Introduction to Dark Spiral
Dark Spiral is a casino slot from Hacksaw Gaming, where bizarre and borderline repulsive mutations of the human body lead the plot, indelicately nudging our imagination to picture horrors out of this world. Undoubtedly inspired by the Uzumaki horror manga series created by Junji Ito, the game takes a plunge into a twisted world of unnatural decay, decomposition, and transformation of organic matter into despicable monstrosities from the worst nightmares. On a more positive note, there's a 10,000x max win up for grabs if you successfully perform the ritual of Summoning, through which you can generate stacks of up to 12 symbols in designated, vertical areas. Dive even deeper between the terrors to reach the Shattered, Twisted, and Tortured bonus games, where feature symbols become more frequent and even remain on the grid for the duration of the entire round.
Face your fears and explore the unnatural world of Dark Spiral in the demo mode available at the top of this page.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Dark Spiral is a video slot from Hacksaw Gaming with 6 reels, 4 rows, and up to 331,776 ways to win. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1, which makes the game particularly affordable, up to a Max.bet of 100. The math profile runs on a default RTP of 96.22%, which is in line with the industry standards, although several alternative variants of 94.22%, 92.32%, and 86.24% are also released, so make sure to check the version you're playing. You can expect slightly more value distributed into occasional big wins rather than small, frequent hits due to medium-high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 10,000x the bet. The base hit frequency is 25.2%.
The main scene of Dark Spiral places you inside a monochromatic classroom, where three Asian schoolgirls hang around casually, while the massive eyes of some bizarre monster loom from outside through the windows. Reddish hues dominate the otherwise colourless palette, with a handful of exceptions visible on high-paying and special symbols. Despite the innocent outlook of the visible characters, the atmosphere feels loaded due to disturbing images on the reels and an uneasy guitar soundtrack filled with ominous crackling. Everything around feels like it's on the edge of slipping into an endless stream of terror that will hold you in its nasty grip for eternity. If you're not faint of heart and you're ready to face the horrors head-on, you can launch the game on any modern device, whether you prefer to play on a desktop, a smartphone, or a tablet.
Winning combinations must contain between 3 and 6 matching symbols running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one. There are no specific paylines to follow, and there are 4,096 ways on default. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons, with the low-paying ones represented by playing card ranks, 10, J, Q, K, and A, all awarding 0.5x the bet for a combination of 6 on a winning way. High-paying symbols comprise square pictures showing a tied hand, a centipede with eyes, an upside-down person, a child swallowing a worm, and a bloody eye. They bring payouts of between 1x and 3x the bet when scoring 6 of a kind.
Wilds are represented by a red 'W' in a white ring, and they substitute for all regular symbols mentioned above. They also pay 5x the bet for a sequence running through all 6 reels. Summoning symbols appear as a vertical banner with red Japanese letters, while FS Scatters take the form of white 'FS' letters.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Dark Spiral?
You can win up to 10,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Dark Spiral?
The features are Cascading, Summoning Symbols, Shattered Bonus, Twisted Bonus, Tortured Hidden Epic Bonus, and Feature Buy.
Cascading
The cascading feature triggers each time you hit a winning combination. This is followed by the involved symbols disappearing from the grid, causing all the remaining ones to drop to vacant positions. New icons then come down from the top to take their place and complete the view. This process continues until no new wins can occur.
Summoning Symbols
Summoning symbols may land on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 in a size of 1x2, 1x3, or 1x4. They act as mystery symbols that reveal a stack of identical copies of the same paying symbol or Wilds. Depending on the size, they can contain a different number of instances.
1x2 Summoning symbol = a stack of 3, 4, 5, or 6 symbols.
1x3 Summoning symbol = a stack of 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 symbols.
1x4 Summoning symbol = a stack of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 symbols.
All Summoning symbols present on the grid always reveal the same icons. Additionally, if a Wild lands directly above or below the Summoning symbol, the stack will expand to cover it and increase its size accordingly. After a win, Summoning symbols remain on the grid while other icons disappear as a result of the cascading mechanism and reveal a new result after the grid settles.
Shattered Bonus
Land 3 FS Scatters anywhere on the grid within the same base game round, and you'll receive 10 Free Spins. This mode keeps all the features active, with an increased frequency of landing Summoning symbols.
Twisted Bonus
With 4 FS Scatters ending up simultaneously on the grid at the end of a base game round, you'll be awarded 10 Free Spins, where, in addition to being more frequent, Summoning symbols stay sticky on the grid. They will display new symbols after every spin and after every cascade.
Tortured Hidden Epic Bonus
The hidden bonus mode is only accessible by landing 5 FS Scatters in the base game, and, contrary to the previous two, cannot be purchased through the Buy Bonus option. During this variant, all Summoning symbols stick to the grid like before, plus you're guaranteed to land 2 of them on the first spin.
In all three modes, landing 2 or 3+ FS Scatters awards 2 or 4 additional spins, respectively.
Feature Buy
If you don't wish to chase after specific symbol combinations in the base game, you can make use of the Buy Bonus menu, where certain functions of the game can be triggered instantly for a fixed price that scales with your current bet.
3x = Bonushunt Featurespins with a 5 times better chance to activate a bonus game.
100x = Summon the Featurespins, guaranteeing at least 2 Summoning symbols to land.
100x = Shattered Bonus with 10 free spins.
200x = Twisted Bonus with 10 free spins.
Final Thoughts on Dark Spiral
Even though the horror-themed slots have not yet permeated the online gambling mainstream, we see them pop up in casino lobbies slightly more often since providers like Nolimit City, Hacksaw Gaming, Print Studios, and lately, Shady Lady, decided to explore the dark, dreary, and disturbing. And when talking about utterly twisted ideas capable of haunting your dreams, Asian creators are known for excelling at conjuring mind-bending narratives, so it's a good choice on the creators' part to draw inspiration from such works. Dark Spiral is eerily intense right from the get-go, with its grainy filters and washed-out artwork encompassing the unsettling story playing out on high-value symbols and in the bonus round environments. This specific design style perfectly supports the atmosphere of dread and nerve-wracking suspense that constantly makes you wonder what sickening images will attack your senses next. On top of everything, the accentuated red string element, which, according to Japanese beliefs, signifies an inevitable connection between the entities it binds, hints at the horrors never being too far away. Quite a chilling message, we must admit.
Mechanically, Dark Spiral is quite elegant and powerful in its simplicity. The Summoning symbols feel like a blend of Nolimit City's xWays and Hacksaw's Stackways, used previously in games like Ronin Stackways and Mayan Stackways. However, this time, they can be upgraded throughout a single cascading sequence or during bonus rounds by landing Wilds above or below the vertical stack, making the substituting symbols so much more significant. Also, the 12-symbol cap per Summoning symbol is higher than in both mentioned features, potentially resulting in 331,776 ways to win, which is almost three times the max achievable in the popular Megaways format. Together with a cascading mechanism, the function creates a solid match, further enhanced by three bonus rounds, where Summoning symbols become more frequent and even lock onto the grid for the duration of the round. While not massively groundbreaking, it competently turns up the dial on the classic mystery symbol approach and its multiple variants developed so far.
Dark Spiral is a genuinely bloodcurdling slot, drawing its bizarre identity from Japanese manga horror and offering a reliable mechanical variant of familiar mystery symbols.
