Introduction to Hot Ross
Hot Ross is a casino slot from Hacksaw Gaming, returning to the monochromatic streets of a grim metropolis to check in on a cartoon feline troublemaker. If you had a chance to wander through the shady back alleys in RIP City or join Rad Maxx in his dark corner of the neighbourhood, you surely know what the grey cross with fluorescent writing announces. Judging by the title, it's time for Ro$$ to take the reins and lead us through his favourite parts of the bleak concrete jungle. In the style of the original release that introduced us to the feisty duo, his dedicated symbol acts as a downward Expanding Wild with a potential multiplier of up to x200 awarded for stretching over regular Wild symbols. Furthermore, the titular Hot Ro$$ symbol will join the lineup to make the feature even spicier by guaranteeing the expansion over the entire reel.
Find out how the new enhanced Ro$$ can help you reach the max win of 15,000x the bet by playing the risk-free version of the game in the demo available at the beginning of the article.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Hot Ross is a video slot from Hacksaw Gaming with 5 reels, 5 rows, and 19 paylines. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1, which makes the game particularly affordable, up to a Max.bet of 50. The math profile runs on a default RTP of 96.32%, which is in line with the industry standards, although several alternative variants of 94.23%, 92.23%, and 86.16% are also released, so make sure to check the version you're playing. You can expect more emphasis on the less frequent but more valuable, on average, big wins due to high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 15,000x the bet. The base hit frequency is 20.70%.
The part of town that Ro$$ made his own is not exactly a welcoming spot, given its omnipresent greyness and overall lack of colours, except for the garish pink looming from the game's logo and bright yellow injected into high-paying symbols. Because of the primarily monochromatic palette, the atmosphere is relatively bleak, although a lively swing soundtrack tries to brighten it a bit with its energetic rhythm. The sly cat will accompany you throughout the gameplay, striking an intimidating pose next to the grid and reacting to more significant events coming from the reels. If you're ready to experience the colourless atmosphere, the game is perfectly adjusted to work on all modern devices, whether you prefer to play on a desktop, a smartphone, or a tablet.
Winning combinations must contain between 3 and 5 matching symbols running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one on any of the active paylines. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons, with the low-paying ones represented by playing card emblems, 10, J, Q, K, and A, awarding from 5x to 10x the bet for a combination of 5 on a payline. High-paying symbols comprise square pictures of a banana, a fish skeleton, a spray can, a pair of dice, and an 8-ball. They bring payouts of between 15x and 20x the bet when scoring 5 of a kind. Wilds are represented by a bomb with a pink letter 'W', FS Scatters appear as black and blue 'FS' letters, while Ro$$ and Hot Ro$$ symbols take the form of the titular cat's head.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Hot Ross?
You can win up to 15,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Hot Ross?
The features are Ro$$ and Hot Ro$$ Symbols, Cat Calls Bonus, Nine Lives Bonus, Bigg Boss Ross Bonus, and Feature Buy.
Ro$$ and Hot Ro$$ Symbols
Symbols represented by the main character's head are Wild that substitute for other regular symbols during win evaluation and additionally expand downward upon landing if there's a possibility for them to form a win. Hot Ro$$ is an enhanced variant, recognised by a striped pink and yellow background, which moves to the top of the reel and expands along its entire height.
Whenever either of those symbols covers a regular Wild, it gains a random multiplier ranging between x2 and x200. Two or more Ro$$ or Hot Ro$$ expanded symbols with multipliers contributing to the same combination will have their values added together before being applied to the payout.
Cat Calls Bonus
Scoring 3 FS Scatters anywhere on the grid within the same base game spin will take you to the Cat Calls Bonus with 10 free spins. During this round, Ro$$ and Hot Ro$$ symbols land with a higher average frequency.
Nine Lives Bonus
With 4 FS Scatters ending up simultaneously on the board at the end of a base game spin, you'll progress to the Nine Lives Bonus with 10 free spins. Throughout this mode, every Ro$$ or Hot Ro$$ symbol landing activates the respective reel, causing it to drop a Ro$$ or Hot Ro$$ symbol on every subsequent spin.
Bigg Boss Ross Bonus
To gain access to the most valuable bonus variant, you'll need to land 5 Scatters at the same time in the base game. This time, you'll be guaranteed to get at least two Hot Ro$$ and one Wild symbol on every single spin. In all three bonus variants, landing 2 or 3 FS Scatters simultaneously 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.
60x = Feisty Featurespins guaranteeing at least 3 Ro$$ symbols to land.
1,000x = Epic Drop Featurespins guaranteeing 5 Ro$$ and at least 3 Wild symbols to land.
100x = Cat Calls Bonus with 10 free spins.
200x = Nine Lives Bonus with 10 free spins.
1,000x = Bigg Boss Ross Bonus with 10 free spins.
Final Thoughts on Hot Ross
Hacksaw's affinity for colourless slots has always been visible in the studio's roadmap, even if you reach back to its very beginnings in games like Itero and Toshi Video Club. Recent years, meaning 2024 and 2025, brought even more of those dreary settings, giving us such loaded titles as Life and Death, and more lighthearted ones, like The Count, proving that slots do not always have to burst with a full palette to be perceived as visually attractive. Hot Ross carries that message further, although we must highlight that it does so in a rather conformist way, not trying to wow us with anything particularly unique. If you compare this release to the original RIP City, you'll notice plenty of similarities in the form of repeated symbols and character animations. To be fair, given the setting taking place in the same fictional city, and the overall deliberately barren environment, it's not massively surprising. And, considering that Maxx has already had his individual part, it was probably just a matter of time before we saw Ross performing a solo.
While the theme may not point to any significant makeovers that the game has gone through since RIP City, the gameplay brings one or two surprises. Perhaps not noticeable from the very beginning, mind you, but you'll be sure to spot and appreciate them once the action unravels. They're not as out-of-the-box as the omnidirectional pay system we've experienced in Rad Maxx, and they are more in the style of the first instalment of the series, but they come with quite a mighty punch. It's all thanks to the addition of the Hot Ro$$ symbols, which imitate the regular ones by expanding, but not before jumping to the top of the reel to then cover it entirely. That, in turn, guarantees overlapping any single Wilds on the same column, resulting in added multipliers. Pretty solid, but that's not all, as Hot Ro$$ will also share its power with any regular Ro$$ symbols on adjacent reels, making them also jump up and expand, which can result in a pretty sweet chain reaction. All that becomes even more impressive during three bonuses, where frequencies rise, and reels can be activated to drop guaranteed Ro$$ and Hot Ro$$ symbols for even more chances to break the bank and hit that 15,000x max win.
Hot Ross returns to the fundamental mechanics of the series while charging the Expanding Wilds with greater possibilities thanks to guaranteed full-reel coverage.
