Wanted: Dead or a Wild

Hacksaw Gaming has slowly but surely made a name for itself with online slots that are simple to understand, yet extremely effective, but mainly for the potential for maximum wins. Thousands of times our stake is not uncommon in Hacksaw slots and Wanted: Dead or a Wild is one of their best ones.

Wanted: Dead or a Wild was released in the autumn of 2021, and as you know, the Wild West genre includes many of the online casino world's biggest hits. Hacksaw seems to be well aware of this and they certainly don't hold back. They come in guns blazing with no less than three bonus rounds and a base game that manages to be entertaining on its own.

The graphics are good with a nice cartoony style and cool interludes. The music is also hits the right notes, even if it doesn't take up as much space as in say their Chaos Crew. Give Wanted: Dead or a Wild a chance because this is really, really good!

The game is set on a 5x5 symbol grid. Along it runs 15 fixed paylines. They are relatively easy to see. Think straight lines across, diagonals and a sort of zigzagging in a horizontal line, one symbol up and down diagonally (see the rules of the game for an exact visualisation).

The base game mainly revolves around the VS-symbol, which is an expanding wild with a multiplier of up to 100x in both the base game and one of the bonus rounds (Duel at Dawn).

Wanted: Dead or a Wild has high volatility and a potential maximum win of 12,500x the base bet. The RTP value stands tall at 96.38%. As in most Hacksaw slots, you can buy into all three bonus rounds.

This is an expanding wild - expanding only if it can create a win - and when it expands, two cowboys with a multiplier each will appear. They will now duel. The duel is a random draw and the cowboy who wins will have his multiplier applied to the winnings.

If several expanded wilds are on the screen, their values are first added to a total and then applied to the winning lines.

The multiplier can take the following values: 2x-10x, 20x, 25x, 50x and 100x. The size of the multiplier has nothing to do with the chance of winning the duel, it is always a 50/50 chance.

• The Great Train Robbery costs 80x (RTP = 96.27%, volatility: medium)
• Duel at Dawn costs 200x (RTP = 96.33%, volatility: very high)
• Dead Man's Hand costs 400x (RTP = 96.43%, volatility: high)

The Great Train Robbery (Free Spins)

The Great Train Robbery is a free spins round that is activated by three symbols labelled "The Great Train Robbery". It awards 10 free spins and is a simple story. All special symbols except wilds disappear, with wilds sticky during all free spins.

There are no more free spins to be won so a lot depends on finding some well-positioned wilds early on to make something of this bonus round.

Duel at dawn (Free Spins)

Also a free spins round with 10 spins. It is activated by three symbols with the text "Duel". The aim here is to find VS-symbols, which appear more frequently here than in the base game.

Dead Man's Hand (Multiplier Collect)

This is a two-phase bonus game where the first stage is to collect a multiplier and a number of wilds. It is a classic multiplier collect bonus round where you get three spins that reset every time you find either a wild or a "+". The number of wilds and the multiplier are then taken to what is called Showdown after three spins with no improved values.

There we get three new spins with the number of wilds and the multiplier guaranteed on all spins. There is no way to reset these spins, but they are hopefully juicy.

With at least 10 guaranteed wilds, you should do very well. However, it can be a total dud, so be careful about buying the round as it is expensive.