People love to romanticize the Wild West. The freedom of the open frontier, the rugged cowboys, the thrilling shootouts at high noon. Of course, the reality was a little less glamorous. You’d probably spend most of your time shitting yourself to death from dysentery, getting robbed by some toothless bastard, or dying from an infection after cutting yourself while shaving.
Fortunately, Hacksaw Gaming’s Buried by Night slot lets you experience the Wild West without the risk of dying from a disease that’s now easily treated with a course of antibiotics. shaving. And that’s assuming you survived the journey west in the first place.
This town ain’t big enough for the two of us
The Buried by Night slot features a 5×4 grid with 14 paylines. Bets start at $0.10 a spin and top out at $20. With a maximum win multiplier of 15,000x, playing at the highest bet amount gives you a shot at walking away with $300,000.
The game features high volatility, meaning wins may be few and far between, but there’s potential for substantial payouts when things go your way. Its theoretical RTP is 96.32%.
At the heart of the gameplay is the DuelRows mechanic, which is triggered when a VS symbol lands on reels two, three, or four. These symbols expand horizontally across the reels, transforming into wild rows that substitute for regular paying symbols.
The size of the expansion depends on where the VS symbol lands. On reel two, it expands to cover reels one through three. On reel three, it covers reels one through five, while landing on reel four causes it to cover reels three through five.
Once a DuelRow has expanded, two gunslingers face off in a duel, with each assigned a random multiplier. The surviving gunslinger’s multiplier, which can range from 2x to 100x, is then applied to winning combinations involving that row.
If multiple DuelRows contribute to the same winning combination, their multipliers are added together before being applied to the payout. However, DuelRows cannot expand into positions already occupied by another DuelRow.
There are also three different rounds of free spins to explore. Landing three FS Scatter symbols triggers ten free spins, with an increased chance of VS symbols appearing on the reels. Landing another two FS symbols during the round awards two additional free spins, while three award four more spins.
Landing four FS Scatter symbols instead triggers the Shoot to Kill free spins, awarding eight free spins and introducing a progressive DuelSpin Bar.
Every FS symbol that lands during this round advances the DuelSpin Bar by one step, with every three steps unlocking a higher tier. There are four tiers in total, each awarding a DuelSpin with guaranteed VS symbols, a number of Nudges, and two additional free spins.
During a DuelSpin, each Nudge moves all five reels down by one position, with any resulting wins paid before the next Nudge takes place. These special spins are awarded immediately after the free spin that unlocked them and don’t count towards your remaining free spins.
The third round of free spins, appropriately named Six Feet Under, is triggered by landing three Hot 100 Scatter symbols during the base game.
This awards a single free spin, although it’s considerably more interesting than it sounds. During the feature, Nudges continue to move the reels until a total of 100 wins have been awarded. A Hot 100 Meter tracks your progress, with the Nudges coming to an end once that target has been reached.
If you’re not particularly keen on waiting for a bonus to trigger naturally, Buried by Night also comes with several purchase options. You can’t, however, purchase a Six Feet Under free spin.
Should you ride off into the sunset with Buried by Night?
It’s Hacksaw and a cowboy slot, so it looks great. However, these are getting a little old. The company has released Wanted Dead or a Wild, Epic Bullets and Bounty, Duel of Dawn, which looks a lot like Buried by Night, and 2 Wild 2 Die. It’s not quite as played out as the company’s “Le” series, but it’s getting there. Considering I had previously touted how innovative the provider was with its themes, this is a little disheartening. There’s got to be something else to make a slot game about.
That said, there’s really nothing wrong with the Buried by Night slot. It looks great, is packed with features, and has a 25,000x maximum multiplier. It’s a solid slot. I give it an eight out of ten.
If you’re looking for a few Hacksaw slots that I highly recommend, try Grug Make Fire and Aiko and the Wind Spirit.
