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Santa's Stack Dream Drop Slot Review

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Santa's Stack Dream Drop is a progressive, cluster-pay-based online slot with a Christmas theme. Released by Relax Gaming in 2022, the game houses an 8x8 playing board with a 94.00% RTP. This progressive slot game also features wilds, free spins, multipliers, respins, and bonus games. This game has a progressive jackpot and is available for playing on both desktop & mobile.

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INTRODUCTION

One of the most interesting progressive slot games to hit online casinos in 2022, Relax Gaming’s Chrismas special release is a big standout. First of all, it’s the first time we see someone implement Cluster Pays mechanics into a progressive slot! Secondly, it promises high potential payouts even if you don’t hit the jackpot. Sounds great at a glance, doesn’t it?

Santa’s Stack Dream Drop is firmly presented as a Christmas-themed game. Visually, the game is purposefully pixelated, referencing old video games. We quite enjoy the look, but the game truly becomes interesting once you look at how it works. That’s exactly what our Santa’s Stack Dream Drop slot review is here to do.

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HOW TO PLAY SANTA’S STACK DREAM DROP

Unlike most other slot games, Santa’s Stack Dream Drop does not have reels, rows, and paylines in the classic sense. Instead, it feels more like a puzzle game of some sort – you can think of Candy Crush as a reference.

Basically, your goal is to arrange ‘clusters’ of identical symbols instead of paylines. You need at least 5 matching symbols to be connected to each other vertically or horizontally. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter where the symbols appear. Anywhere on the large 8×8 game table is fair game, as long as you hit a minimum combination of 5.

Of course, you will need more than 5 symbols per winning combination to get a real profit, but that’s the gist. You can potentially hit more than 60 in a single spin, so it’s a fairly volatile experience.

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Casino Bloke Best tips for Santa's Stack Dream Drop Slot

  • 112% of any Santa's Stack Dream Drop bet made by any player anywhere in the world goes towards the jackpot.
  • 2Importantly, the 94% RTP does not take into account the progressive features. Keep that in mind – the house edge is usually not nearly as big as it appears.
  • 3Due to the relatively high jackpot contribution, we mostly recommend this game to fans of progressive jackpot slots.

EXTRA FEATURES

Besides the regular symbols, this game also contains Wilds. These are probably familiar to any slot player – they can replace any other regular symbol.

The Secret Santa feature triggers whenever you make a winning cluster that contains a Wild. This feature turns all of the winning symbols into Mystery symbols. The board will then respin for free with the Mystery symbols still in place. If the respin hits a winning cluster adjacent to the one with Mystery symbols, they also turn into Mystery symbols and the board spins again.

Once there are no more winning combinations after a respin, all of these Mystery symbols turn into one kind of regular symbol. This ensures a big, juicy extra win at the end of the streak.

The Christmas Tree symbol acts as a Bonus symbol. Landing 3 anywhere on the table triggers Santa’s Stack Dream Drop free spins. You get 5 free spins for 3 symbols with extra spins for each Bonus symbol over 3. During free spins, Secret Santa is always active and you have guaranteed Wilds on each spin. The number of guaranteed wilds increases with each free spin. Additionally, hitting Bonus symbols during free spins can grant multipliers, extra free spins, or both.

Lastly, the progressive jackpot in Santa’s Stack Dream Drop can be won through the Dream Drop Bonus. This feature can randomly trigger during any regular spin. It’s essentially a Pick & Click feature – you get 15 hidden object and want to find 3 of the same kind. Once you do, you get a RAPID, MIDI, MAXI, MAJOR, or MEGA jackpot. All of these are progressive but seed at different amounts.

PAYOUTS

Santa’s Stack Dream Drop cluster pays award prizes based on the number of symbols in a winning cluster. You will regularly see spins of 5-10 symbols, which offer low-to-medium payouts depending on the symbols involved. However,  the rewards grow exponentially for every symbol past 10. There are only 7 regular symbols in play, though, so the hit rate for small rewards is generally high.

The math behind Santa’s Stack Dream Drop delivers an RTP of 94%. That’s below average for most online slot games – but not for progressive ones. Generally, RTP calculations do not include progressive features because they’re not constant. Technically, the game’s RTP improves as the pot grows.

Our point is that Santa’s Stack Dream Drop RTP is actually above-average for progressive jackpot standards.

what we like

  • Cluster-pay mechanics and interesting Secret Santa feature
  • Retro pixelated graphics
  • Constant chance for every player to win a Jackpot

what we don’t like

  • Low base RTP by non-progressive standards
  • Some ideas like free spin multipliers are underdeveloped

SANTA’S STACK DREAM DROP (RELAX GAMING): CASINO BLOKE’S VERDICT

Online slots with progressive jackpots are still a rarity these days. They’re also an acquired taste.

Basically, games like Santa’s Stack Dream Drop mean that you’re giving up on consistent long-term rewards in the hopes of scoring a jackpot. Statistically, that’s not the best strategy. However, it’s also the only way to actually win many times over your stake. In that sense, this game is much more volatile than it appears at first.

Still, we have to say that the graphics and attention to detail won us over. Santa’s Stack Dream Drop is one of the Casino Bloke’s highlight progressive slots in 2022 (though a lack of decent competition is an important factor.)

Santa's Stack Dream Drop Slot total score:

Total Score Overall
89%

Game developed by:

Relax Gaming Logo Rectangle

Release year:2022

Available on:Desktop, Mobile

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