Hacksaw Gaming

Played 873 Times

Wanted Dead or a Wild: Tested & Reviewed in 2024

Written by:

Cosmin Mesenschi

Published:

December 4, 2023

Last updated:

February 1, 2024

Slot Details

RTP:

96.38%

Theme:

Wild West

Volatility:

High

Pay Lines:

Reels:

Max Multiplier:

12,500x

Bonus Buy:

Yes

Jackpot:

Provably Fair Technology:

Minimum Bet Size ($):

0.2

Maximum Bet Size ($):

100

Release Date:

September 21, 2021

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Overview & How to Play

Player Reviews

How to Win

Symbol Payouts

Theme & Sound

About the Game Provider

Other Slots

Wanted Dead or a Wild Slot: Overview & How to Play

Hacksaw Gaming’s take on any subject matter is bound to invoke something different: Wanted Dead or a Wild is a testament to that! Released in September 2021, the slot delves into the much-too-common theme of the Wild West found in several online slot machines. But in the hands of Hacksaw Gaming’s creative team, nothing looks stereotypical in Wanted Dead or a Wild. Here, players can set out on an adventure that involves fighting duels for multipliers and robbing a train to pile big cash.

Wanted Dead or A Wild Screenshot of the gameplay (single Spin) with view of desktop and mobile

How to Play Wanted Dead or a Wild

Wanted Dead or a Wild opens on a 5×5 grid panel, effectively using the 15 available pay lines. The betting range falls between the standard 0.20 to 100 coins per spin, which you will likely find in several online slots, including those in Hacksaw’s portfolio. Whether you are a high, medium, or low roller, the wagering limit encapsulates something for everyone. Also, with a max win limit capped at 12,500x the stake, wins can take a huge leap.

The theoretical Return to Player is a decent 96.38%, but the number might go off the mark if you play for a short session. After all, RTPs are calculated after simulating the spins millions of times. Regardless of that, Wanted Dead or a Wild RTP of 96.38% is significantly above the industry average of 96%. And as for the variance, this Hacksaw slot is pivoted on high volatility (rated 5 out of 5). So, for the large part, wins won’t frequent the spins, but when they do, chances are they will be relatively impressive.

Now, let’s take a look at these stats in more detail. The slot’s hit frequency is about 19.30%, which suggests that every 5 or so spins will likely fetch a winning result. And more often than not, it happened in our case as well. But triggering a bonus feature was rather too difficult. For the most part, we were struck in the base game itself, which fetched returns equivalent to the wager at best. So, we’d recommend not relying too much on the base game, as they fetch out below-average returns for most spins. A quicker method would be using the Buy Bonus option to trigger features.

Features and Bonus Rounds on Wanted Dead or a Wild

Hacksaw Gaming has integrated several exciting features into Wanted Dead or a Wild, some of which carry the potential to land max wins.

VS Symbol

Whenever a VS symbol lands, it expands to cover an entire reel, turning itself into a wild reel. Two gunslingers show up within the expanded symbol with two different multipliers. The winner’s multiplier becomes applicable to the win. If you get more than one multiplier in the same spin, the multipliers are added before multiplying by the win amount.

Duel at Dawn

Hitting 3 Duel symbols in the same spin triggers the Duel at Dawn feature with 10 free spins. With this feature active, you stand a better chance to land VS symbols.

You can obtain the Wanted Dead or a Wild max win by hitting 5 VS symbols in the same spin, which usually, depending on your luck, can award you with big multipliers (for a total of 12,500x) and give you the awaited max win at the slot.

Wanted Dead or A Wild Screenshot of the Duels Bonus round gameplay with view of desktop and mobile

Dead Man’s Hand

Getting 3 Dead Man symbols at once activates the Dead Man’s Hand bonus feature. The feature unfolds in two different segments. The first one determines the number of wilds and multipliers you will get. Initially, you get 3 respins, but landing a wild symbol or multiplier resets the number of respins back to 3. Up to 20 wilds and x31 multiplier can be collected via this segment. Once all 3 spins are exhausted, you move on to the next segment of this bonus feature.

