Slots Like Drill That Gold: A 5,000x Mine Shaft With Two Kinds of Wild Drill
Drill That Gold is a 5 reel, 3 row mining slot from Pragmatic Play running on 20 fixed paylines, with a base RTP of 96.49% that dips slightly to 96.45% when the optional Ante Bet is switched on. The headline mechanic is the Drill Feature, where a fully stacked reel turns into a wild drill symbol and fires off an instant cash prize, backed up by a Gold Spins bonus round and occasional spin modifiers that can rescue a losing spin. Stakes run from £0.20 up to £100 a spin, or £125 with Ante Bet active, volatility is rated high, and the maximum win sits at 5,000 times your stake. Anyone browsing for slots like Drill That Gold is generally after that same underground drilling theme paired with instant-prize wild symbols rather than a standard free spins bonus.
Where to Play
18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.
How the Game Works
Reviewed by Brian TaylorPublished: July 2026
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Pragmatic Play sent players underground for this one, dropping the standard 5×3 grid into a candlelit mine shaft with wooden reel framing, a mechanical drill rig hanging overhead and a bearded miner standing off to the side working the cables. It launched in April 2022, and the visual style leans into the dark, dusty setting rather than a cartoonish gold rush look, with lantern light picking out the gems and coin carts scattered around the reels.
The pace of a session is steady rather than frantic. Standard low spins pass by with the usual card royals and pickaxe symbols, and the game earns its high volatility rating from how long it can run between a stacked reel triggering the Drill Feature or a scatter run kicking off Gold Spins. It suits players who like a slower building session with an occasional instant cash hit, more than anyone chasing constant small wins.
Because the top prizes come from stacked wild drills and a dedicated bonus round rather than a multiplier that compounds every spin, Drill That Gold tends to appeal to players who enjoyed Pragmatic’s earlier gold and treasure themed catalogue and want a fresh mechanic wrapped around a similar setting.
Symbols and Paytable
The paytable runs from the standard 10 through A card symbols at the bottom, moving up through lanterns, gems and mine carts, with a miner character or pickaxe symbol typically sitting as the top-paying regular icon. The Drill symbol itself is the key special icon: it doesn’t pay directly like a normal high symbol, but when it fills an entire reel it upgrades into a Silver Drill wild and triggers the Drill Feature’s cash prize instead.
The Drill Feature
This is the base game’s signature mechanic. When the drill symbol stacks all the way down a single reel, that reel converts into a wild and pays out an instant cash prize on top of any line wins it completes. The tiers reported for this feature climb from 2x bet up through 5x, 10x, 15x, 25x, 50x, 75x and up to 100x bet, so a fully stacked reel can be a modest top-up or a genuinely useful hit depending on which tier lands.
Ante Bet and the Golden Drill
Switching on the optional Ante Bet raises the total stake by 25%, pushing the maximum bet from £100 up to £125. In exchange, the base Drill symbol is upgraded to a Golden Drill, which pays its instant cash prize whenever it simply appears on the reels rather than needing a full stack first. It’s a straightforward trade of a higher stake for more frequent access to the drill payouts, and it’s entirely optional rather than a feature buy.
Spin Modifiers
On a spin that would otherwise land as a loss, Drill That Gold can apply a modifier that either turns the result into a guaranteed minimum win, reported at around 10x bet, or seeds extra bonus symbols onto the reels to help build toward the Gold Spins round. These modifiers don’t fire on every spin, but they take some of the sting out of a long dry run typical of this volatility level.
Gold Spins Bonus Round
Landing 3, 4 or 5 bonus symbols in a single spin awards 6, 8 or 10 Gold Spins respectively. Every Drill symbol upgrades to a Golden Drill for the duration of the round, so any drill that lands pays an instant cash prize, with a wider tier table than the base game stretching from 5x bet up through 10x, 15x, 25x, 50x, 75x, 100x, 200x, 500x and as high as 1,000x bet on the very top tier. Extra bonus symbols landing during the round can add further spins on top, though the exact retrigger count is worth checking in the game’s own paytable screen since sources don’t fully agree on the precise figure. Cumulative drill payouts across the round are what carry a session toward the game’s advertised 5,000x stake ceiling.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Two separate ways to hit an instant cash prize, through the base game Drill Feature and the upgraded Golden Drill in Gold Spins
- A 5,000x maximum win is a serious ceiling for a game without a multiplier-stacking mechanic
- The mine shaft theme and drill rig animation feel distinct from Pragmatic’s more common Egyptian and fruit machine themes
- Spin modifiers occasionally rescue a losing spin, softening some of the high volatility swings
- Ante Bet gives players a genuine choice rather than forcing a feature buy to access the golden drill upgrade
Cons
- High volatility means the Drill Feature and Gold Spins can both stay quiet for long stretches
- Base game Drill Feature payouts top out at 100x bet, so the biggest numbers are locked behind the harder-to-reach bonus round
- 96.49% RTP is respectable but not table-topping next to some of Pragmatic’s other high volatility releases
- Sources disagree slightly on the exact Gold Spins retrigger count, so that detail is worth double-checking in-game
Game Screenshot
Demo Play
Most major UK-facing operators that carry Pragmatic Play’s catalogue offer a free demo version of Drill That Gold that runs on play credits rather than real money, using the same reel mechanics and RTP as the paid game. It’s a sensible way to see how often the Drill Feature actually triggers and how the spin modifiers behave before deciding on a stake.
Expert Take
Drill That Gold doesn’t try to reinvent the mining slot format so much as give it a mechanic of its own. The dual drill system, a modest one in the base game and a much bigger one locked behind Gold Spins, gives the theme a reason to exist beyond the visuals, and the spin modifiers are a nice touch for a genre that can otherwise feel punishing at high volatility. It’s not going to unseat Pragmatic’s biggest hitters in terms of ceiling, but as a mid-tier release with real personality it holds up well against the rest of the studio’s back catalogue.
