Wanted Dead or a Wild Demo: Free Play and Review
Updated Demo client 1.74.0Hacksaw Gaming, September 2021
Wanted Dead or a Wild is Hacksaw Gaming's western from September 2021. Five reels, five rows and 15 fixed lines carry it, and its weapon is the VS symbol: a reel-sized duel whose winner multiplies the line wins by anything from 2x to 100x. Three different bonus games sit under a 12,500x cap, which the base game and two of them can reach.
- Provider
- Hacksaw Gaming
- Released
- September 2021
- Grid and wins
- 5x5, 15 paylines
- Volatility
- 4 out of 5 (Hacksaw)
- RTP
- 96.38% default. Other versions: 94.55%, 92.33%, 88.42%
- Max win
- 12,500x the bet
- Demo bet range
- €0.20 to €2,000.00, starts at €2.00
- Buy menu
- 3 options, 80x to 400x the bet
- Bonus games
- The Great Train Robbery, Duel at Dawn, Dead Man's Hand (3 or more of their own scatter)
- VS multipliers
- 2x to 10x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x
United States
Real-money play at Cafe Casino
Play Wanted Dead or a Wild demo
The studio's own demo with virtual credits. No account, deposit or download.
Same game, real money
Cafe Casino offers Wanted Dead or a Wild for real money, with a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · check the RTP in Game info · the demo stays free
18+Demo mode uses virtual credits and pays nothing out. Real-money play is for adults only.
The demo above loads Hacksaw's client with €5,000 of fun money. Note the lower floor on this older title: the smallest stake is €0.20, twice the €0.10 of Hacksaw's newer games, while the top stays at €2,000.
How VS symbols decide a spin
VS symbols expand only if at least one of them would be part of a line win once expanded. Then it fills its whole reel, two outlaws appear with different multipliers, and the one left standing applies his multiplier to that reel, which is now entirely wild. Several VS reels in one spin do not multiply each other: their values are added first, and the sum multiplies the line wins.
That adding rule is the key to the big numbers. Two VS reels at 50x each give a 100x multiplier on every line they touch, and a VS symbol on all five reels turns the entire grid wild. Our best base spin in the logged run, number 170, came from a single duel and paid €120.00, 60x the bet.
Is Duel at Dawn part of Wanted Dead or a Wild?
Both, which is why the name confuses people. Duel at Dawn is one of the three bonus games inside Wanted Dead or a Wild: three DUEL scatters give 10 free spins with more VS symbols than the base game. Hacksaw later reused the name for a separate 5x5 western slot released in November 2024, which adds Outlaw reels to the DuelReels, has its own buy menu and a 15,000x cap.
The standalone game has its own review: Duel at Dawn demo and review. The two share the setting and the duel idea, but not the maths.
The Great Train Robbery, Duel at Dawn and Dead Man's Hand
Each bonus has its own scatter, so three TRAIN ROBBERY, DUEL or DEAD symbols in the base game decide which round you get. The rules list the base game, Duel at Dawn and Dead Man's Hand as the modes where the 12,500x cap can be reached; The Great Train Robbery is not on that list.
| Bonus | What happens | Buy price | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Train Robbery | 10 free spins; every wild that lands stays for the rest of the round | 80x | 96.27% |
| Duel at Dawn | 10 free spins loaded with extra VS symbols | 200x | 96.33% |
| Dead Man's Hand | Collect wilds and multipliers until three empty spins in a row, then 3 showdown spins with all of them applied | 400x | 96.43% |
Dead Man's Hand is the odd one. In its collect phase wilds and multipliers pay nothing; each one collected resets the counter to three spins. When three spins pass without a new symbol, the showdown starts: the collected wilds are placed on the grid for three spins and every win is multiplied by the collected total.
That natural round paid €107.20, 53.6x the stake. We then bought a second one for €160 to film it; it returned €136.80, with ten sticky wilds on the 25 positions by the last spin.
