Forest Fortune

Theme and Design

Enchanting Graphics and A Mellow Vibe Hide A Ruthless Volatility

Forest Fortune is certainly one of the most serene slots I’ve played in a while. It has a quiet, autumnal feel to it with a mellow forest glade bathed in warm sunshine, whilst a woozy piano soundtrack plays in the background and birds chirp away. This all serves to hide the creeping high volatility game model that lurks beneath the surface. It’s a very cool mix of soft production and tough maths which is in keeping with how Hacksaw like to work.

Overall, the artwork is fantastic, especially when clusters of insects form and they flutter their wings, or the wind blow leaves over the grid to signal a random wild event. And what is also cool is that you’ll notice, as the pace picks up, so too does the soundtrack. Every detail has been well thought out here and Forest Fortune is a pleasure to play.

RTP and Variance

Forest Fortune reputedly has at least 2 RTP settings – 96.31% or 94.37%. Personally, I’ve only ever seen it running at 94.37%. I verified it at three casinos we regularly use for testing and found the following:

• Casumo Casino (Independent) – 94.37% RTP
• Barz Casino (White Hat Gaming) – 94.37% RTP
• Duelz Casino (SuprPlay) – 94.37% RTP

This is a high variance slot like much of Hacksaw’s output and in line with slots like Hand of Anubis or Itero. So despite it’s pleasant look, this will be an unpredictable game with the potential to run cold for a long time. But it’s free spins round is nicely configured to potentially go off at any time too!

Maximum Win

The maximum payout in Forest Fortune is 10,000x which is on par for a Hacksaw slot. I know of a few with a higher top payout – both Stormforged and Cursed Seas pay out up to 12,500x for example. If you are looking to chase down more substantial payouts then I recommend trying our list of slots with the highest maximum wins.

Symbols and Paytable

Forest Fortune works on a Cluster Pays system and plays on a 5x5 grid. So, you’ll need to land at least 5 or more symbols touching horizontally or vertically to create a win. The beauty of these games is that you can land clusters of 15 or more for big payouts.

In Forest Fortune the maximum win is 25x at the top of the table. In some Cluster Pays games you can score even bigger wins. Check out Jammin’ Jars 2 for example with 500x wins for 32 or more symbol Clusters (bear in mind that the grid is larger at 7x7 though!).

Anyway, back to our review and there are 10 pay symbols to look out for. These come in the form of various insects and bugs, valued at from 0.5x for 5 yellow ladybirds up to 150x for 15 or more red ones, and also fruits, nuts and mushrooms valued at from 0.1x for 5 strawberries up to 25x for 15 or more acorns.

Finally, look out for the Wild which is represented by a Leaf and steps in to substitute all other symbols except Scatters when completing wins. In a nice touch it also has a special value when 25 or more land in one cluster – a 1,000x payout!

Features and Gameplay

Forest Fortune Is Not Stacked With Features But Is Still Fun To Play

The features are beautifully woven into the gameplay in Forest Fortune. Its not a game that is packed with extras, but the ones that are there, make it a really fun slot to play.

Watch For Leaves Blowing Across The Screen In Spreading Wilds

The only base game feature, but one that I saw many times in testing, was the Spreading Wild. This occurs whenever at least 1 Wilds lands after a spin. Now, the wind will start blowing – signalled by leaves blowing across the screen in a random direction - so that all Wilds are cloned in that direction. The number of clones is equal to the number of Wilds that started.

So, if I had 2 wilds on the grid and the wind blowed to the right, those wilds would spread 2 spaces to the right. In total, I would now have 6 wilds.

Now, technically it would be possible to fill the entire grid with Wilds in this way – 25 in total. That is how you unlock the special Wild payout of 1,000x which must look really pleasing on the eye.

Free Spins Round Stacked With Multipliers

If you’ve played any Hacksaw Gaming slots like Hand of Anubis or Gladiator Legends then you will know that they often come with a free spins round in which multipliers play a big part. Forest Fortune is no exception!

To start, you need to land 3 or more Butterfly Scatter symbols on one spin, anywhere on the grid. I should point out here that in 200 spins in testing I didn’t manage that once, though I did come close a few times landing 2, just not the 3^rd.

The Free Spins start round starts with 3 spins and continues until 3 non-winning drops happen consecutively. With each winning drop the counter is reset to 3. So, as long as you keep winning, the counter stays, or goes back to 3 and you keep playing.

The grid is filled differently as there are now only FOUR special symbols and leaf icons, which perform no duty other than to take up space. You will also notice a new Multiplier AND a Progress Bar that sit on top of EACH reel.

Each Blue Butterfly that lands adds a value of between 1 and 100 to the multiplier on top of its reel. Any Green Butterfly that lands multiplies the multiplier at the top of its reel by between 2x and 50x. A Tornado symbol takes all the values from all symbols on the grid when it lands and adds them to EACH of the multipliers at the top of each reel.

And the best part? The Bumblebee. This guy progresses the progress bar at the top of the reel he lands on by one space. There are only 3 positions on each bar and filling ALL of them instantly earns you a 5,000x win!