Drill the Thrill Slot Review
Old coal mines didn't run on gas sensors. Back then, the peak of safety equipment was a small yellow bird 🐦 in a cage. And its entire job was to die before the people did.
A canary's metabolism runs fast, so the gases, carbon monoxide and methane, took out the bird before any of the men felt so much as lightheaded.
That was the whole safety system. No gauges, just a cage, and when the bird fell off its perch you ran.
Drill the Thrill slot from Hacksaw runs that same bargain, except there's no bird down there to tell you when it's gone wrong.
The reels start at a base height of 3-4-4-4-3 symbols, and every spin gives a Silver Drill Wild ⛏️ a shot at landing on reel 1 and expanding into a stacked Wild.
When it does, reels 2, 3, and 4 tear open to as many as 8 symbols each. The further you push down, the more the grid can pay and the more it costs you when the hole's empty.
Whether that bargain pays isn't up to you by then. A second expanding Wild has to arrive, a Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). round has to open, and 4 fixed jackpot tiers 💰 topping out at 2,500x have to cooperate.
Gameplay
Dark wooden support beams hold up the frame, and beyond them a curved rail line disappears into a sky lit blast-furnace orange. The whole setup puts you at the bottom of a mineshaft.
Off to the left, the mascot props himself against a mine cart branded Drill the Thrill slot: a grizzled, bearded miner with his headlamp burning and a pickaxe hooked over his shoulder.
The base game plays across a 3-4-4-4-3 reel layout that opens up to 4,608 ways to win, with an RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. of 96.32% and volatility rated Medium/High.
Bets run from $0.10 up to $35, and at that $35 top bet a max multiplier of 10,000x puts the max win at $350,000. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum are off the table here, so my crypto bros will need a fiat balance.
The Drill It Hard feature carries 4 fixed jackpots that pay set multipliers when a Jackpot symbol lands: Mini (10x), Minor (100x), Major (500x), and Grand (2,500x).
The bottom of the paytable doesn't move the needle much. A 3-5 combination of the 9 symbol or 10 symbol returns 0.1x-0.3x, the J and Q stretch that to 0.1x-0.4x, and the K and A cap the low end at 0.1x-0.5x.
The Miner's Helmet pays 0.3x-0.8x, the Oil Lantern 0.3x-1x, the Pickaxe 0.5x-1.2x, the bundle of Dynamite 0.8x-1.6x, and the Miner tops the regular paytable at a modest 1x-2x.
There are 2 expanding Wilds, and they arrive in a fixed order: the Silver Drill Wild takes reel 1.
The Golden Drill Wild takes reel 5, and it won't show at all until a Silver Drill Wild has already opened the round.
Both stand in for every symbol in the paytable.
The Scatter is a wagon of gold, and it lands only on reels 2, 3, and 4 at a maximum of 1 per reel; 3 Scatters open the Free Spins round.
Features
FREE SPINS:
Landing 3 Scatter symbols anywhere across reels 2, 3, and 4 gets you 5 Free Spins in the Blast Zone Bonus, and Scatters can't land again once the round starts.
Reel 1 is guaranteed a Silver Drill Wild on every one of those spins, so the Drill It Hard feature runs for the whole round, and there's no retrigger.
DRILL IT HARD FEATURE:
Height on arrival doesn't matter. A Silver Drill Wild turns up at 1, 2, or full symbol height on reel 1, and whichever it is, the symbol grows until reel 1 is nothing but stacked Wild.
Reels 2, 3, and 4 answer by stretching from their base height of 4 symbols to 5, 6, 7, or 8. However far they go, each one's still guaranteed at least 1 regular symbol.
Coin symbols worth 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 20x, 50x, or 100x of your bet can land on the expanded reels, alongside Jackpot symbols paying the Mini, Minor, Major, or Grand values.
Golden Drill Wild:
Once reels 2, 3, and 4 settle, reel 5 gets its shot at a Golden Drill Wild, but only if a Silver Drill Wild already triggered the round.
Miss it and the feature settles up on the spot, paying out every Coin and Jackpot value showing before it shuts down.
If it lands, it expands across reel 5 and freezes every Coin and Jackpot symbol already showing, which tips the round into Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too)..
Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too).:
You get 3 respins to work with. Anything on the grid that isn't a Coin or Jackpot symbol is written off as a non-paying Void symbol, and Void positions are the only ones left turning.
Every time a fresh Coin or Jackpot symbol drops in, it sticks where it landed and the respin counter goes back to 3.
Closing the round takes one of 3 things: the respin counter hitting zero, the grid leaving no empty positions, or the locked Coin and Jackpot values climbing to the 10,000x max win. Whichever gets there first, that's where it stops.
BUY BONUS:
BonusHunt FeatureSpins is the cheap door in: $2 a spin against a $1 bet, and in return every spin carries 3 times the usual chance of triggering a bonus game.
The Drill It Hard FeatureSpins option costs $50 and guarantees a Silver Drill Wild on reel 1 and a Golden Drill Wild on reel 5 every spin, though Scatter symbols can't land while it's running.
The Blast Zone Bonus skips the wait entirely: $150 drops you straight into 5 Free Spins with the Drill It Hard feature running on every one.
Performance
I put the slot through a long test session, and neither the mine cart animation nor the reel expansions dropped a frame.
Maximum Win
The max win is $350,000, and you get there through the max multiplier of 10,000x at the $35 top bet, and it's achievable in any game mode. The smallest bet is $0.10.
Conclusion
The slot's whole payout structure hangs on one event: both expanding Wilds arriving on the same spin.
A Silver Drill Wild has to land and blow the reels open, then a Golden Drill Wild has to follow on reel 5 to freeze every Coin and Jackpot symbol into a Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). round.
The 10,000x max win asks for more than that. The expanded reels have to fill with high-value Coin symbols and Grand Jackpot symbols, and they've got to manage it before the respin counter empties.
Call that what it is: 2 rare landings have to stack up before the climb even begins, which puts the ceiling in lottery-ticket territory rather than anywhere you can plan around.
Plan for a long sit rather than a quick raid. The 96.32% RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. plays out across session length, not across a handful of spins.
A 10,000x ceiling normally comes attached to a harsher volatility rating than Medium/High. Getting one on top of Medium/High is the rare mismatch, and that's a mismatch running in your favor rather than against you.
There's no Ante BetAn Ante Bet is an option that costs a percentage of your bet but increases your chances of landing triggering symbols that initiate a feature., so you can't pay a little extra for a steadier trigger rate; shortcutting the odds here means paying full price for one of the 3 Buy Bonus options.
At $2, BonusHunt asks so little that the tripled trigger rate covers it on its own, and $50 for Drill It Hard FeatureSpins is honest money, since you're buying the reel expansion outright instead of waiting on chance to hand it over.
Paying $150 to enter the Blast Zone Bonus buys 5 Free Spins and nothing beyond them, so it's a tier for players whose bankroll can absorb Medium/High volatility landing on the wrong side.
The slot suits big-bet players who are hunting a rare two-Wild Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). climb and can sit through the dry stretches to find it.
A good session built on frequent small wins and a small bet isn't on offer here. Medium/High volatility and a payoff gated behind 2 Wilds combine into long quiet stretches with the money bunched at the far end.
Slot Details
Game Provider: Hacksaw
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 4,608 Ways
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 96.32%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: Medium/High
Bonus Round: Yes
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins, Re-spins
Max Multiplier: 10,000x
Max Win: $350,000
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