The round is back-loaded because the wilds have to pile up first. In the recording the total win read €0.20 after four free spins and €83.40 with one spin left, before the round closed at €136.80.
The price card in the buy menu labels this round Medium volatility, the calmest of the three. Duel at Dawn carries the Very high label and Dead Man's Hand High, despite being the most expensive.
What the symbols pay
Line wins pay from the leftmost reel, and only the highest win on each line counts. Amounts below are multiples of the total bet from the paytable at €2.00.
| Symbol | 3 on a line | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10, J, Q, K, A | 0.1x | 0.5x | 1x |
| Bull skull, outlaw | 0.5x | 2.5x | 5x |
| Money bag, whiskey | 1x | 5x | 10x |
| Revolver cylinder | 2x | 10x | 20x |
| Wild | - | - | 20x |
The sheriff-star wild replaces every paying symbol but not the scatters or VS symbols. On its own the table is modest: five revolver cylinders on one line pay 20x. The game leans on the multipliers; Hacksaw rates its volatility 4 out of 5.
Our log: 500 spins at €2.00
We let a script play 500 base spins on Hacksaw's demo server and record every stake and win. No feature was bought during the run.
Fewer than a quarter of spins paid anything, and the typical win was small: the median paying spin returned 0.6x. The run turned on a single moment. On spin 177 three DUEL scatters started Duel at Dawn, whose ten free spins paid €390.60, 195.3x the bet, and lifted the balance from €4,817.80 to its peak of €5,206.40.
After that the balance slid back for more than 300 spins and finished at €4,877.40, a return of 87.7% on everything staked. Only 5 spins paid 10x or more, and the longest run without a win was 18 spins. That rhythm, long quiet stretches and one decisive bonus, fits the 4 out of 5 rating.
Buying a bonus in Wanted Dead or a Wild
Unlike most newer Hacksaw slots, this one has no FeatureSpins: the menu sells the three bonus games and nothing else.
| Option | Price | At €2.00 | RTP | Volatility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Train Robbery 10 free spins, every wild stays until the end | 80x | €160.00 | 96.27% | Medium |
| Duel at Dawn 10 free spins with extra VS symbols | 200x | €400.00 | 96.33% | Very high |
| Dead Man's Hand Collect wilds and multipliers, then a 3-spin showdown | 400x | €800.00 | 96.43% | High |
The return on each buy is set slightly above or below the 96.38% base game, from 96.27% to 96.43%. Dead Man's Hand returns the most per euro spent, at five times the price of the train robbery.
Wanted Dead or a Wild FAQ
Short answers checked against the rules screen of the demo. More Hacksaw titles are listed on the home page grid.
What is the RTP of Wanted Dead or a Wild?
The default version returns 96.38%, a figure the rules say comes from a simulation of 10,000,000,000 rounds. Casinos can also offer 94.55%, 92.33% or 88.42%; the demo here runs the 96.38% build.
How high can the VS multiplier go?
Each VS reel shows a multiplier between 2x and 100x. When several VS reels land together their values are added, so two 100x reels make a 200x multiplier on the lines they cover.
Which bonus can reach the 12,500x max win?
According to the rules, Duel at Dawn and Dead Man's Hand can, as can the base game. The Great Train Robbery is not listed among the modes where the cap is reachable.
How many paylines does Wanted Dead or a Wild have?
Fifteen fixed lines on a 5x5 grid, paying from the leftmost reel. Only the highest win per line is paid.
Are there FeatureSpins in Wanted Dead or a Wild?
No. The buy menu offers only the three bonus games, at 80x, 200x and 400x the bet.
What is the minimum bet?
The game accepts stakes from €0.20 to €2,000 per spin. Bonus buys may cost more than the maximum stake.
Bottom line
Five years on, Wanted Dead or a Wild still explains itself in one spin: a VS reel either fires or it does not. That clarity is also its cost. In our log the base game rarely paid more than a few times the stake, and a single Duel at Dawn round produced 44% of everything the session paid. Play the demo long enough to see a VS reel land at 20x or more before judging it.