Deadwood Slot – Free Demo

Deadwood, 470 spins down to 7,722.00

Deadwood is thrilling and loaded with huge promise, but the harsh truth of high volatility can whack your ass at any instant. Over 470 spins at a 10.00 stake, my balance went from 10,000.00 down to 7,722.00. That pretty much wraps this slot up. The session returned 51.5% of the 4,700.00 wagered, and the balance never rose above the 10,000.00 it started with. I could abandon it at that. The longest run without a win lasted 25 spins, ending on spin 36. But as I've got little else to do, let's check what sits hidden in the code. Deadwood comes from Nolimit City, the studio also behind El Paso Gunfight and Warrior Graveyard.

Deadwood is a 5-reel slot with a 3-4-4-4-3 arrangement and 576 win ways. Wins pay for identical symbols on adjacent reels from left to right, starting on the leftmost reel. That signifies you're not restricted to specific paylines, and the game arrives loaded with some intriguing mechanics as well, such as a Hunter Wild with an xNudge multiplier.

Final Minty Score: The published hit frequency is 40.17%, while 75 of my 470 spins paid anything.

Gold bars at the top, a 4-tall Hunter in the middle

Symbols on the reels include the low-paying A–10 symbols as well as 5 high-paying symbols - gold bars, gold watch, safe, whisky bottle and shotgun. At the other end of that group, the shotgun pays 1.5 times the stake for 5 of a kind, and the A–10 symbols pay 1 to 1.25 times. The first is the most lucrative, handing you 3.75 times the stake should you hit 5 of a kind, and acting as the wild symbol is the Hunter Wild, which drops 4 tall on reels 2 to 4. Of my 75 paying spins, 35 returned less than the 10.00 stake.

Core to the game is the Hunter Wild, and it enters into action in both the base game and the free spin mechanic. My biggest single win was 560.00 on spin 200, which is 56 times the stake. Now, if it drops partially out of sight, it nudges into complete sight. It contributes +1 to its multiplier with every nudge. Because ways wins start on the leftmost reel, a Hunter Wild on reels 2 to 4 only counts when a matching symbol sits on reel 1. The multipliers of wilds in the same win add together, and apart from the xNudge multipliers, there is also one additional mechanic that can land:

Shoot Out - A Sheriff Badge on reels 1 and 5 jointly transforms all A–10 symbols on the middle reels into wilds. In my session a Shoot Out landed on spin 99 and paid 35.00.

Buffalo Skulls that never turned up

When 3 Buffalo Skull scatter symbols land, you will be awarded 8 free spins of either Hunter Spins or Gunslinger Spins. Free Spins trigger on average once in 197 spins, yet none arrived in my 470. In the Hunter Spins, you will profit from at minimum one Hunter Wild every spin, with the multiplier restarting each spin. The player picks between the two modes when the bonus is triggered. In the Gunslinger Spins the xNudge multiplier is sticky and unlimited for the entire bonus. Shoot Out Free Spins can also be triggered in the base game when 3 scatters land together with 2 Sheriff Badges. During Free Spins, 2 of them will grant 10 Shoot Out Free Spins with the badges locked on reels 1 and 5. With the badges fixed in place, every low symbol on the middle reels acts as a wild on each of those spins.

Waiting on a pair of Sheriff Badges

If the Sheriff Badges match up, you might simply be in for a journey.