Wanted Dead or A Wild slot: the western that made Hacksaw

Two wilds, one duel, and a multiplier that travels

The base game runs on 15 Paylines, and the best symbol brings 20 bets for a full line, so on symbol wins alone the balance simply ticks over. Everything interesting comes from two specials. A wild lands with a multiplier printed on its face and applies it to any win it joins. A VS symbol starts a duel, and when the smoke clears its entire reel is wilds sharing one value, somewhere between x2 and x100. Two VS reels on the same spin add their numbers together, and that sum is what multiplies the payout.

• Wild with a multiplier: substitutes and multiplies the line it completes.
• VS symbol: converts its reel into full-height wilds with a shared multiplier from x2 to x100.
• Several VS reels at once: the multipliers are summed, then applied to the win.
• Bonus symbols: each round has its own, and three of them on a spin open it.
• Collect symbols in the top round: each one gathers a wild or a multiplier and sets the spin counter back to 3.

The sound design is doing more work here than most people admit. Spurs, the saloon piano, the whistle before a duel: I have muted plenty of slots and never this one, because the audio tells you a VS is coming a half second before you see it.

Three ways into free spins, three prices on the buy button

Each round has its own trigger symbol, three of them open it, and the three rounds play almost nothing alike. Hacksaw also sells all three, which makes the buy prices a rough map of what each one is worth. A spin here runs 0.2-100 USD, and the 80, 200 and 400 bet doors are priced against whatever you set that spin to.

Dead Man's Hand is the one people talk about. The first half collects wilds and multipliers, up to 20 wilds and a multiplier of x31, and every collect buys the round three more spins. Then the Showdown drops everything you gathered onto three spins at once. That is where 12500x comes from, and also where a round that looked enormous turns into a shrug, because the gathered wilds still have to line up.

The bonus is called Duel at Dawn, and so is another game

Hacksaw liked the middle round enough to build a whole slot around it: Duel at Dawn takes the duel, adds outlaws with revolvers and drops the other two rounds. Take that one when you want the mechanic on every spin; take this one when you want three different games under one cover. Wild Bounty Showdown from PG Soft keeps the western hats and swaps the duel for wilds that grow as they move, which is a slower, friendlier ride. All the reviews sit in the Hit tab.

RTP 96.38% is the top of four settings

Hacksaw ships this game in four settings. The passport above carries the top one, 96.38%; below it sit 94.55, 92.33 and 88.42. Any Wanted Dead or A Wild slot review, this one included, has to pick one of those four to print, and years in the Hit tab are the closest thing to evidence that the version running here is the upper one. The distance between the ends of that list is wide enough to make them two machines under one cover.

Volatility is rated medium to high, which for Hacksaw counts as restrained: 19.3% of spins pay something, so roughly one in five, and the base game does hand you small wins between bonuses. That evenness is why it still gets opened while noisier releases have rotated through the lobby. It still swings hard enough that a session without a bonus ends in red, so size the bet for the number of spins you want, and count on the bonus arriving late.

Wanted Dead or A Wild demo: where the free version lives

The free version is one login away. Hacksaw publishes no launcher of its own, which is why the frame above holds a notice and a button; inside the casino, type the name into the search box and the card comes up with Demo under the cover. The reels behave identically in both modes, buy prices included, so an evening in the free mode answers the only question that decides this game: how long the wait for a VS badge really feels.

For real money the useful part of the welcome package here is the 100 free spins after registration, which need no deposit at all. They spin at the minimum bet of your currency, the winnings land on the bonus balance, and they wager x20 in any slots, including this one. A game that pays something on roughly one spin in five is a reasonable place to work that number down. The full set is on the bonuses page.

Does the old sheriff still hold up?

Years after release it is still the Hacksaw game most players can name, and the reason is structural: three rounds under one cover, with one mechanic carrying all of them. I open it when I want a session with a shape to it, and I leave the buy button alone on the small bets. Would I call it the best western on the tab? On the days when nothing lands it is fifteen lines of cowboys waiting for a badge, and on the days two VS reels land together it pays for a week of them.