Similar Slots to Try
Anyone drawn to the gold and treasure hunting theme here should find plenty to like in these picks.
Another Pragmatic gold themed release, this one built around stacked wilds and a Money Respin jackpot round rather than a drilling mechanic.
A prospecting theme with its own instant jackpot symbols, closer in spirit to the drilling game’s cash-prize wilds than a standard free spins structure.
Trades the mine shaft for a frontier saloon, but keeps the same high volatility feel and a money train bonus round with escalating multipliers.
A newer gold rush themed release chasing a similarly big ceiling, built around a train-based bonus rather than drilling wilds.
About the Developer
Drill That Gold comes from Pragmatic Play, a content supplier officially launched in 2015 and now headquartered in Sliema, Malta, with further offices spread across Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, the Philippines and beyond. The studio holds licences in more than 40 jurisdictions including the UK Gambling Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority, and remains privately held under co-founder and CEO Julian Jarvis rather than having been folded into a larger group the way Microgaming or NetEnt eventually were. See more on our Pragmatic Play slots page.
A tumbling candy grid with a 25,000x ceiling, a completely different mechanic to the reel-stacking drills here.
A magical girl themed tumble slot from the same studio, built around free spins multipliers rather than instant drill payouts.
One of Pragmatic’s longest running hits, using sticky wild multipliers in free spins instead of a stacked-reel drill mechanic.
A Norse mythology Megaways title with a rolling reels feature, a different volatility profile to this fixed-payline mine shaft.
Drill That Gold Key Stats
Drill That Gold slot information last reviewed: July 2026
| Drill That Gold Slot Info | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Drill That Gold |
| Provider: | Pragmatic Play |
| Developer Rank: | A mid-tier high volatility release in Pragmatic Play’s mining and treasure catalogue |
| RTP: | 96.49% (96.45% with Ante Bet active; some operators run reduced configs, check before playing) |
| RTP Category: | Medium-High |
| RTP Rank: | Around the UK average |
| Feature Description: | Drill Feature instant cash prizes, Ante Bet Golden Drill upgrade, Spin Modifiers, Gold Spins bonus round. |
| Feature Categories: | Instant Win, Free Spins |
| Reels: | 5 |
| Rows: | 3 |
| Paylines: | 20 fixed paylines |
| Volatility: | High |
| Volatility Rank: | Above average |
| Min Bet: | £0.20 |
| Max Bet: | £100 (up to £125 with Ante Bet) |
| Max Win: | 5,000x stake |
| Release Date: | April 2022 (7 April per Pragmatic Play’s own release; some aggregators list late March) |
| Slotslike Rank: | 612 out of 4,200+ games (View Top 100) |
Slots with the Same Features
Two feature tags apply to this one on SlotsLike, and a fresh pick sits under each heading below.
Slots with Instant Win Mechanics
Games that pay out a direct cash prize from a symbol landing, rather than routing everything through paylines, the way the Drill Feature does here.
Runs its own Money Respin round with instant coin prizes in place of the reel-stacking drill wilds used here.
An Egyptian adventure theme with its own expanding symbol jackpot feature, a different route to a similar instant-prize thrill.
Slots with Free Spins Bonus Rounds
Titles that hold a chunk of the biggest prizes back for a dedicated bonus round, the way Gold Spins does on this page.
Free spins with multiplying wilds replace the drilling mechanic here, on a rolling reels Megaways structure.
A safari theme built around tumbling wins and free spins multipliers, a very different feature set from the fixed-reel drills used here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Drill Feature work in Drill That Gold?
When the Drill symbol fills an entire reel from top to bottom, that reel converts into a Silver Drill wild and pays an instant cash prize on top of any completed line wins. Reported tiers for this feature run from 2x bet up to 100x bet.
What is the RTP of Drill That Gold?
The standard RTP is 96.49%, dropping slightly to 96.45% when the optional Ante Bet feature is active. It’s worth checking the exact figure at your chosen casino, since some operators run reduced configurations on Pragmatic Play titles.
What is the maximum win on Drill That Gold?
The maximum win is 5,000 times your stake, reached cumulatively through drill symbol payouts during the Gold Spins bonus round rather than from a single spin.
Is Drill That Gold high volatility?
Yes, Pragmatic Play rates it 5 out of 5 for volatility, and that lines up with how long a session can run between a stacked drill reel or a Gold Spins trigger.
What are the best slots like Drill That Gold?
Wolf Gold and Diamond Strike share the gold and treasure theme most closely, while Chilli Heat and John Hunter Tomb Of The Scarab Queen offer a similar instant cash prize thrill through different mechanics.
Can I play Drill That Gold for free?
Most operators carrying Pragmatic Play’s catalogue offer a free demo mode running on play credits at the same RTP as the real money game, which is a good way to see how often the Drill Feature triggers before staking anything.
Who makes Drill That Gold?
Pragmatic Play, the Malta-headquartered supplier behind hits like The Dog House and Wolf Gold. Drill That Gold launched in April 2022 as one of the studio’s mining and treasure themed releases.
Our Verdict on Drill That Gold
Drill That Gold earns its keep through a mechanic that actually fits its setting, with the stacked-reel drills and the Ante Bet’s Golden Drill upgrade giving the mine shaft theme a genuine reason to exist rather than just dressing up a generic feature set. The 5,000x ceiling is solid without being the biggest in Pragmatic’s catalogue, and the high volatility means patience is required between the meaningful hits. It’s a well built mid-tier release that should appeal most to players who already enjoy the studio’s gold rush themed slots and want a fresh way to chase an instant cash prize.
SlotsLike rating: 7/10