Walk in the Footsteps of Fallen Pirates in Pursuit of Plundered Riches in the Stunning Dead Man’s Trail Slot!
Dead Man’s Trail Slot Review
Casumo Casino has added the gorgeous new Relax Gaming slot, Dead Mans Trail, to their casino, live and playable on the official release date of the 7th of September 2021.
If you want to skip straight into the action, we have added a playable demo version of this slot at the top of the page so that you can test out this slot for yourself! (Click the Red button and get straight into the action!)
Firstly we need to commend the Dead Man’s Trail visuals. A pirate theme is always a solid choice for an online slot, with the chance to plunder riches. It just makes sense. The visuals on offer here, though, are nothing short of breathtaking.
An opening video sets the scene, and you could be forgiven for thinking it was a CGI movie trailer. The visuals are so good, and it doesn’t end there. The backdrop to this slot is animated, so if you take the time, you will notice a misty fog creeping over the screen and pirate flags blowing in the wind, all nice touches that give us that immersive feeling which sadly is a forgotten art with many slots. Someone at Relax Gaming needs to give the design team and big pat on the back for this release!
Dead Man’s Trail Base Gameplay
Of course, pretty visuals don’t just make a slot a hit, it’s a great start, but the gameplay needs to match this to make it worth playing. With maximum wins of up to 50,000x, it’s fairly obvious to see we have a high variance big-hitting slot here!
The base game comprises a 5×4 reel set and 40 fixed paylines, with heavily stacked high paying pirate-themed symbols and lower-paying stacked regular symbols. Several wilds also help to create winning combinations. It is possible to land multiple matching heavily stacked symbols, so huge hits in the base game might be rare, but they are definitely possible.
Coin Feature
In addition, there is also a Coin Feature present in the base game, which can award random stake based rewards. When three or more rows of these special gold doubloon symbols land in view, the coins are all collected, with the multiplier values being added together to form the win. The values on these coins can be quite high, so there is definitely some nice base game hit potential from this feature. Certainly enough to help keep your balance above water!
However, the main attraction to this slot is triggering the Dead Man Trial Bonus feature, which requires the regular 3 scatter symbols to start the bonus. If you want an insight into the bonus feature, think of Relax gaming’s smash series of Money Train slots, with pirates and a board game! And you pretty much have it.
We will break down how the bonus round works below. Along with all the special Persistent Modifiers that can interact and help you plunder the biggest riches!
Terms Apply – 18+, New Customers Only, Gamble Responsibly – www.begambleaware.org
Dead Man’s Trail – Gameplay and Features
Dead Man’s Trail – Promotional Trailer
Dead Man’s Trail – Desktop Gameplay
Dead Man’s Trail – Mobile Gameplay
| Dead Man's Trail Slot - Technical Summary | |
|---|---|
| Paylines | 40 Fixed |
| Variance/Volatility | High |
| Free Spins | No |
| Multipliers | Yes |
| Re-Trigger Bonus Round | No |
| Special Features | Coin Feature Stacked Symbols Trail Bonus Board Game Style Bonus Round |
| RTP (Return To Player) | 96.29% Regular Play 98% Bonus Buy |
| Game Provider | Relax Gaming |
| Release Date | 07/09/2021 |
Dead Man’s Trail Bonus Features
Wild Symbol
The Wild Symbol is only present in the base game, mainly due to this slot’s main bonus round not being a free spins style bonus feature.
Whilst this symbol is not as heavily stacked as the regular symbols on the reels it can be found in small clumps on the reels and will help to produce several winning combinations across the 40 fixed paylines.
Dead Man’s Trail Wild Symbol
Dead Man’s Trail Bonus Game
The main trail bonus feature is triggered from the base game by landing three of the Pirate Ship Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, with a nice scatter tease occurring when 2 are already present on the reels with water gushing over the remaining reels.
Once triggered you are then transported to the Dead Man’s Trail feature where it’s time to be brave and plunder as many riches as possible before being caught!
