Dropz

Review

ELK Studios has heaps of well performing grid pokies under their belt, but Dropz for some reason comes with a regular win ways system. This means that you’re about to enter into a landscape full of cakes and candy, and block positions presented on a standard 6×6 grid. Prepare for a colourful mix of candy and fruit symbols, and blocker tiles that have modifier symbols. This is also how you can level up and expand the grid in 3 tiers. Landing selected symbol pairs upgrade the win multiplier in all stages of the game. There are 2 sorts of wilds to benefit from as well, and the good thing is that the multiplier never resets in the ReDropz feature. The top win of 25,000x the bet is outstanding, but we can’t say the same about the top-tier RTP. We’ll explain why we’ve got some mixed feelings here.

Dropz

The name chosen for this Dropz online pokie might not be revealing anything about the pokie, other than that there is some dropping to be expected. This pokie game would’ve probably deserved a more creative title, but you can’t really blame the provider for not doing so as the game itself isn’t very original either. Like many other candy-themed pokie we come across, Dropz is brought to you in a magical realm that is full of all sorts of treats. Mountains are packed with cinnamon buns and rivers are filled with caramel. You’ll also see how lollipops grow instead of trees, whilst pancakes form the landscapes. The audio is rather vivid and a bit more electronic than we’re used to from these sorts of games.

How to Play

Dropz comes with a very interesting playing board. This means you’ll get 6 reels, but with a changing number of rows, somewhere between 6 and 8. To get some wins to actually drop, you will need to learn how to play the Dropz pokie. There is really nothing difficult about it, but we’re more than glad to help you make your first wins:

• Go to your favourite online casino that offers games by ELK Studios.
• The biggest button you’ll find on the playing board is that of the Spin button. Click it to start playing.
• The coin icon will allow you to set the stake according to your personal preferences and your budget.
• The Menu icon provides access to the different paylines, game rules and the rest of the settings.
• The Auto button lets you sit back and use the auto spins: play either 10, 25, 50 or 100 auto-spins.

Symbol Wins

The reels are set somewhere in Candyland, with heaps of lollipops and candy canes filling up the background. With chocolate on the reels alongside some hard candy symbols, it will remind a lot of people of the popular social game Candy Crush. The audio takes us to a world of retro disco music. It’s not easy to connect a certain sound to a theme as sweet as this, but this may be the way to do it. Moving on to the reels, you’ve first see different coloured sweets as the low value symbols. These are next joined by the high values like lemons, grapes, apples, strawberries, and pink 7s that sort of look like liquorice. The Pink 7 symbol is the most rewarding symbol of all, paying 2, 5, 15 or 50x your bet for combinations of 3, 4, 5 or 6. The Dropz game’s wild symbol is a gold W with a blue trim. This symbol is sometimes locked and substitutes for any paying symbol on the grid.

Symbol	Payout for 3	Payout for 4	Payout for 5	Payout for 6
Yellow Candy	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.25
Blue Candy	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.25
Green Candy	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.25
Red Candy	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.25
Lemon	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.5
Grape	0.2	0.4	0.6	1
Apple	0.5	0.75	1	2
Strawberry	1	2	3	5
Pink 7	2	25	15	50
Bonus	Collect 3 to trigger Free Dropz feature
Level Up	Activates the next level with more rows
Dropz	Awards 1-2 extra drops
Wild	Substitutes for any paying symbol
Locked Wild	A Wild charged to last for 3 wins

Bonus Features

We have to point out that the features of Dropz can be a bit confusing once you launch the game. But rest assured, they really aren’t that difficult to understand. After a few rounds you already understand how Dropz works. First of all, it is important to know that winning symbols in Dropz explode and therefore disappear from the playing field, which is a good thing in our opinion and thanks to the waterfall mechanism. In their explosion they take all adjacent blocker symbols with them, conveniently unlocking positions on the playing field. These will then be filled up with new symbols, giving players the chance to make an extra win. We also find 4 special symbols, symbol pairs, and a free spins feature.

4 special symbols

There are 4 special symbols in Dropz, which work as follows:

• Wild: can be used to substitute for any pay symbol in the game. This makes forming a winning combination a lot easier.
• Locked wild: unlike normal wilds, locked wilds are not immediately removed from the playing field if they are part of a winning combination. Only after a locked wild has been involved in a winning combination 3x does it disappear.
• Dropz: pays out 1 or 2 extra “drops” both in the base game and during the free spins feature. In other words: 1 or 2x all symbols on the playing field are replaced. This is the case if there are no winning combinations anymore on the grid.
• Level up: increases the level of the playing field:
  • Level 1 (initial level): gives you a 6×6 playing field with 3 active rows and 3 rows of blockers.
  • Level 2: gives you a 6×7 playing field with 3 active rows and 4 rows of blockers.
  • Level 3: gives you a 6×8 playing field with 3 active rows and 5 rows of blockers.

Symbol Pairs

At the top left of the Dropz screen you will see the “pair matching meter”. This metre indicates a specific pair of symbols each spin. If 1 or more pairs of those symbols happen to be on the playing field, the win multiplier is increased. The “pair matching meter” indicates how much the win multiplier is increased per pair. It is important to know that the meter must be fully charged, otherwise, the win multiplier will not be increased. The win multiplier is applied to the total win of the spin and resets to x1 between spins.

Dropz Free Spins

The free spins feature in Dropz, also called ReDropz, can be activated by spinning 3 bonus symbols on the playing field. This will give you 5 free spins. The free spins feature is always played on a level 3 grid. No new chocolate blockers are added to the playing field between spins, which means that you can make optimal use of the playing field if this happens. It is also important to know that wilds are kept for the remaining duration of the feature and are therefore not removed from the playing field.

The X-iter Feature Buy Menu is available in some countries which is the case for New Zealand. Buying a feature unfortunately does not change the low RTP. Here’s an overview of what you can get:

• Bonus Hunt: awards 2x your regular stake to double your bonus round chances.
• Feature Crescendo: awards 5x to get a round with more ‘7’ symbols and features.
• Feature Wilds: awards 25x to get a round with 3 locked wilds.
• Buy Bonus: awards 100x to get the bonus round.
• Super Bonus: awards 500x to get a bonus round with an x10 starting multiplier.

Payout Metrics

The Dropz RTP is very low at only 94%. This is well under the 96% average for online pokies, and it is definitely one of the only things that lets the pokie down overall, in our humble opinion. An RTP as low as 94% is a bit off-putting, as there are plenty of other alternatives with the same game theme offering a much higher return. Taking a look at variance, the game is somewhere to be found in the medium to high range. The hit frequency is set at 23%, which basically means that just under a quarter of all spins on average will result in a winner. The max potential win comes at a lucrative 25,000x your stake. Your best chance of making a winning combination will come when you manage to expand the playing field to the max size of 6×8, although there are numerous other chances in the game to make massive wins.

Summary

We have to say that we were a bit surprised to see that this online pokie comes with a regular win ways system instead of a cluster pays set up, but it works just fine in the end. The sweet and sugary candy themed world looks just like one would expect from a pokie game like this, but mixing it with some random fruits may seem a bit odd. When you’re in the mood for a relaxed game like this, it can be heaps of fun, as avalanches remove blockers, trigger features and level you up as the multiplier keeps on increasing. Everything is enhanced in the ReDropz Bonus Round, of course, and the 25,000x max win potential is quite solid as well. The max RTP of 94% takes away the sweet taste though, and will be kinda hard to swallow to some. Why not go for a 96% RTP like other providers do.