Life and Death
Life and Death Stats
RTP & Maths
- RTP by Mode
- BonusHunt FeatureSpins 96.29% · Four Horsemen FeatureSpins 96.29% · Devastation 96.32% · Reckoning 96.31%
- RTP Versions
- 96.36% here · Other versions 94.26%, 92.33%, 88.24%
- Max Win Rule
- 15,000x the bet, all game modes; round ends and remaining spins discarded when reached
Free Spins & Bonus
- Free Spins
- 3 FS = 10 Devastation spins · 4 FS = 10 Reckoning spins · Retrigger: 2 FS = +2 spins, 3 FS = +4 spins (both bonuses)
- Bonus Buy
- BonusHunt FeatureSpins 3x (96.29% RTP) · Four Horsemen FeatureSpins 60x (96.29% RTP) · Devastation 100x (96.32% RTP) · Reckoning 200x (96.31% RTP)
- Multipliers
- 2x–200x (Pestilence 2-4x, War 5-9x, Famine 10-25x, Death 30-200x) · Wild multipliers in the same winning line are added together, then applied to the win; expanded Wild Reels keep their multiplier
Symbols & Pays
- Wild
- Substitutes for all other paytable symbols; reels 2-5 only
- Scatter Reels
- Reels 2-5; never on the same reel as a Wild Multiplier in one spin
- Line Pays
- Top symbol 50x · Lowest 0.1x
Life and Death Overview
Grey stone fills almost every part of the Life and Death demo, from the pointed arches over the grid to the tracery carved around them. Colour appears in one place, the middle four reels, which rise into arches of blue, red, yellow, and green. Those colours are the multipliers. Each belongs to a Horseman, each Horseman is tied to one reel, and the values grow as you read across the grid, from blue Pestilence at 2x to 4x on reel 2 up to green Death at 30x to 200x on reel 5.
Life and Death joined the Hacksaw Gaming slots in March 2025. Around those four arches, the screen stays quiet, with two hooded figures bowed in prayer either side of the reels, the logo cut in white capitals above them, and blackletter card ranks across the 6-reel, 5-row grid. The premium symbols keep to church imagery too: a flaming heart, a chalice, a sun face, a hand with an eye in its palm, and, highest of all, a two-faced head.
Demo Features
Horsemen and Their Reels
The Four Horsemen are the only Wilds in this slot, and each of them fills in for any paying symbol. The colour on each arch tells you which rider owns that reel and which band of values he brings. On the grid, each rider lands as a skull on a tile of his own colour, marked with his numeral, and when his reel turns wild he takes up the whole of it, with his name on a banner at the top.
| Horseman | Colour | Own reel | Multipliers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pestilence | Blue | Reel 2 | 2x, 3x, 4x |
| War | Red | Reel 3 | 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x |
| Famine | Yellow | Reel 4 | 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x |
| Death | Green | Reel 5 | 30x, 40x, 50x, 75x, 100x, 200x |
A Horseman can land on any middle reel, not only his own, but he unfolds into a full Wild Reel only when two conditions meet. He has to land on the reel his colour belongs to, and the full reel has to complete at least one win. When both are true, the whole reel becomes wild and keeps the value he landed with. Anywhere else, or on his own reel with no win to finish, he stays one wild square with his multiplier attached, so a green Death that lands on reel 2 still brings 30x or more to a win, as a single square rather than a whole reel.
That split decides where the big numbers come from. Pestilence’s Wild Reel is worth 4x at most and War’s no more than 9x. The largest values belong to Death, and in regular play he only turns into a Wild Reel on reel 5.
Free Spins
Devastation
Devastation starts from 3 FS scatters, drawn as horse heads under a banner, and gives 10 free spins. The rules don’t change from regular play, but the Horsemen land more often, so each of them gets more chances to reach his own reel with a win to complete.
Reckoning
Reckoning needs 4 FS scatters, also gives 10 free spins, and adds Death Reels to everything Devastation does. Once a Horseman lands on his own reel during the bonus, that reel becomes an activated Death Reel, and from then until the bonus is over he can become a Wild Reel on any of the middle four, as long as that reel completes a win. Activate reel 5, and green Death’s 30x to 200x band can become a full reel as far left as reel 2. The bonus never promises that a Horseman lands, only that he can unfold wherever he does. Hot Ross’s Nine Lives bonus makes the stronger promise, since a reel that a Ro$$ lands on there produces a Ro$$ or Hot Ro$$ on every remaining spin.