Dead Man’s Trail Bonus Scatter Symbol
Trail Bonus Special Symbols
Once the bonus round is triggered, a new screen opens up with a bonus trail on it, as this pirate map unfolds, it becomes like a regular board game style with mystery treasures scattered around the map waiting to be discovered.
With a random number being rolled for each move, you can progress around the board, moving 1 – 9 steps per turn.
Each tile that you land on triggers a reaction. This can be a stake-based multiplier reward visible on the tile or a treasure chest that can hold one of several special modifiers, which can massively affect the gameplay and winning potential.
This process can go on for some time, especially if you keep managing to land on the Reset Icons or discovering them from the Treasure Chest, resetting all of the End Tile Doom symbols.
Still, landing on one of these red doom tiles will immediately end the bonus round!
Below you will find a brief description of all of the Trail modifiers. We will go into more detail about the scarce and much more potent persistent versions, which, just like Money Train, are the key to the insane wins on this machine.
The key symbol to land on during the bonus feature is the Mystery Chests, when landing on these you are awarded 1 of 11 potential modifiers.
- Scout – boosts the value of a randomly chosen tile by 100, 200, 500 or 1,000 x
- One-Eye – Anywhere from 2-4 tiles receive a multiplier boost of between 2x and 5x.
- Commander – all normal tiles are boosted by a value of 3, 4 or 5
- Collector: the values from all the Normal Tiles are added together to give a total win.
- Collect and Command -all the values from all the Normal Tiles on the board are combined. This value is added to each of the Normal Tiles and also added to the total win.
- Reset: end tiles are replaced by Normal Tiles with a random coin value added to each of them.
- Super Reset: all End Tiles are temporarily replaced with temporary Mystery Chests.
- Coin Win – awards a payout of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 or 50 x stake added to the total win.
Persistent Commander Symbol
The Persistent Commander Symbol works like the regular Commander symbol, in that Multiplier Values are added to the regular Reward tiles.
The persistent element of this much rarer symbol means that this process continues between every new roll on the bonus round, quickly raising the multiplier values on regular tiles to much larger values.
Persistent Scout Symbol
The Persistent Scout Symbol works like the regular Scout symbol, in that it adds a 100x up to 1000x reward to a regular tile.
The persistent element of this much rarer symbol means that this process continues between every new roll on the bonus round, allowing multiple tiles to be boosted in value with these huge modifiers.
Persistent One-Eye Symbol
The Persistent One-Eye Symbol works like the regular One-Eye symbol, in that it multiplies the value of a normal tile by 2x to 5x, and can repeat up to 4 times!
The persistent element of this symbol means that this process continues between every new roll on the bonus round, allowing multiple tiles to get multiplied during the bonus round feature.
End Tile – Doom Symbol
Landing on the End Tile / Doom symbol signals the end of the bonus feature. It’s the symbol you never want to land on!
There are a few ways this symbol can be removed from the trail, such as landing on the Start Symbol, uncovering a Reset Symbol from a Treasure Chest, or even the much rarer Super Reset Symbol, which removes all of these bonus ending symbols and replaces them with Treasure Chest symbols!
Needless to say, if you want the bonus round to continue, uncovering the Reset Symbol of any kind will be required often!
Bonus Buys
In countries where it is still permitted there is a bonus buy option allowing you to bypass the base game and proceed straight into the Trail Bonus round.
The cost of the bonus buy is 100x the current bet well, with a clear display presented to you before buying. The min bet for the feature buy is €10 and the max
bet is €2000.
It’s also worth noting that the theoretical RTP is stated at a huge 98% for this feature.
Do however factor in that this is an extremely volatile slot, capable of wins of up to 50,000x so there will be bonus rounds at both ends of the scale for this machine to be able to award such huge wins!
