Hand of Anubis Slot Review 2022

Hacksaw Gaming are back to continue their dark tirade that we love so much in their newest title, Hand of Anubis!

Hacksaw Gaming went through a little phase after Chaos Crew in which everything was sunshine and rainbows…Literally, in fact. Double Rainbow was a dream for many but a sickeningly grotesque display of optimism and love for those of us who weren’t blessed with a sunny disposition, and other titles in the Hacksaw Catalogue spewed positivity too.

King Carrot, Hop ‘N’ Pop and Tasty Treats are just a few from Hacksaw to adopt themes that just didn’t seem right for Hacksaw…but now they’re back to their best again, or so we believe.

The Bowery Boys, Gladiator Legends and Warrior Ways are much more interesting concepts in our eyes. Hand of Anbus adopts that dark demeanour that we love so much, and might we say that the Jackal God is looking rather gloomy.

We were rather tired of Greek style slots given how common they are…but Hand of Anubis certainly has our attention.

Without further ado, let’s jump into a tale tailored by Hacksaw Gaming once more for a slot that we suspect will grab some attention

Hand of Anubis Betting and Symbols

Like most Hacksaw Gaming slots, Hand of Anubis has a variety of betting options for players to choose from. For those who prefer a lower stake, the minimum bet available is £/€0.10 per spin. For those who prefer a higher stake, the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two.

Sticking with the Egyptian theme, the highest paying regular symbol in Hand of Anubis is the Ankh with the Red Gem, followed by the Snake, the Triangle, the Eye of Horus and the Bird. Low-paying symbols are standard, Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten.

Hand of Anubis Base Game and Features

Hand of Anubis is a 5 reel slot with a Cluster Pays mechanic. In order to form a winning combination, you will need to connect 5 or more of the same symbol types either Horizontally or Vertically.

Hand of Anubis features Cascading Reels. Each time a winning cluster is formed, all winning symbols will be removed from the reels and new symbols will fall down via a Cascade, filling all empty positions on the reels and possibly creating even more winning combinations.

Hacksaw Gaming never seem to disappoint when it comes to Features, and Hand of Anubis is no different. The base game has an exciting Soul Orbs feature that brings some much-needed fun to an otherwise dull base game. More on this below.

Soul Orbs

During the base game, you may come across 2 different types of Soul Orbs, one Red and the other Blue. With each new paid spin, there is a chance of landing one, both or neither Soul Orbs.

Both the Red and Blue Soul Orbs are Wilds which absorb power from all winning clusters for that round, with Stacking Multipliers that are awarded to any winning combination the Soul Orbs are part of. The Multiplier attached to the Red Orb increases by +1 for every symbol in every winning cluster, whereas the Multiplier attached to the Blue Orb increases by +1 per winning cluster.

Once there are no more winning clusters, the awarded Multiplier(s) will reset. If both Soul Orbs happen to connect to a winning cluster, the awarded Multipliers on each of the Soul Orbs will multiply by each other.

Hand of Anubis Free Spins

Landing 3 or more Scatters in any position on the reels, triggers the Free Spins round. There are 2 Free Spin rounds up for grabs, but unlike other slots, you won’t be able to choose your bonus round.

Landing 3 Scatters activates Underworld Free Spins and landing 4 Scatters activates Judgement Free Spins. The fate of your Free Spins round is solely down to Hand of Anubis (unless you have the power to Bonus Buy).

Underworld Free Spins

Once the Underworld Free Spins round is triggered, you will be awarded 10 Free Spins. 

The Underworld round has 5 individual Multipliers which are located at the bottom of the reel set, starting at 0. The Multiplier will remain dormant until a Green Soul Orb lands on the corresponding reel. Once the Green Soul Orb lands, it will unlock the Multiplier and also award +3 Free Spins.

Each time a winning cluster is formed, the total number of winning symbols on each reel is then added to the Multipliers at the bottom, increasing the current Multiplier by +1 with each winning symbol. In additon to this, a special Multiplier Modifier symbol is in play during this round, which has the power to increase the cureent Multiplier for that reel by either x2, x3, x4, x5 and x10.

Each Multiplier can reach a maximum of x9,999.

Judgement Free Spins

Once the Judgement Free Spins round is triggered, you will be awarded 3 Refilling Spins. Each time a Special symbol lands, it will reset the Respins counter to 3.

During this round, all high and low-paying symbols are removed and replaced with Block and Special symbols, with 1x Multipliers sat atop each reel. The current Multipliers can be increased by landing special Multiplier Modifier Blocks which can either Add or Multiply.

There are also other Special symbols in play here, which either affect the Multiplier on the reel they land, or all visible Multipliers.

• Skull – Adds a value between +1 and +100 to the Multiplier directly above.
• Epic Skull – Adds a value between +1 and +100 to all visible Multipliers.
• Anubis Skull – Awards a Multiplier between x2 and x10 to the Multiplier directly above.
• Epic Anubis Skull – Awards a Multiplier between x2 and x10 to all visible Multipliers.

If an Ice Block lands in view, it will be smashed open and a Multiplier Block will emerge from above the reel, filling the empty position. Each Multiplier Block is given the same value as the reel Multiplier where they Cascade.  At the end of each Cascade, Multiplier Blocks will fall to the bottom of the reels, where they will remain in place, stacked on top of each other in order to fill up the reel set.

In addition to this, Crusher Blocks may appear, destroying all Multiplier Blocks below them, clearing that entire reel of all but one Multiplier Block which now holds the total Multiplier value for that reel.

Hand of Anubis Bonus Buy

For those outside the UK, you may benefit from a Bonus Buy option.

• Underworld Free Spins – This option is the most Volatile of the pair and can be purchased for 129x your current bet. The RTP when purchasing this option increases slightly from 96.24% to 96.29%.
• Judgement Free Spins – The Judgement Free Spins round can be purchased for 200x your current bet. The RTP when purchasing this option decreases from 96.24% to 96.18%.

Hand of Anubis: Our Verdict

We’re loving Hacksaw Gaming titles at the moment. Our endearment for their slots is suspiciously consistent with when they started to churn out dark and dingy slots once again, which leads us to believe that we’re rather gloomy ourselves, but we’re okay with that.

Like we said, Egyptian slots are so common in todays world of slots that they’ve become somewhat boring, or at least in our eyes. A typical sigh usually followed when yet another provider tried their hand at the generic Egyptian theme, but Hand of Anubis really did grab our attention with its frighteningly dark mien.

As impressive as the design is, we think the gameplay and its features are even more impressive, which is a feat in itself.

Hacksaw Games have ample potential in both the Base Game and Free Spins, but of course Free Spins is preferable if you’re looking for the best potential, and the most exciting gameplay.

We really couldn’t decide which of the two bonus features we prefered. In our opinion, both the Underworld and Judgement are solid choices if you’re within a region that has the luxury of choosing via a bonus buy, but if you’re in the UK then we suspect that you’ll be happy with whatever bonus lands.

In terms of potential, Hand of Anubis is rather consistent with 10,000x capabilities, but we feel like Hacksaw could well strive for more. Unlike some slots, we think Hacksaw Games are more than capable of hitting their win potential.

This win cap is something that we feel was put into place rather than a simulated best, but we’d love it if Hacksaw Gaming blew the bank with more slots in the future that exceeded their rather safe 10,000x cap that we’ve seen a lot.

Overall, Hand of Anubis is a harsh yet exciting slot from a provider who rarely fails to impress, and we’re excited to see just how popular it becomes amongst players.