This segment is called the Showdown, and it offers 3 respins as well. The number of wilds you won in the previous segment is added to each spin during this segment. Moreover, the accumulated multiplier from the last round applies to all wins during Showdown.

The Great Train Robbery

Hitting 3 The Great Train Robbery symbols trigger this bonus feature and award you 10 free spins. Wild symbols become sticky during this feature and remain on the reels until the feature ends.

Bonus Buy

The Bonus Buy option is the fastest way to trigger a particular feature in Wanted Dead or a Wild. You can trigger any of the given game features by paying the requisite amount. Note that the feature might not be available in some jurisdictions.

The Best Paying Symbols on Wanted Dead or a Wild

A total of 11 paying symbols constitute the slot’s paytable, including a wild symbol that pays up to 20x the bet. The rest of the pay symbols are 10 to A card royals, bulls, masked gunslingers, sacks of money, liquor bottles, and bullet chambers. These icons pay in the range of 1x to 20x the stake.

Wanted Dead or A Wild Slot Payout Symbols chart

The wild substitutes for all paying symbols, except bonus and VS symbols. Hence, a straightforward way to bag decent profit from the base game is to get more and more wild and gun chamber symbols since they both pay 20x the bet.

Wanted Dead or A Wild Slot Winning Reels chart

Theme, Design, and Sound

Not just volatility, even the mood and setting of the slot is quite threatening. Wanted Dead or a Wild takes after the popular Wild West-themed slots but has styled it with a peculiar touch. A wooden reel sits at the center of the screen, surrounded by a scenario that looks like it is coming straight from a painting. Blotches of red cover the entire screen, including the giant sun looking menacingly on the reels. Barbed wires and leafless, distorted trees are also in the background, rendering a spooky and violent atmosphere.

Only the background score doesn’t deviate much from the stereotype. The familiar Wild West guitar and special tunes, recognizable from the movie, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, permeate throughout the playing session.

About Hacksaw Gaming: the Slot Producer

Hacksaw Gaming is still in its first decade of operations but has already achieved a lot. The company was founded in 2017, and within 6 years, they are also already popular in online and crypto casinos. Besides creating visually stunning, conceptually unique, and innovative slots, Hacksaw’s potential is also realized in the math behind each game.

The vertical design of all Hacksaw Gaming slots is deliberately done to ensure the games are optimized for mobile devices. Also, the game provider’s portfolio is not limited to slots alone. It also includes a decent collection of Scratchcards and Instant Win games, which takes their collection to over 120 games, operating in +20 regulating markets.

Furthermore, Hacksaw Gaming is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission and has its games tested by the reputed eCOGRA agency. All of these factors contribute to the company’s growth and trust among players and partners.

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Wanted Dead or a Wild: Slot Verdict

Whether via visuals or volatility, Wanted Dead or a Wild boldly states that it doesn’t go easy on players. But this in no way diminishes the slot’s quality. On the contrary, we discovered that the game offers more than one road to grab big money. Of course, the risk levels are high, but the rewards look equally fruitful, especially when considering the top prize of 12,500x the stake. Even other game stats, such as RTP and wagering limits, are within the acceptable range. For low and medium rollers, the best bet would be to stick with the main gameplay and spin with a bet size you are comfortable with, hoping that plenty of high-paying VS symbols and other special symbols land. And for high-rollers, a buy bonus option could play a key role in this slot. While the result will not always be fruitful, one of our spins fetched us about 1056.50x and 1657.10x the stake (as seen in the video at the beginning of the page), including line wins and multipliers. But stay careful of Duel at Dawn while buying out the feature since it is the most volatile of the three options. To sum up, precisely this exciting blend of unique features and impressive payouts draws many players to Hacksaw slots. And even though Wanted Dead or a Wild was released back in 2021, it still holds relevance in online casinos for offering, more or less, a complete slot-playing experience.

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