Wanted Dead or a Wild
Wanted Dead or a Wild Slot Game
Wanted Dead or a Wild is the slot that put Hacksaw Gaming's gritty streak on the map. Released in November 2022, it swapped the cheerful cartoon look of the studio's earlier titles for a dark, noir-soaked Western aesthetic: a blood-red desert, a setting sun and a cast of merciless outlaws staring down the barrels of each other's revolvers. It quickly became one of Hacksaw's most-played and most-talked-about games, and it lives in the Betano Casino slot lobby today.
The game is built on a 5x5 grid with 15 fixed paylines, with wins landing by matching three to five identical symbols left to right starting from the leftmost reel. This is a genuinely high-volatility slot that trades steady wins for long quiet spells broken up by explosive bonus moments. Stakes start from 20p per spin, and the top prize is a serious 12,500x max win, one of the highest ceilings in the Hacksaw catalogue.
The mechanic that separates Wanted Dead or a Wild from the rest of the modern slot lobby is the DuelReels feature. Land the VS symbols and two outlaws face off in a duel, with the winning outlaw's multiplier applied to any line wins on that spin. Sitting alongside DuelReels are three completely separate bonus rounds, each triggered by its own dedicated scatter symbol, packed with sticky wilds, collectors and stacking multipliers.
Saddle up and learn how to spin the reels on this classic Western slot at Betano to land payouts up to 12,500x your bet.
How To Play Wanted Dead or a Wild
Join the Wild West gunslingers in Wanted Dead or a Wild through the Betano Casino slot lobby. Access the casino from the main menu of the Betano site, then select 'Slots' from the secondary menu. Use the search box to find Wanted Dead or a Wild directly by name rather than scrolling through the full lobby.
You will need a fully funded Betano account to play for real money. If you do not already have one, click the 'Sign Up' button and follow the registration steps. Under UK law, you must be 18 or older to play, and ID verification is required as part of sign-up.
Once you have finished setting up your account, we recommend spending a few minutes on our Safer Gambling Portal. The portal offers tools, tips and resources to help you set deposit limits, track your play time and stay in control throughout your Wanted Dead or a Wild sessions.
Wanted Dead or a Wild is a 5-reel, 5-row slot with 15 fixed paylines. Wins are awarded when three to five identical symbols land left to right on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. Your bet size can be adjusted using the up and down arrows to the left of the spin button, with stakes ranging from £0.20 to your session limit per spin. When you are ready to play, press the spin button to start the reels.
Wanted Dead or a Wild Symbols & Payouts
The symbol set on Wanted Dead or a Wild reflects the gritty Western aesthetic that defines the game. The wild and the revolver barrel are the two highest-paying symbols on the reels, both delivering 20x for 5 of a kind.
Beneath them sit the mid-tier symbols: a bottle of whiskey and a bag of cash pay identically as the upper mid-range, while a masked gunman and a buffalo skull share the lower mid-range payouts. The royals (10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace) all pay identically as the low-paying tier.
Wanted Dead or a Wild uses three separate scatter symbols, each unlocking a completely different bonus round. Landing three or more of any single scatter type on a spin triggers the corresponding feature:
- Duel scatter triggers the Duel at Dawn feature
- Dead scatter triggers the Dead Man's Hand feature
- Train Robbery scatter triggers the Great Train Robbery feature
The paytable below shows the payouts for matching regular pay symbols based on a £1.00 wager:
Symbol | Match 3 | Match 4 | Match 5 |
10, J, Q, K, A | £0.10 | £0.50 | £1.00 |
Skull and gunman | £0.50 | £2.50 | £5.00 |
Bag of cash and whiskey bottle | £1.00 | £5.00 | £10.00 |
Revolver barrel | £2.00 | £10.00 | £20.00 |
Wild | - | - | £20.00 |
Wanted Dead or a Wild Bonus Features
Wanted Dead or a Wild is stacked with four distinct bonus mechanics, more than almost any other slot in the Hacksaw Gaming catalogue. The DuelReels feature runs across the base game and free spins rounds, while the three dedicated scatter symbols each unlock a completely different bonus experience.
DuelReels
DuelReels is the signature mechanic of Wanted Dead or a Wild and the feature that gives the game its identity. Landing VS symbols on the reels triggers the mechanic. If a VS symbol lands as part of a winning combination, it expands vertically to fill the entire reel and turns wild.
