Duel of Night & Day: Slot Overview
The 24 or so hours it takes for the planet to complete a rotation are neatly divided into night and day. Or are they? Does day start when the sun rises or after midnight? The same goes for night, but in reverse. Either way, division is crystal clear in software provider Pragmatic Play‘s online slot Duel of Night & Day. In this game, each division of the diurnal cycle gets its own side of the screen to inhabit, as well as a way to pay and a multiplier. If you’re a night owl or an early bird, feel free to pick a side as we find out who comes out on top in this duel.
Duel of Night & Day’s base game is split into two domains. To the left, we have the domain of the day, where a red and gold clothed entity hovers in an area overlooked by the sun, while to the right is night, where a blue and gold clothed being is joined by a full moon. It’s a bit different, which isn’t always easy to achieve due to the abundance of Egyptian slots. Not crazy different, perhaps, but the split screen, night and day thing, coupled with the both ways pays effect, isn’t without interest.
Not only is it placed by a pyramid, Duel of Night & Day’s gaming area is shaped like a pyramid, ish, as its 6 reels land a formation of 2-3-4-4-3-2 symbols. The grid pays both left to right from the leftmost reel and right to left starting from the rightmost reel across 1,152 ways. The math model is highly volatile, and it produces an RTP of 96.47% when betting $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin, and never using the gamble option. Activating the ante bet increases the stake by 50% to increase the chance of triggering the free spins bonus.
Taking a look at the list of pay symbols, there are J through A royals, a snake, a scarab, a cat, and a Cleopatra type character. Royals pay 0.6x to 0.75x for 6 OAK, while premiums are worth 0.75x to 1x the bet for a 6 OAK hit. Wilds appear on reels 2 to 5 to substitute all regular paying symbols. The game’s tumble feature causes winning symbols to vanish, and it fills empty spaces by dropping symbols downwards. Tumbles repeat as long as new wins are formed on the reels.
Duel of Night & Day: Slot Features
Duel of Night & Day’s features include Sun and Moon symbols, which can increase win multipliers in the base game, and in its free spins round, which players may buy.
Sun and Moon Symbols
The Sun and the Moon symbols are multiplier symbols, one red and gold, one blue and gold, also worth up to 1.5x the bet for 6. They are present on all reels in all phases of play on spins and tumbles. In addition, whenever a Sun or a Moon symbol hits in the base game, an x1 multiplier for each instance can be randomly added to the corresponding Sun or Moon multiplier on the sides of the grid. The Sun multiplier applies to all left to right combinations, while the Moon multiplier applies to right to left winning combinations on that spin and tumbles.
Free Spins
Players win 10 free spins with starting Sun and Moon multiplier values of x2 when landing 3 or more scatters. A multiplier meter is present on the left side for the Sun multiplier and on the right side for the Moon multiplier. During free spins, whenever a Sun or Moon multiplier hits, the applicable multiplier meter is guaranteed to increase and remain persistent till the round ends. If the feature was triggered by 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters, the Sun and Moon multiplier will increase its respective meter by x2, x4, x6, or x8. Before the round starts, players can gamble to increase the starting multiplier or collect the current one. If the gamble is successful, the multiplier can be increased up to x8, while unsuccessful gambles lose all of the free spins. Hitting 3 or more scatters during the feature grants an extra 10 free spins.
Feature Buy
It is possible to buy Duel of Night & Day’s bonus round, triggered by 3 to 6 scatters, by buying it for 120x the bet.
Duel of Night & Day: Slot Verdict
Dividing things up like this isn’t common in a slot, but it’s not without precedent either. Just the other week, we reviewed Zeus vs Typhon, also from Pragmatic Play, which employed a similar method. That is, pit two beings against each other by giving them their own side of the screen and various tools they can use. In Zeus vs Typhon, each deity had its own set of pay symbols awarding wins from either side of the grid, and multipliers could appear on either (or both) sides of the screen, applicable to wins from the relevant side. Pretty similar to Duel of Night & Day in some ways, but different enough to encourage the studio to make a brand new game.
For starters, there is no division of pay symbols in Duel of Night & Day. One type lands, that’s it, which cuts back on any confusion. Not that Zeus vs Typhon was a confusing game. The appearance of multipliers is less random, in some ways, but more of a tease in the base game since there is no guarantee that landing Sun or Moon symbols will add values to their respective win multiplier. The overall effect is quite similar, though – build multipliers, multiply wins. Free spins up the stakes since Sun and Moon symbols always add multiplier values, and if the feature is triggered by more scatters, the incremental values are quite high, which would explain why Duel of Night & Day packs a solid win cap of 10,000x the bet.
A pretty decent game then, in the end, maybe not super special, but unique enough to capture the attention of Pragmatic fans, or gamblers partial to win multiplier action. Though the studio hasn’t exactly saturated the market with this type of gameplay, it would appear that Pragmatic Play has caught the left/right bug and is experimenting with the possibilities. It’s early days yet, but if this also catches on with players, it’s possible there will be more of this style to come.