Hit Frequencies
The base game was a stated hit frequency of 19.15%, which is quite low so expect lots of deads spins, and better-paying wins than a regular slot, this is understandable given the Coin Feature that is present in the base gameplay and the heavily stacked symbols.
The Dead Man’s Trail slot has the following listed hit frequencies during regular play, with different win animations assigned for specific win levels! (worth comparing to Money Cart 2 to see some big differences)
- Big Win bet multiplier of 15x+ 1 in 74 chance
- Mega Win bet multiplier of 30x+ 1 in 199 chance
- Epic Win bet multiplier of 60x+ 1 in 607 chance
- Explosive Win bet multiplier of 200x+ 1 in 32,489 chance
The Bonus Buy Playtest
We playtested the Dead Mans’s Trial slot using the Bonus Buy feature. The bonus round is definitely the highlight of this slot, so we wanted to test how volatile this machine is.
Whilst the base gameplay does have some nice touches with the Coin Feature, you really are looking for frequent bonus triggers to unlock this machines full potential.
Also, the RTP of only using the Bonus Buy is a very high 98%. Still, the slot is super high variance, so we weren’t expecting to come anywhere close to this theoretical value, either ending up way below or hitting a monster win and exceeding it massively.
Dead Man’s Trail
Notable points from the playtest are this slot can be brutal! our worst bonus round which costs 100x stake ended up as a 3x win!
Thankfully we had several bonuses that ended up in profit (above 100x), but the general trend was quite below the theoretical figures.
This makes sense as if this machine can pay out 50,000x it has to make it back somewhere down the line, but this does highlight the point that even playing a 98% RTP slot can be brutal if the variance is off the charts!
When the bonus round goes well, it’s a marvel to watch with Sniper Symbols, Persistent Commanders and Resets all helping to skyrocket the values of the tiles and prolong the bonus feature, the flip side is that one bad roll and its game over.
We did continue to play this slot after the initial playtest (which is always a good sign when we are reviewing slots, and saw some great base game hits along with a few crazy bonuses too, so the potential is there but it’s definitely an approach with caution slot!
Dead Man’s Trail Slot – FAQ’s
Dead Man's Trail Slot Review
Dead Man's Trail Final opinions (Relax Gaming)
Firstly make no mistake, the Dead Man’s Trail slot is a visually superb slot release from Relax gaming. It is nothing short of stunning. The theme is perfect for a Pirate slot and really helps add immersion to this slot.
We can’t complain too much about a slot capable of wins of up to 50,000x, but we did find the main bonus feature to feel somewhat less engaging than Money Train 2.
The special modifiers all seem very similar in terms of what is available. Still, the anticipation of 3 spins left in Money Train seems to build tension and anticipation far better than this machine, where you end up ominously counting the tiles in the hope you don’t land on a bonus over tile.
It is hard to describe and portray unless you have played both machines already, but we felt like introducing a board game feature could have had way more additional player interaction.
Suppose you look at old AWP (Amusements With Prizes) Slots like Deal or No Deal, Cops N Robbers. In that case, they are packed with player engagement, such as Gamble High/Low, Extra Lifes, and Various other Gamble features, or being chased around the board by something! (Another Pirate ship?)
Whether this has any bearing on what you actually win doesn’t really matter. Still, it’s certainly more engaging than watching a dice roll you around the board until the bonus ends!
Overall it’s a mixed review, visually superb, the theme is spot on, win potential is insane, but we would have loved just that extra bit of interaction and novelty in the main bonus feature to make this slot a classic!
User Review
( vote)Terms Apply – 18+, New Customers Only, Gamble Responsibly – www.begambleaware.org
Play the Dead Man’s Trail Slot at these Casinos
Looking for other great casinos to play Dead Man’s Trail? We have handpicked some of our favourites and checked they have a full range of Relax Gaming slots available!
Wagering 40x Free Spins Winnings
UK Accepted
Terms Apply – 18+, New Customers Only, Gamble Responsibly – www.begambleaware.org
