Wanted Dead or a Wild — Game Overview
Wanted Dead or a Wild is Hacksaw Gaming's signature slot, released in 2021 and one of the most played high-volatility titles from the post-2020 wave of boutique studio slots. The game is set in a stylised Wild West outlaw world with Wanted poster aesthetics, dusty frontier backdrops, and outlaw character symbols rendered in Hacksaw's clean graphic art style. The 5×3 grid with 10 paylines is narrow by modern standards — fewer paylines concentrate wins on fewer paths and contribute to the game's high-variance profile.
The Sticky Wild respin mechanic is the game's entire structural premise, elegantly simple in concept but delivering high variance in practice. Any wild symbol that lands on the grid immediately locks in place and triggers a free respin. During the respin, all previously sticky wilds remain locked. If another wild lands, it too becomes sticky and triggers another respin. This chain continues until a respin produces no new wild symbols, at which point all paylines are evaluated with the full accumulated sticky wild coverage. A single wild produces one respin with modest improvement to the base position; three or four accumulated wilds create enough coverage across the 10 paylines to produce significant wins; a full grid of sticky wilds — the maximum possible outcome — triggers the game's maximum win.
Hacksaw Gaming set the maximum win at 12,345× the bet, a number that deliberately references the Wild West theme through its ascending digit sequence. This ceiling is achieved only by filling all 15 positions on the 5×3 grid with sticky wilds during the respin chain — a statistically rare event that produces wins across all 10 paylines simultaneously at maximum symbol value. The Bonus Buy feature provides direct access to the sticky wild respin starting position where regulation permits, priced at a fixed stake multiple. At 96.38% RTP, Wanted Dead or a Wild is one of Hacksaw's stronger-returning titles.
Bonus Features
- ♦ Any wild symbol landing triggers a respin
- ♦ Landing wild becomes sticky for all subsequent respins
- ♦ Additional wilds during respins extend the sequence
- ♦ Full grid of sticky wilds triggers the maximum payout
- ♦ Bonus Buy: direct access to the sticky wild respin feature
- ♦ Maximum win: 12,345× the bet
Verdict
Wanted Dead or a Wild is the sticky wild respin format executed at its finest — simple enough to understand in one spin, but deep enough in variance to produce meaningful session swings. The 10-payline structure concentrates wins and the 12,345× max win makes it one of the higher-ceiling boutique studio titles. At 96.38% RTP with the Bonus Buy available where permitted, it is the defining Hacksaw Gaming game.