Wanted Dead or A Wild

Hacksaw’s Wanted Dead or a Wild Snapshot

Wanted Dead or a Wild runs on a 5×5 grid with 15 fixed paylines, with its DuelReels mechanic capable of turning VS symbols into full-reel multiplier wilds.

How Wanted Dead or a Wild Works

Hacksaw Gaming was founded in 2018. It began with mobile-first scratchcards and instant-win games before moving into video slots, and today it runs its own remote gaming server. The studio releases around 4 in-house games per month, adding to a catalog of roughly 290 titles. 

Hacksaw Gaming pairs a distinctive visual identity with a portfolio spanning slots and instant-win games, built around recognizable mechanics, high-volatility play, and bold themes.

Wanted Dead or A Wild was the first Hacksaw slot to use DuelReels, and the mechanic has since reappeared in subsequent releases. The game is therefore the original of a format that players may also meet in newer Hacksaw content.

The base game is a straight-up payline slot. Wins form from three to five matching symbols across the 15 fixed lines, read left to right from the first reel. A sheriff’s badge wild substitutes for the paying symbols. The paytable itself is deliberately modest: five of the top symbols pay 20x the total bet. The game’s larger outcomes therefore come almost entirely from multipliers rather than from line values.

Those multipliers come from DuelReels. When a VS symbol lands in a position that can contribute to a win, it expands to cover its reel, turning the whole reel wild. Two outlaws then appear on the reel and duel, and the winner’s multiplier, anywhere from 2x to 100x, applies to every win running through that reel. Several VS reels in the same spin combine their multipliers. VS symbols on all five reels turn the entire grid wild.

DuelReels works in the base game, not only inside a bonus. A standard paid spin can therefore deliver a visible, multiplied result. That large-win potential on ordinary spins comes at a price: a hit frequency of around one paying spin in five, so long quiet stretches are part of the design.

WDOAW’s Three Bonus Rounds and the Bonus Buy

Each bonus round has its own scatter symbol, and three or more of that scatter trigger it. On a natural trigger, the symbol that lands decides which round the player gets. The rounds are built on different principles, which is what gives the game its depth.

Wanted Dead or a Wild splits its bonus play across three distinct features: multiplier-heavy Duel at Dawn, the collection-based Dead Man’s Hand, and The Great Train Robbery with persistent sticky wilds.

The Great Train Robbery awards 10 free spins, during which every wild that lands remains sticky for the rest of the round. The grid improves as the round progresses, which makes this the steadiest of the three.

Duel at Dawn also awards 10 free spins, but VS symbols appear far more often than in the base game. Several DuelReels can fire on a single spin, so outcomes can swing widely. This is the most volatile way to experience the game’s signature mechanic.

Dead Man’s Hand works in two stages. The first is a collection stage of respins, during which wilds and multiplier values accumulate. The second is a three-free-spin showdown: collected wilds land on the grid, and wins carry the accumulated multiplier. Everything depends on how much the first stage gathers, which makes the round easy to follow on screen.

Where Bonus Buy is enabled, players choose the round directly:

• The Great Train Robbery costs 80x the stake.
• Duel at Dawn costs 200x.
• Dead Man’s Hand costs 400x.

The buy modes have their own RTPs: 96.27%, 96.33%, and 96.43%. The 12,500x cap applies across the entire game and represents maximum potential, not an expected outcome.

Wanted Dead or a Wild vs Duel at Dawn and Dead or Alive 2

Two comparisons are useful here. The first is Duel at Dawn, Hacksaw’s own later DuelReels title. The second is NetEnt’s Dead or Alive 2. Wanted Dead or a Wild is frequently searched as “Wanted Dead or Alive,” a name that echoes NetEnt‘s series, and the two games compete for the same high-volatility Western slot.

Three takes on the high-volatility Western slot: Hacksaw Gaming’s Wanted Dead or a Wild and Duel at Dawn alongside NetEnt’s Dead or Alive 2.

Duel at Dawn keeps the theme and the duel but simplifies the bonus structure and softens the volatility. 

💡 Carrying both gives a Hacksaw or Western collection two clearly connected titles. Wanted Dead or a Wild offers more structural variety through its three rounds, and Duel at Dawn offers a newer take on the same mechanic.

Dead or Alive 2 differs mainly in how choice works. Its player selects the free-spin mode at every trigger. In Wanted Dead or a Wild, the scatter decides the round, and choice comes only through Bonus Buy where that is available. 

NetEnt’s title has the higher ceiling. Wanted Dead or a Wild puts more of its multiplier action into the base game. The two serve the same lobby role from different suppliers, which gives the Western high-volatility category genuine depth rather than duplication.

Where It Fits and How to Promote It

Wanted Dead or a Wild belongs with your high-volatility and bonus-buy content and naturally anchors a Western-themed or Hacksaw-provider collection. It is not an entry slot for casual players. The low hit frequency and modest paytable mean the base game asks for patience, so it works best alongside lower-volatility titles that carry everyday play. 

💡 Within its own segment, the three buy prices give players a range of commitment levels inside one game. A single title can therefore serve players with quite different budgets.

The game gives you several concrete things to talk about:

• the 12,500x ceiling;
• the duel itself, a short, recognizable on-screen event;
• three named bonus rounds that are easy to describe in campaign copy.

GR8_TECH’s tournament engine supports win/bet ratio mechanics with a real-time leaderboard. That format suits this game better than a turnover race, because it ranks the size of a win relative to the stake, which is exactly what a DuelReels multiplier produces. 

Free-spin campaigns through our bonus engine give players a fixed-stake sample of the base game and its duel mechanic. Our promo materials portal and provider promo calendar keep Hacksaw’s own visuals and campaigns in one place, so creative work around the title needs no separate supplier request.

Integrating Wanted Dead or a Wild Through GR8_TECH

Wanted Dead or a Wild is available via GREAT_CASINO AGGREGATION alongside the rest of the Hacksaw catalog. It comes through the same single API that connects you to more than 250 providers and over 20,000 games, so adding it or any later Hacksaw release requires no separate integration.

⚠️ Hacksaw provides its games under its own B2B licenses and per-market certification.

On our side, GR8_TECH handles provider communication and technical integration across our supported geographies. Your own operating license for the market where you accept bets stays with you, and we can guide you through jurisdiction selection and the licensing process. 

Once the game is live, we can help you decide where it belongs in the lobby and which tournament and bonus formats make sense around it.