1. Pick a title
The name on the top screen tells you which of the ten Dragon Link titles you're at — Golden Century, Autumn Moon, Happy & Prosperous and so on — and whether it's Dragon Link, with a Grand linked to other machines, or Dragon Cash, the standalone version. The Hold & Spin feature is the same on all of them; the free games differ. The games page compares all ten.
2. Work out what one spin costs
This is the step most people skip. A Dragon Link machine shows a denomination — 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, $1 and, in NSW and the ACT, $2 — but you don't bet one credit. You bet a number of credits per line across the lines you play, and Aristocrat's Australian versions come with 50, 25 or 5 lines.
Take the Autumn Moon screen on our site: "50 LINES", "1 credit per line", "BET 50" on a 1c machine. That's 50 credits at 1c each — 50 cents a spin. Double the credits per line and it's $1.
| 50 lines × 1 credit × 1c | $0.50 |
|---|---|
| 50 lines × 2 credits × 1c | $1.00 |
| 25 lines × 2 credits × 2c | $1.00 |
| 50 lines × 10 credits × 1c | $5.00 |
The state caps the biggest bet on one spin: $5 in pubs and clubs in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the NT; $10 in NSW, the ACT and at Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth.
3. The base game
Five reels, three rows, and wins paid along the lines you're playing. Scatters pay anywhere on the screen — up to 250 times your bet, according to Aristocrat — and three of them start the free games: the Autumn Moon screen prompts "3 [scatter] Start FREE GAMES".
You'll also see gold orbs, the fireballs with numbers on them. They're the one symbol every Dragon Link title shares, and they're what you're really watching for.
4. Free games
What happens in free games depends on the title. On Golden Century and Autumn Moon every special symbol turns into the same symbol, jackpot symbols included. Happy & Prosperous and Panda Magic remove the royals and add 3 games with any scatter. Peacock Princess and Spring Festival join reels 2 to 4 into one big reel. Genghis Khan and Peace & Long Life play 6 free games with x2 wilds that multiply up to x16.
Aristocrat notes that Hold & Spin "may be triggered in base or free games", so free games are a second route into the feature.
5. Hold & Spin
Aristocrat describes it as the feature made popular in Lightning Link, "with the opportunity to collect credit prizes, bonus prizes and Jackpots". It doesn't publish the counts online; player and review descriptions agree on these:
- Six or more orbs on the screen start the feature.
- The orbs lock and the other spots respin, three times.
- A new orb locks and resets the respins to three.
- When the respins run out, every orb pays its value — credits or a MINI, MINOR or MAJOR jackpot.
- Fill all 15 spots and the Grand is paid.
The free demo on the home page follows these rules in credits; its odds are our own. On a real cabinet, the help screen confirms the numbers for that machine.
6. Collect
Your credits sit on the CREDIT meter, and Collect pays them out — in most venues as a ticket you take to the cashier or a kiosk. Victorian pubs and clubs take no more than $100 into a machine at once, and other states have their own limits on cash in.
Before you press the first button
Decide your amount and your time, and stick to them. The minimum return a Dragon Link must pay over time is 85% to 90% depending on the state, which means the machine keeps the rest on average; a single session can go anywhere. If you want a break from the pokies, our gambling help page lists the options, and Gambling Help Online answers 1800 858 858 around the clock.