Bonus Buy
The menu pairs its two most direct routes to the Horsemen. Four Horsemen FeatureSpins cost 60x a spin and put at least 3 Wild Multipliers on the grid every time, with no scatters able to land, and the Reckoning buy costs 200x and starts the Death Reels bonus straight away. The cheaper pair is BonusHunt, which charges 3x the bet on each spin for as long as it is switched on, and Devastation at 100x.
How to Play
The Middle Four
Wilds and FS scatters appear only on the four middle reels, and one reel never has both in one spin, so reels 1 and 6 show nothing but paying symbols. Wins come from 19 fixed lines, 3 to 6 of one symbol counted from reel 1. Put those two rules together, and the Horsemen sort themselves by how long a win has to be before they can help. Any three-symbol win reaches reel 3, so only Pestilence and War can turn their reels wild within it. Famine’s reel needs a win of four, and Death’s reel 5 counts only when a line already runs through reels 1 to 4. The outer reels matter too, because every line starts from reel 1, a six-symbol line also needs reel 6, and only a paying symbol can fill either of them.
The free play version makes that order easy to see. Any line that stops short of reel 5 leaves green Death’s Wild Reel out of it, while in Reckoning an activated Death Reel lets that reel open much further left.
RTP and Bet Range
You can lower the bet to €0.10 or raise it to €50. This page rates the game as High volatility, since the volatility bar on the splash shows four of its five icons in full. Life and Death’s RTP is 96.36%.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| RTP | 96.36% |
| Volatility | High |
| Max win | 15,000x, all modes |
| Grid | 6 reels, 5 rows |
| Lines | 19 fixed |
Symbol Payouts
| Symbol | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two-faced head | 2x | 5x | 15x | 50x |
| Sun face | 1x | 2.5x | 7.5x | 25x |
| Hand with an eye | 1x | 2.5x | 7.5x | 25x |
| Flaming heart | 0.5x | 1.5x | 5x | 15x |
| Chalice | 0.5x | 1.5x | 5x | 15x |
| A | 0.3x | 1x | 3x | 10x |
| K | 0.2x | 0.5x | 1.5x | 5x |
| Q | 0.2x | 0.5x | 1.5x | 5x |
| J | 0.2x | 0.5x | 1.5x | 5x |
| 10 | 0.1x | 0.3x | 1x | 3x |
Neither the Horsemen nor the FS scatter has a row here. The sun face and the hand with an eye pay alike, as do the flaming heart and the chalice, and the 10 pays less than the other card ranks at every length.
Ultimate Slots Verdict
Reckoning's Death Reels define Life and Death, letting a Horseman whose reel has been activated unfold on a win anywhere in the middle four, so green Death's 30x to 200x no longer waits on reel 5. Regular play keeps Death's Wild Reel to that one reel, but the four colour bands read clearly before any spin.
✓ What We Like
- Each Horseman's colour shows his reel and his multiplier band before you read the rules.
- Once Reckoning activates his reel, green Death can become a full Wild Reel on a win anywhere in the middle four.
- A Horseman off his own reel still counts as a wild with his whole multiplier.
- The two-faced head pays 50x for six, a strong top line on the table.
- Grey stone art keeps the screen calm, so a full Wild Reel is easy to spot.
✗ What Could Be Better
- In regular play, green Death only becomes a full Wild Reel on reel 5.
- Blue Pestilence adds only 2x to 4x, the smallest band of the four.
- Reckoning needs 4 FS scatters at once, while 3 give only Devastation.
Detailed Review
Four Colours in a Grey Cathedral
Reckoning is where this game turns, because once a Horseman has landed on his own reel and made it a Death Reel, he is free to unfold on any of the middle four whenever he completes a win, until the bonus ends, and for green Death that means a 30x to 200x reel that no longer waits for a line long enough to reach reel 5. The bonus doesn’t hand out Horsemen, it only lifts the limit on which reel they can take over, yet that one change is exactly what regular play lacks.
Outside Reckoning, Life and Death relies on one reel for its biggest Wild Reel, since blue and red add small values when they turn wild and green Death only does so when a line reaches reel 5, so a shorter line win leaves his Wild Reel shut, even though a green Death on a middle reel can still multiply it as a single wild. The table is generous at the top, with the two-faced head paying 50x for six, but the distance from there to the 15,000x cap belongs to the Horsemen and to the bonus that sets them loose.
Its horror setting is a grey cathedral of arches and drapery with two hooded figures bowed at the sides, and saving all of its colour for four reels means the thing your eye goes to is also the thing that pays. That small design decision, done well, is the reason for ending this review on the art rather than the table.
