Megaways, cascades, hold and win: three mechanics in this catalogue

2026-08-08 · Camille Roussel

The theme is a skin, the mechanic is the game

Two machines can show the same castle, the same bats and the same red-and-black palette while having nothing in common under the hood. A game's feature list is more informative than its screenshots.

Three families cover most of this catalogue: variable-line grids, cascades, and locked-symbol respins. Each produces a recognisable payout curve.

Recognising them saves opening ten games only to find they all do the same thing.

Megaways: the number of ways to win changes every spin

Red Tiger's Blood Suckers Megaways is the catalogue's only Megaways title, stated at 97.66% with a 20,521x ceiling and high volatility. In this format each reel draws a different number of symbols, so the count of possible combinations shifts from spin to spin.

The sheet also lists cascades and a free-spins multiplier: the two almost always accompany Megaways, because a variable grid on its own does not produce the swings the format promises.

Any link to NetEnt's Blood Suckers is nominal only. The two games share a naming lineage, not a mechanic.

Cascades and avalanches: winning symbols disappear

Pragmatic Play's Bloody Dawn (96.5%, 5,000x ceiling), Gamebeat's Bloody Waltz (96.3%, 10,000x) and Push Gaming's Fang City (96.33%, 10,000x) all run on cascades. A win removes its symbols from the grid, new ones drop in, and the spin continues as long as combinations keep forming.

The interesting part is not the cascade itself but what is attached to it. On Bloody Waltz and Fang City a multiplier climbs with each chain, which concentrates value in the rare long-run spins.

Fang City also uses pay-anywhere scoring, where symbols count by quantity on the grid rather than by position on lines. Blood Club by Peter and Sons applies the same principle at 96.3%.

Hold and win: lock, respin, count

Blood Moon Hold & Win by Prospect Gaming (95.17%, 5,000x), Brides of Dracula Hold and Win by iSoftBet (95.5%, 6,040x) and Hit the Vampire by Onlyplay (95.66%, 5,216x) all share the same engine. Value symbols stick to the grid, a respin counter resets with each new one, and the round ends when it reaches zero.

The format moves nearly all the variance into a single phase. Base play feels flat; inside the respin, everything is settled within a dozen spins.

All three carry fixed jackpots or pot collection, which explains returns around 95% rather than above 96%: part of the payout is reserved for tiers that are rarely reached.

Signature mechanics

Some studios add a recognisable building block. Nolimit City's Blood Diamond uses xNudge, where a wild shifts to fill the full reel height and raises a multiplier with each nudge. Blood & Shadow 2 adds splitting symbols and a tiered progression system on top.

Yggdrasil applies its Doublemax to Vampire Riches DoubleMax (96%, 25,000x): the multiplier doubles with each cascade instead of stepping up by one. Tom Horn Gaming reuses the expanding-book mechanic in Book of Vampires, with cascades added.

These blocks do not make a game better, but they make its behaviour predictable to anyone who already knows them.

Choose by mechanic, not by thumbnail

For a short, readable session, locked-symbol respins give the most information per spin. For learning a paytable, fixed-line low-volatility games such as KA Gaming's Vampire's Tale (96%) stay the clearest.

For long runs, cascades demand patience and a reduced stake, because their value sits in a small number of spins.

In every case the feature list is read before the first bet, not after.