Hacksaw's New Slot Flips Its Wild Mechanic Sideways—Here's Why That Matters

Dr. Annelies De Vos · 2026-10-01

Hacksaw Gaming just dropped a new slot called Buried by Night, and it's not your typical Wild West rehash. The studio took its signature VS mechanic—the one you've seen in Gladiator Legends and Undead Fortune—and turned it on its side. Literally. Instead of wild multipliers expanding vertically like they always have, they now stretch horizontally across the reels. That might sound like a small tweak, but it changes how wins build in a big way. ### What's Different About Buried by Night? In most Hacksaw slots with the VS engine, you'd see DuelReels—vertical expansions that trigger duels and drop multipliers. Buried by Night swaps that for DuelRows. When a VS symbol lands on reels 2, 3, or 4, it expands sideways into a DuelRows symbol. Then two symbols duel it out, and the winner slaps its multiplier—anywhere from x2 to x100—onto the entire symbol. So why does horizontal matter? For starters, it spreads the multiplier across more paylines. That means bigger potential wins from a single spin. And it gives the game a different rhythm than its predecessors. ### The Numbers Behind the Hype Hacksaw didn't hold back on the volatility here. Buried by Night comes with a max win of 15,000x your stake. That's achievable in any mode, which puts it right in line with other high-volatility VS titles. If you're the type who likes to chase big multipliers, this one's built for you. ### More Than Just a Theme Swap Hacksaw has been mining the Wild West for years. Wanted Dead or a Wild came out back in 2021, and they've returned to the frontier multiple times since. Buried by Night joins the ranks of Bullets and Bounty and Duel at Dawn. But here's the thing: this isn't just a reskin. The horizontal rework gives the game its own identity while keeping the familiar VS framework that players know. It's a smart move—evolution over reinvention. > "By reshaping a flagship mechanic and anchoring it to a proven theme, Hacksaw continues to build out defined mechanical and thematic families instead of chasing one-off concepts." That quote from the original announcement sums it up perfectly. Hacksaw isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. They're refining it. ### Bonus Features and Feature Buys Like many Hacksaw releases, Buried by Night leans into feature buys. You've got two main bonus rounds you can purchase outright. And if you want to boost your chances of triggering a bonus organically, you can activate BonusHunt FeatureSpins for 2x your bet. That makes triggering a bonus three times more likely. It's a nice option for players who want a shot at the big multipliers without waiting for a lucky spin. ### Why This Matters for Hacksaw's Future Hacksaw has a habit of iterating on its engines. They find something that works, then tweak it in ways that keep things fresh. The DuelRows mechanic is a perfect example. It's not a new engine—it's a new angle on an old one. And that's probably smart. Players who love the VS mechanic will recognize the bones of this game immediately. But the horizontal twist gives them a reason to come back and try something different. If you're into high-volatility slots with big win potential, Buried by Night is worth a spin. Just don't expect it to play like every other Hacksaw title. The horizontal expansion changes the flow, and that's exactly the point.