Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead is a Mexican festival slot from KA Gaming, released on 28 October 2026. It plays on 5 reels and 3 rows with 20 fixed paylines, and the main attraction is a skeleton mariachi Wild that multiplies the wins it takes part in, plus a free spins round where extra Wilds can appear on the grid. The mood is warm and lively, a night street in a small Mexican town with glowing lanterns, a graveyard with crosses in the background and a reel frame covered in painted skulls and bright flowers.

Papel Picado And Painted Skulls

The art leans into the folk-art side of the holiday. The reels sit on a dark blue panel, with a border of purple, blue and orange flowers that turns the whole board into an altar. The symbols match the setting: a sugar skull lady with a flower crown, an acoustic guitar, a taco, a small altar with candles and a skull, a pair of maracas and the card values A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 drawn in a decorated, hand-painted style. The Wild is a smiling skeleton in a sombrero playing the guitar, and the Scatter is a chili pepper wrapped in flames, which looks hot enough to explain why the bonus is worth chasing.

Twenty Lines From Left To Right

All symbols except the Scatter pay from left to right on the active paylines, and only the highest win is paid on each line. The paytable at a $0.20 bet shows what you can expect. The skeleton Wild pays the most, with $8.00 for five (40x the bet), $2.00 for four and $0.50 for three. The sugar skull lady pays $5.00 for five, the guitar $3.00, the taco $1.50, and the altar and maracas $1.20. The card values pay between $0.50 and $1.00 for five of a kind. The line diagram on the last page of the rules shows all 20 patterns, from the straight rows to the zigzags, and the winning lines are traced in white across the board whenever a combination pays.

In the demo most wins were small line hits, such as $0.22 and $0.30 at the lowest bet, with a few reaching $0.75, which fits a classic line slot where the game rewards patience more than luck on a single spin.

The Mariachi Wild And Its Multipliers

The Wild substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter, and in the base game it does more than that: all Wild-substituted wins are multiplied by 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x. The multiplier is shown on the Wild itself as a small badge, and it appeared on screen during the demo as x2 and x3. A win built around a Wild with a high badge can be several times larger than the same line without it, so the Wild is the symbol to follow on every spin.

To see how much the multiplier matters, take a line that would normally pay $1.00 at the lowest bet. If a Wild with a 5x badge is part of it, the payout becomes $5.00, and the same Wild with a 2x badge turns it into $2.00. A Wild can also join several lines at once, so one lucky position may lift more than one payout on the same spin.

What A Stake Means Per Line

The total bet is spread over the 20 paylines, so the lowest $0.20 stake is one cent per line and the top $300.00 stake is $15.00 per line. That makes the game suitable for very small test sessions and for high-stakes play alike, and all the prizes in the paytable scale in the same proportion. The prize figures in this review use the $0.20 stake because that is how the paytable is shown by default.

Chili Pepper Free Spins

The Scatter pays in any position. Landing 3, 4 or 5 of them awards 10, 15 or 25 free spins, and the Scatters also pay on their own: $0.40 for three, $1.00 for four and $4.00 for five at a $0.20 bet, which is 2x, 5x and 20x the bet. The free game is played with the same bet as the spin that started it.

The round has a feature of its own. During the free game there is a chance for one or more random symbols to turn into Wild symbols, which makes the grid much richer in substitutes than the base game. Together with the Wild multipliers, this gives the bonus its main potential: more Wilds on screen, more lines completed and a better chance to see a big multiplier attached to a payout.

Looking At The Demo

During a run of the demo at the $0.20 stake the board showed a steady rhythm: many spins with nothing, a handful of small wins between $0.08 and $0.40 and now and then a larger one such as $0.75. Wild stacks with x2 and x3 badges appeared on the reels several times, and a few spins showed two Wilds on the same screen. The Scatter chili pepper is easy to spot because of its flames, which makes it simple to count how many of them you need to start the free spins.

Bets And Screen Layout

The bet menu is opened from the total bet field in the bottom bar and offers 15 steps from $0.20 to $300.00 across the 20 lines. The bottom bar carries the win meter, the total bet with New Bet and Max Bet buttons, the round spin button, which opens autoplay when held, and the balance. The “i” button opens the rules, framed by two painted columns with a maracas icon to turn the pages. When a combination pays, a big golden win amount is flashed right over the board, so you always know what each spin returned.

RTP And What The Provider Leaves Out

KA Gaming lets each casino choose the RTP from levels between 82% and 98%, and our data box shows 96%, so read the rules at the casino where you play. The provider publishes no volatility rating and no maximum win for this title, so those fields are left empty rather than guessed.

Is It For You

If you like a colourful theme, simple rules and line wins, Day of the Dead is easy to enjoy. The base game moves quickly, the Wild keeps every spin interesting and the free spins add the extra Wilds that the base game lacks. Run the free demo on the left for a while and watch how often the multiplier badges show up before deciding on a stake.

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