What the rules actually decide
Every pokie is a set of rules running under the artwork. The reels spin, the symbols land, and a paytable decides which combinations pay and how much. What you see on screen is a presentation layer on top of that arithmetic, and the rules are the same on every spin you take.
Dragon Link has no published figures we could verify, so we cannot tell you its return, its volatility or its maximum win. What we can say is that those three things are the parts of a rule set that matter most over time. Everything else, the dragons, the music, the animations, is decoration around them.
- In plain terms:ruleset
- The complete set of written conditions that decide how a pokie behaves: symbol values, how lines or ways pay, stake settings, feature triggers and any caps. The artwork and theme sit outside it and change nothing about the maths.
Lines, reels and how wins form
Most modern pokies pay on a fixed number of lines, or on ways to win, and you cannot usually turn lines off to lower your stake. A win forms when matching symbols land on a line from the leftmost reel, or in some games anywhere on adjacent reels. The paytable tells you which, and it is the only authority on the question.
Stake is set by coin size multiplied by the number of lines or ways in play. That is why a game with more lines costs more per spin at the same coin size. Check the paytable before you spin rather than after, because it is not a setting you can change mid-session on most games.
Bonus rounds and what triggers them
Bonus rounds in this style of game are usually triggered by scatter symbols, and they often run as a hold-and-respin feature or a free spin round with a multiplier. The trigger condition, the number of spins and any multiplier are all written into the rules. If you cannot find them in the paytable, they are not published anywhere reliable.
Free spins are not free money. They are spins at the same stake you were already betting, and their results come from the same random number generator as every other spin. A feature that pays nothing is a normal outcome, not a malfunction, and no sequence of spins changes what comes next.
The list, in order of return
Here is the shortlist already on the page, ordered by published return, with what each one is known for.
| 1Floating Dragon | 96.35% | High | 5,000x | Pragmatic Play |
| 2Big Bamboo | 96.13% | High | — | Push Gaming |
| 3Starburst | 96.08% | — | 800x | NetEnt |
| 4Wolf Gold | 96.01% | Medium | 5,000x | Pragmatic Play |
| 5Queen of the Nile | 95.98% | Medium | 800x | Aristocrat |
Select a column heading to sort.
What readers ask about this
What are the Dragon Link slot rules?
They are the paytable, the line or ways structure, the stake settings and the bonus trigger conditions that govern every spin. Because the game has no published figures we could verify, we cannot quote its return, volatility or maximum win here.
Can I change the number of lines on a pokie?
On some games yes, on many no, and it depends entirely on the individual rule set. Turning lines off lowers your stake per spin but also removes the ways those lines could have paid, so it changes the game rather than improving it.
Do free spins have a different return to paid spins?
In a well-built game the return figure applies to the whole rule set, including the feature, not to separate modes. The spins themselves are generated the same way, so a feature does not make a losing game profitable.
What should I check before playing a game I do not know?
The published return, the volatility and the maximum win, if the operator publishes them, plus the stake range and whether a bonus caps your bet. If a game publishes none of those, treat that as information in itself.