Dead Men Walking Slot Review

Fire pits and scrolls

Five reels of three rows pay as ways from the left. Above them sit three fire pits. When a pit ignites it drops a scroll onto the board, and the colour decides what happens.

The Dead Man's March

The xNudge Wild lands stacked and nudges until fully visible, gaining 1 to its multiplier for each step. Then the march begins: it moves one reel to the left at a time, adding 1 more each step. When it reaches reel 1, it hands its multiplier to the nearest other xNudge Wild, and the sequence continues until the last one arrives at reel 1.

The effect is that one Wild can contribute to several wins as it walks across the grid, and with two or more on screen the multiplier passes along and keeps growing. The pace of the march is what turns an ordinary spin into a big one.

Coins instead of reels

Three, four or five Bonus symbols start Dead Man's Gold with 3, 4 or 5 spins on a 5x5 grid where only coins land. Any coin landing keeps the spin count where it is, and the round ends when no spins are left. Coins are paid when three or more line up vertically or horizontally.

Feature coins add twists when they are collected. A Collector takes the value of all active coins, a Cloner copies the highest value, a Multiplier doubles everything, and King's Grace resets the spin count to its starting number. Gold Bonus symbols lead to Reaper's Gold instead, with the same spin counts but feature coins that fire as soon as they land, without needing to be part of a line.

After either round an xTra Extra Spin may be offered. It keeps the multiplier state and is available when its cost is no more than the win so far. The cap of 25,313x is named Keep Your Hood On.

Four boosters

The game uses boosters instead of an ante. Booster 1 costs 1.5x the bet, makes Dead Man's Gold more likely and adds 1 to 4 Bonus symbols to the board when at least one lands. Booster 2 costs 2.5x and turns Bonus symbols into Gold Bonus symbols, pointing the game towards Reaper's Gold. Booster 3 costs 5x and does the same job as Booster 1 for Gold Bonus symbols. Booster 4 costs 40x and places at least one xNudge Wild on the reels.

What the figures show

The RTP is 96.2%, a house edge of 3.8%, or $38 per $1,000 wagered across a long run. Hit frequency is 24.17%, about one spin in four. A 100-spin session costs on average $0.76 at $0.20 and $19 at $5.

Here the volatility labels differ: Very high in our catalogue, High on the studio page. The 25,313x cap is a lower ceiling than most of the studio's games covered here, and equals $5,062.60 at $0.20 or $126,565 at $5. No series is listed. xWays Hoarder 2 at 96.14% with 25,920x and Little Bighorn at 96.06% with 25,676x sit closest.