Thunder Drums Leaping Lions Slot – Free Demo

Three Drums Over the Reels

Blue, Green and Red drums rest above the reels in Thunder Drums Leaping Lions. Thunder Scatters come in four colours: Gold, Blue, Green and Red. The drums each holds distinct abilities. I played 350 spins at a 1.00 stake from a starting balance of 1,000.00.

Throughout the game, coloured Thunder Scatters switch on the corresponding drum. 5 or more Gold Thunder Scatters trigger the enabled drum's feature, and every Gold Thunder Scatter is worth 8x to 40x the bet. Of my 350 spins, 71 paid something, and 35 of those paid less than the stake. The drums are shown above the reels.

Reels, Ways and the 94.11% Build

Made by developer Light & Wonder, Thunder Drums Leaping Lions is a 5-reel, 3-row video slot with 243 ways to win and a 96.03% RTP. An alternative version of the game runs at 94.11%. It's available on all devices from 0.20 to 40 per spin. Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, starting from reel 1. It is somewhere between medium to high variance on the volatility spectrum. The longest run without a win in my session lasted 30 spins, ending on spin 293.

Gates, Koi and a Lion on Reels 2 to 4

The game contains royals as the low-paying symbols, and as you might have supposed the premiums are depicted by the Paifang Gate, Koi Fish, Instrument, Blue Flower and Lantern. The royals are A, K, Q and J, and five of any of them pay 10x the stake. The Paifang Gate is the most lucrative one, paying 100 times the stake for five of a kind. Five Koi Fish pay 75x the stake, and five Lanterns pay 20x. There is also a lion wild symbol located on reels 2, 3 and 4. It substitutes for the paying symbols. It expands to cover the entire reel when part of a win. Because the wild never lands on reels 1 or 5, it can only complete a win that already starts with a paying symbol on reel 1.

What Each Drum Unlocks

The Thunder Prize feature is activated when 5 or more Gold Thunder Scatters land with the Blue drum enabled. The displayed Gold values are collected. Since each Gold Thunder Scatter carries 8x to 40x the bet, five of them are worth at least 40x before anything else is added. Players are granted a bonus on top.

The Red drum opens the Jackpot Bonus, where players choose from 16 Golden Drums and match three colours. The Mini is purple, the Minor blue, the Major green and the Grand red. The rewards are Mini 10x, Minor 25x, Major 100x and Grand 500x. 3 UP symbols raise the reward and 4 grant the Double Grand of 1,000x, so in other words, heading into the Jackpot Bonus with UP symbols can be quite intriguing.

The Green drum activates the Thunder Prize and Free Games bonus. Golden Drum prizes during the Free Games are determined by the Thunder Scatter combination. It grants 3 free games, and every Golden Drum Scatter on reels 2, 3 and 4 resets the count to 3, without cap. In my session the Free Games arrived three times, on spins 51, 109 and 315, and only the last of them saw a reset, which took it to 6 games played. The Blue and Green drums jointly grant the Super Thunder Prize, and these features can also activate at random. The three Free Games rounds paid 83.50 between them, 42% of everything the session won.

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350 Spins Against 96.03%

These kind of slots that provides for diverse feature pairings in the bonus have proven to be rather well-liked. Those 350 spins returned 197.30 on 350.00 wagered, a session return of 56.4% against the stated 96.03%. I have witnessed this with the latest launches of Yggdrasil's Lucha Maniacs and Thunderkick's Wild Heist at Peacock Manor. The best win came on spin 315, when the Free Games round with the reset paid 51.50, or 51.5x the stake. It has been executed nicely in this game too.

Our Minty Verdict: The balance never rose above the 1,000.00 it started with, bottomed out at 824.40 and finished at 847.30.