DARKNESS

HOW TO PLAY DARKNESS SLOTS

The heart of Darkness slots (no pun intended) is a fairly straightforward 5-reel slot machine. Your goal is to hit 3 or more matching symbols along one of 28 paylines, going from left to right. You can set the size of your stake on the right, which will be used to calculate all wins. Furthermore, you can set up Autoplay to keep spinning until pre-defined conditions are met.

However, things can get a lot more interesting than that. We’ll start with the simpler features of the Darkness casino game and then move on to more complex mechanics.

The Wild symbols, in this game referred to as the “Dirge”, can substitute any other symbol in the game. Moreover, high-paying symbols can appear as bigger versions of themselves, coming in blocks of 2×3 to 4×5. This makes them a lot easier to match and thus more likely to win.

One of the most prominent features of this game are so-called Superspinners. These are the bright yellow lanterns you’ll see hanging between the dark-covered reels. Superspinners appear between rounds, typically located on the intersections between 4 reel positions. Anywhere between 0 and several can appear, and their positions are always random. Each Superspinner appears with a multiplier between 2x and 20. If a winning payline passes through a Superspinner, all resulting payouts are multiplied by the number on the lantern. Since a single payline can theoretically pass through multiple Superspinners, these multipliers can stack and award massive wins.

FREE SPINS

Darkness free spins can be triggered by hitting 3 or more Bonus symbols.

Bonus symbols in this game look like a burning pentagram. If you hit 3, 4, or 5 of them anywhere on the game board, you’ll win 10, 12, or 14 free spins, respectively.

When this bonus round kicks off, a large pentagram appears on the board. If a Wild Dirge hits one of the five points of the pentagram, it sticks to the position and remains there until the free spin round is over. The Dirge character will also begin chanting ominously, which is a great little detail.

They’re chanting for a reason, too. If you’re lucky enough to get Wilds on all five points, the ritual is complete and Lucifer himself appears. In game terms, this means that reels 2, 3, and 4 will be completely covered in Wilds, which will quickly result in massive profits.

Darkness by Print Studios also offers two forms of feature buy.

• Scatter Boost significantly increases the chances of Scatter bonus symbols appearing. However, a 50% fee is applied to all bets, which isn’t considered when calculating payouts.
• Feature Buy allows you to instantly trigger Free Spins as if you hit 3 Scatters. It costs 100x the bet to do so.

Casino Bloke Best tips for Darkness Slot

• 1Turning on Scatter Boost for regular play is generally worthwhile. It makes the game more exciting and even increases RTP
• 2Outright buying the bonus round is arguably the optimal way to play Darkness slots because it offers the highest RTP

PAYOUTS & RTP

As usual, the game calculates wins based on the size of your stake and the winning combination of symbols. The hand-drawn characters generally have high payouts, while various occult paraphernalia covers mid- and low-paying symbols. The Wiccan twigs are the weakest of the bunch.

However, it has to be said that Darkness is a highly volatile slot game. The Bonus round is intended as a huge winner, as well as any multipliers caused by the Superspinners. Without those, you’ll find most returns to be quite modest. The maximum payout in this game is 20,000x the stake.

Still, this ratio of risk to reward is worth it in the end. As a baseline, the Darkness slot game has an RTP rate of 96.14%, which is above average for most contemporary online slot machines. Interestingly, switching the Scatter Boost on increases the RTP to a strong 96.40%. Better yet, buying the features offers the best overall returns with a 96.79% RTP rate.

DARKNESS BY PRINT STUDIOS – OUR VERDICT

Darkness reminds us of everything we love about a good slot game. It’s innovative – but not too much so, and it’s still just a good old fruit machine. It offers excitingly huge potential payouts, but it doesn’t let the volatility drown the base gameplay. It also comes with strong RTP, but it doesn’t achieve it by dumbing down the game and stripping it of enjoyment.

We may be a bit biased because of our love of a good horror flick, but the game also looks incredible. It’s not just the hand-drawn art, either. It’s the atmosphere this art is used to create, supplemented by the strong sound design. Although it may all seem a bit too dark and gloomy for something that’s supposed to be an enjoyable experience, no one can deny that it’s effective.

We weren’t too sure about Print Gaming – we don’t know too much about them, save that they publish through Relax Gaming. After this incredible showing, though, we’ll be paying attention. Darkness is one of the top 5 slot games of 2023 as far as we’re concerned, and we’re sure that it will continue to be enjoyed for years to come.