, perhaps this one won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like to immerse yourself in some classic Transylvanian horror for a while, Dracula Awakening will have its moments.

Compare Dracula Awakening With Similar Slots Picked By Us

Here are more games like Dracula Awakening compared on configuration and features. Click through to read a review of each one.

Slot GameProviderThemeMin. StakeMax. RTPVariancePaylinesTop PayoutJackpot
Red TigerGems£0.1095.71%High11,076xNo
Red TigerMusic£0.1095.73%High103,151xNo
Red TigerGold£0.10%HighUp to 257,303xNo
Red TigerVegas£0.1095.68%High305,824xNo
Red TigerRetro£0.1095.72%Medium-HighCluster Pays1,201xNo
Red TigerRetro£0.1095.66%Medium107,608xNo
Red TigerPirates£0.1096%HighUp to 200, 70410,489xNo
Red TigerWild West£0.1096.05%High2015,000xNo

Useful Tips When Playing Dracula Awakening

Remember, online slots are games of chance, there is NO strategy that can improve your odds of winning. However, reading our review and following these tips will help you get the most out of your time playing this slot game.

1. Wait For The Nighttime Phase For Base Game Wins

The day time phases is all about triggering free spins but it’s the night time that can kick out decent wins in the base game. With a bit of luck you can have 4 or 5 wilds on the reels at once.

2. Biggest Payouts Are In Free Spins

There is no question that the game is built to deliver the biggest wins in free spins. The chance to accumlate many sticky wilds combining with 30 paylines is an exciting prospect.

3. Choose a Sensible Stake

Due to the high volatility I would start with a low stake – even 10p – to give yourself a chance of triggering the free spins round. Remember, in 250 spins I didn’t see it once so it’s not easy.

4. Play At A Recommended Slot Site

We chose the sites on this page because they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission making them fair, safe and secure. I recommend you choose one of these to play at.

Who Made Dracula Awakening?

  • Name: Red Tiger
  • Established: 0000-00-00
  • UK License: 043114-R-321951-014
  • Total Games: 100 +
  • Known For: Megaways games, Oriental slots, high variance games
  • Popular Slots: Gonzo's Quest Megaways, Jackpot Quest, Totem Lightning, Phoenix
Find More Red Tiger slots

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