Dropz

Dropz Slot Review

Slot Provider: ELK Studios

RTP: 94% | Variance: Medium-High | Maximum Win: 25,000x

Our Score: 7.0

Play at Casumo Casino
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About Dropz

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 14th October 2022

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Dropz is ELK Studios candy-themed game to rival Pragmatic Play’s Sweet Bonanza and Big Time Gaming’s Chocolate for sugary hits. If you feel like gourging on chocolate, candy cane, jelly sweets, candy floss and lemon drops then you are in the right place. The ‘Dropz’ of the title could refer to sweet ‘drops’ but it doubles up in referring to the alternative word for ‘spin’ used in slot games. And with drops come avalanches and the chance to unlock four special features. This is a complex, chaotic game but it is a volatile one with a big maximum win of 25,000x.

Dropz Game Information

  • RTP: 94%
  • Variance: Medium-High
  • Maximum Win: 25,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 6
  • Rows: 6 to 8
  • Paylines: Up to 262,144
  • Minimum Stake: £0.20
  • Theme: Sweets
  • Features: Wilds, Locked Wilds, Free Spins, Avalanche Wins

What We Liked

  • Grid expands to 8x8 and 262,144 paylines
  • Massive 25,000x top win
  • Sugary theme is fun for some!
  • 4 modifiers including 5 free plays

What We Didn't like

  • Very low RTP at 94%
  • Gameplay felt chaotic and slow
  • Theme may be TOO sickly sweet!

Dropz Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 6
  • RTP and Variance 6
  • Maximum Win 8
  • Symbols and Paytable 8
  • Features and Gameplay 7

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"A sugary blast with some interesting features but a somewhat chaotic and frustrating game to play at times."

Overall Score: 7.0

Theme & Design

Our Score 6

Staring into the backdrop of Dropz you feel like you have been miniaturized and dropped into the a tub of ice cream, donuts and sweets all mixed up with caramel sauces and melting chocolate. It’s a sickly mix and depending on your palette will either reel you in or turn you off.

The grid itself, a 6×6 expanding to 7×7 or 8×8 with level-ups is a weird jarring mix of candy and chocolate. The latter are blocker spaces that unlock in avalanches, but for our tastes the contrast of pink sweet and dark chocolate just didn’t sit right and the whole thing looks weirdly unsettling.

RTP and Variance

Our Score 6

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.

Dropz has two possible RTP settings: 94% or 87%. Most UK casinos will set the game to 94% but it’s worth checking on the game settings page once you’ve loaded up Dropz to see what RTP it runs on. We checked three UK casinos:

94% is a low number for RTP in a slot game. Most have a top RTP level of around 96%. ELK Studios do not build games with particularly high RTP but for comparison, you can get a better return on games like Route 777 (96.3%) or Wild Seas (96.3%).

Dropz is a high variance slot though generally not as volatile as some of ELK’s toughest games like Avalon Gold or Pacific Gold for example. Nevertheless it remains an unpredictable game at times.

Maximum Win

Our Score 8

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 top win potential in this game is really good at 25,000x which is excellent for a game with a medium(ish) volatility rating. It competes with other ELK Studio games like Avalon Gold too.

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 8

With its chaotic mix of sweets and chocolate blockers, Dropz can feel quite disorientating when you first start playing. It’s worth loading up a demo version – you can do this easily from the game menu at Casumo – before you play for real, to get a feel for the game.

The game grid starts as a 6×6 with a mix of inactive chocolate blockers and standard symbols. To score wins you need to land at least 3 identical symbols on consecutive reels starting from the left. The row the symbols are on is irrelevant – they just need to be on adjacent rows.

This gives you 729 paylines which isn’t a bad starting point.

Symbols are a mix of sweets and fruits with modest values. Low payers are the sweets in blue, green, yellow and red with a very modest 0.25x for six on a line.  Premiums are represented by the fruits – lemons, strawberries, apples and grapes. These pay up to 5x for six on a line. But there is also a lucky 7 which pays out up to 50x for six on a line.

There is also a Wild symbol that can appear as standard or lock in for 3 drops.  These can substitute for any other symbol to complete a win line.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 7

Each spin in Dropz is an opportunity not just to score wins by landing identical symbols across paylines but also to unlock win multipliers and new levels with a bigger game grid, as well as trigger a bonus round with 8 rows and 5 new drops.

To get there, you have the core game mechanic of Avalanche Wins. It appears in many online slots including Megaways games like Bonanza and NetEnt’s iconic Gonzo’s Quests. Normally, just winning symbols are removed after a winning spin. But in the case of Dropz,

ANY ADJACENT chocolate blockers are also removed. If they are holding a special symbol, then that symbol become active.

What’s interesting is that before the avalanche happens you can already see which symbols are locked into the chocolate blockers. So, keep your eyes out for ones you want to use and hope they get unblocked.

As usual, avalanches continue until no more wins are formed.

Whilst all this is going on you have FOUR possible objectives to achieve.

First, you can land an upwards arrow which triggers a level-up once the current avalanche sequence ends. That means you open up a 7×7 or 8×8 grid for your next play.

Second, you can unlock an extra Drop by landing or uncovering the circular arrow. This gives you one extra drop at the end of the current sequence and more chances to score wins or unlock extra levels.

Third, you can unlock a multiplier to apply to your wins. This is done by landing matching pairs of symbols. The required pair is displayed on the top right of the game grid. You’ll need to land the pair three times within one avalanche sequence to unlock the next multiplier level.

And finally, by landing THREE bonus symbols you can unlock the free dropz round which is a free spins games played on 8 rows with 5 free plays. There are no level ups in the free plays round but wilds do remain on the grid between drops.

That is quite an exhausting set of features. The point here is that there are four possible triggers available at any one time. That might be a good thing – after all, if you fail to unlock a multiplier, perhaps you’ll unlock the free drops instead, or trigger a level up.

But it never felt like that. Instead, it often feels quite dizzying watching events unfold, and we never quite settled into the game.

The Final Verdict

On paper Dropz looks like a great game – avalanche wins slots with progressive gameplay is often thrilling, particularly with a high variance engine behind it. But this one just didn’t work for us. The design was just too sickly and the events on the reels were chaotic and hard to follow at times. Of course, a 25,000x top win is not to be sniffed at, but even that comes with the caveat of a maximum RTP of 94%. No, for our sugar kicks we will be going back to Sweet Bonanza for now.

Who Made Dropz?

  • Name: ELK Studios
  • Established: 2013
  • UK License: 40844
  • Total Games: 60 +
  • Known For: Amazing artwork, wide choice of themes and styles
  • Popular Slots: Avalon Gold, Dropz, Nitropolis, Wild Toro
Find More ELK Studios slots

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