Dead Man's Trail is a pirate-themed slot game released by Relax Gaming in 2021. The title has been an enormous hit among British players, so it's no wonder you can now find it in most major online gambling websites operating in the country. The slot is a standard 5-reeler, but there's certainly nothing ordinary about its special features.
It's Trail bonus feature is a unique twist on bonus rounds with thrilling and dynamic gameplay and a whopping max win of 50,000x the stake. On top of that, the game has cinematic-quality graphics and an eerie soundtrack, creating a truly immersive experience.
If this sparks your interest, join us as we explore the nooks and crannies of this exciting new slot release. We'll discuss the game's key characteristics, including gameplay, free spins and bonus rounds, RTP, and other things you need to know before you start playing.
Where Can You Play Dead Man's Trail?
Although this is a relatively new slot, many UK casinos have started including it in their offer. Therefore, you will have no problem finding it on your favourite gambling website. Of course, you need to make sure you choose only regulated providers — they offer safety and security and are more likely to have diversified gaming portfolios.
| Rank | Casino | Bonus | Review | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 100% bonus up to £300 + 150 Bonus Spins | Review | Visit Casino | |
 | 100% bonus up to £200 + 50 Bonus Spins | Review | Visit Casino | |
 | 100% bonus up to £250 + 100 Bonus Spins | Review | Visit Casino |
Dead Man’s Trail Gameplay
Dead Man's Trail utilises a common 5×4 game grid with 40 paylines. Its high-paying symbols reflect the game theme perfectly. They include spooky pirate characters — Commander, Collector, pirate woman, and One Eye. However, the highest paying symbol is the game logo wild that substitutes all other symbols in a line win and pays up to 6x your bet per line.
On the other hand, the lower-paying symbols are much less exciting as they're represented by plain card symbols commonly used for this purpose: jack, queen, king, and ace.
In addition to these, the slot also uses a couple of special symbols. Besides the aforementioned wild, you'll also see the coin and the bonus symbol, each one triggering a specific bonus feature.
When the coins appear on consecutive reels, the game awards the sum of the prizes featured on all coins located on the grid. The bonus symbol is even more exciting as three of them in any position trigger the Trail bonus, resulting in wins of up to 50,000x your total bet.
Players can bet between £0.20 to £20 per spin and initiate up to 1,000 automated spins. The game's volatility is high, which means that you can expect more significant wins, albeit few and far between.
Dead Man's Trail Free Spins and Bonus Features
Dead Man's Trail has two additional features — the Coin feature and the Trail bonus. The Coin feature is the simpler one, initiated after coin symbols land on at least three reels simultaneously. When this happens, the game pays the player the cumulative amount from all the coins on the game grid.
While this can be exciting, the Trail bonus brings truly life-changing payouts. This feature is triggered when three or more bonus symbols land in any position on the grid.
It is unique because it's not played on the standard slot layout.
Instead of reels and rows, it uses a trail of different tile types — normal tiles, end, start, and mystery chest tiles. After the feature initiates, the player pawn moves on the tiles by one to nine steps at a time. The tile he lands on determines the outcome of that round.
Here is what each type of of the tiles brings:
- Normal tile – Awards the featured value (up to 10,000x the total bet)
- End tiles – Ends the Trail bonus
- Start tile – Removes all end tiles and replaces them with normal tiles
- Mystery chest tiles – Contains one of 11 possible special actions
If your pawn lands on a mystery chest tile, you can uncover one of these special actions:
- Scout – A random normal tile is increased from 100x to 1,000x
- One-Eye – A random normal tile is multiplied by 2x-5x, two to four times
- Commander – All normal tiles are increased by three to five
- Collector – Collects the value of all normal tiles
- Collect and Command – Sums up the value of all normal tiles, adding it to each normal tile and the total win
- Reset – Removes end tiles and puts normal tiles in their places
- Super Reset – Removes all end tiles and puts mystery chest tiles in their places
- Coin Win – Awards a coin win of between 25x to 50x
- Persistent Scout — Has the same function as Scout, but it repeats after every round
- Persistent One-Eye — Has the same function as One-Eye, but it repeats after every round
- Persistent Commander — Has the same function as Commander, but it repeats after every round
After the pawn lands on any normal or mystery chest tiles, that tile gets turned into an end tile. If you're lucky enough to trigger this feature and stay in it for a long time, you can potentially win up to 50,000x your total stake.
What Is the Return-to-Player of Dead Man's Trail?
The average return-to-player of Dead Man's Trail is 96.29%. The slot has no variable RTP, except when a player chooses to use the Bonus Buy feature. This increases the RTP to an incredible 98%. Sadly, this feature is not available in the UK.
Still, this title has a decent payout rate compared to most slot games. Naturally, the higher the RTP, the greater the return you can expect. However, you rarely find slots with an RTP of 98% or higher, as the industry average is around 96%.
What Do We Think of This Slot?
Dead Man's Trail is a solid slot game title with exciting bonus features, especially the Trail bonus. This feature is not only unique and dynamic, but it can also result in some massive payouts. On top of that, the slot features excellent graphics and visuals, with high-paying symbols coming to life when forming winning combinations.
However, the game also has a notable downside. Namely, it is a high-variance slot, which means there can be long dry spells between two wins. Not only does this make the base game seem uneventful, but it also poses a greater financial risk.