When the reel expands, two outlaws step out and face off in a duel. Each outlaw carries a specific multiplier, and the multiplier of the winning outlaw is applied to your line wins for that spin. If multiple VS symbols expand during the same spin, all the winning multipliers are added together and applied to the line wins.
The possible DuelReels multipliers range across a full ladder: 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 20x, 25x, 50x and 100x.
If a VS symbol lands on every single reel during a spin, the entire 5x5 grid is treated as wild, delivering the maximum wild coverage in the game. The DuelReels mechanic can trigger both in the base game and during the Duel at Dawn free spins round.
Duel at Dawn
The Duel at Dawn bonus round is triggered by landing three or more Duel scatter symbols during a single base game spin. You are awarded 10 free spins.
VS symbols can land throughout the Duel at Dawn round, meaning the DuelReels mechanic is fully active during the bonus with the same 2x to 100x multiplier ladder in play. This is the most straightforward of the three bonus rounds and typically the fastest path to a big payout when the multipliers stack.
Dead Man’s Hand
The Dead Man's Hand feature triggers when three or more Dead scatter symbols land on a single spin. The bonus round has two distinct phases.
The first phase is the collect phase. The aim is to gather as many wild symbols and multiplier symbols as possible before the round ends. Wilds are collected above the reels on the left of the screen. Multipliers are collected above the reels on the right. Every time a wild or a multiplier is collected, the free spin counter resets to three. The collect phase ends only after three consecutive non-winning spins.
The second phase is the Showdown phase. Three free spins are awarded at the start of the phase. Every collected wild is applied to the grid during each of the three spins, and every win is multiplied by the total collected multiplier value. This is the bonus round with the biggest single-payout potential thanks to the stacking multipliers earned during the collect phase.
The Great Train Robbery
The Great Train Robbery feature is triggered by landing three or more Train Robbery scatter symbols during a single spin. You are awarded 10 free spins. All wilds that land during the round become sticky, remaining locked in position for the duration of the bonus.
As sticky wilds accumulate across the grid, the potential winning combinations expand dramatically with every spin. This bonus round rewards patience, since the biggest wins typically land toward the end of the round when multiple sticky wilds are already in position.
Wanted Dead or a Wild Strategy & Tips
Every spin is random and nothing changes the odds. These points are about understanding how the game works, not beating it.
Know what you're signing up for. Wanted Dead or a Wild is a genuinely high-volatility slot, so long dry spells between wins are normal. The big moments come from the VS symbols and the three bonus rounds rather than from base game clusters.
The three bonuses play very differently. Duel at Dawn leans on the DuelReels multiplier ladder. Dead Man's Hand is a two-phase collect-then-showdown build with the biggest single-payout ceiling. The Great Train Robbery is a slower, sticky-wild-driven round that pays off toward the end. Each has its own rhythm and its own risk profile.
Set a deposit or time limit before you start. High variance and a steady budget go hand in hand, and the game is best treated as entertainment rather than income. Visit our Safer Gambling Portal for the full set of tools available at Betano.
Watch the multiplier ladder during DuelReels. The multiplier tier ranges from 2x to 100x, and multiple expanded VS symbols on a single spin add their multipliers together. Understanding which outlaws carry which multipliers helps you read what any given spin could deliver.
Wanted Dead or a Wild Similar Games
If you enjoyed your trip to the Wild West in Wanted Dead or a Wild, here are a few more Western-style slots to keep you entertained:
You can also browse through our new releases for the latest Western slots to arrive at Betano, and for a bankroll boost, head to our offers page to take advantage of our current promotions.
Betano Verdict on Wanted Dead or a Wild
Wanted Dead or a Wild is one of the most complete high-volatility slots released in the last five years. It packs four distinct bonus mechanics into a single 5x5 grid, none of which feel like filler, all of which offer genuinely different session experiences. The DuelReels multiplier ladder is one of the most satisfying visual bonus mechanics in the modern slot lobby, and the three scatter-triggered bonus rounds each land at different volatility profiles.
The strengths are its scale of features (few slots offer this much variety in a single title), its 12,500x max win ceiling, and its instantly recognisable noir Western aesthetic that has become Hacksaw Gaming's signature style. The trade-off is genuine high volatility: long dry spells between bonus rounds are the price of admission, and players need to be comfortable with sessions that can spike or drag depending on which scatter lands first.
For high-volatility players and Hacksaw fans, Wanted Dead or a Wild remains one of the definitive titles in the Betano lobby. If you have played Cursed Crew or the Money Train series and want something in the same tier, this is the slot that started that whole conversation.