Theme & Design

A Frosty, Norse-Themed Game Stacked With Dramatic Imagery

With its classic Norse imagery and storyline, Stormforged follows in the footsteps of many Norse-themed slots that have come before it, including Microgaming’s classic Thunderstruck 2. The icy backdrop represents the realm of Midgard – basically the known world in Norse Mythology. But the action quickly shifts to the firey realms of Muspelheim if you unlock the free spins rounds.

As with all Hacksaw slots I found the production to be impressive, particularly the animations that show portals to Muspelheim opening on the reels, the Hammer of Thor hitting the reels in the bonus round, and the Viking Warriors themselves on the wild reels.

Hacksaw have also found a way to represent yet another terrifying character in one of their games – Surtur, a fire giant who doesn’t look entirely unlike Anubis from Hand of Anubis. Maybe another duelling slot in the making there ….!

Altogether, a great looking slot doing justice to the theme and epic potential.

RTP and Variance

Casinos will run Stormforged at one of FOUR available RTP settings: 96.41%, 94.28%, 92.35% or 88.46%. The optimum setting of 96.41% is good, but you don’t want to be playing at any of the lower RTP levels if possible. We verified the RTP of Stormforged at five UK slot sites to see what setting they had chosen for the game. This is what we found:

• Casumo (independent): 94.28%
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net): 92.35%
• Barz (White Hat Gaming):  94.28%
• Pub Casino (L and L Europe): 94.28%
• MrQ (independent): 96.41%

Therefore, If you want to play Stormforged at the optimum RTP then we recommend that you play at MrQ.

Stormforged is a high variance slot, similar to Hacksaw Gaming slots like Hand of Anubis and Itero. The balance of payouts may be uneven, but the game has the potential to kick out some big win sequences where sticky expanding wilds, multipliers and free spins combine.

Maximum Win

The maximum payout in Stormforged is 12,500x which is the highest maximum win available for a Hacksaw Gaming slot at time of writing (July 2023). Other Hacksaw slots with  a 12,500x max win are RIP City and Cursed Seas.

If you are looking for even better max wins then check out our article on the highest maximum win slots of all time.

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Symbols and Paytable

Good Paytable Values Can Be Enhanced By Massive Mutipliers

Stormforged is a 5 reel slot with 4 rows and 14 active paylines in play on every spin. Wins are triggered in the ususal way when 3 or more identical symbols drop onto a payline from left to right, starting at the left-most reel.

This slot has an impressive paytable, with some strong values across the board. All the more impressive when you consider how much uplift can also be experienced from the multipliers available in the game’s features.

Low payers are the cards Jack through to Ace. They are valued at from 0.1x for 3 Jacks up to 6x for 5 Aces. Premiums are the swords, axe, helmet, rams head, raven and wolf, valued at from 0.5x for 3 swords up to 50x for 5 wolves.

There is also a Wild in Stormforged that substitutes in for all other symbols to complete winlines and pays out at 100x for five on a line, a Treasure Chest that pays out up to 4x for 5 on a line, and two scatters that unlock the free spins rounds.

Features and Gameplay

Hacksaw Are Still Finding New Ways To Trigger Multipliers 

Stormforged’s format of expanding wilds with multipliers and two free spins rounds will be familiar to Hacksaw Gaming fans. But the addition of wild reels and a treasure chest is novel and adds new dimensions.

Expanding Wilds – Portals to Muspelheim

Central to the gameplay are expanding wilds, woven into the narrative of the game here as ‘Portals to Muspelheim’. These are triggered when a Hand of Surtur scatter lands on any reel. When it drops, if by expanding downwards as an expanded wild it would form part of a winline, then it does so.  The space where the expanded wild appears is known as a Portal to Muspelheim.

If the portal passes through a Wild then that Wild takes on a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x or 200x. This multiplier is applied to all winlines passing through the portal.

The portal may also pass through a Treasure Chest, smashing it open in the process and awarding its content as prizes. Treasure Chests have a massive range of prizes from 5x up to 2,500x your bet.

And … if the portal passes through a Wild AND a Treasure Chest then the two multipliers are combined for the payout.

Surtur’s Vengeance Bonus Round

For the first of two bonus rounds, landing 3, 4 or 5 Surtur Scatters gets you 10, 12 or 14 free spins. For Surtur’s Vengeance the first Wild to land on each reel is sticky for the whole round and any Wilds that were on the reels when the feature was awarded are carried over though only one sticky Wild is allowed per reel.

During Surtur’s Vengeance, the Frost Sword Scatter takes on the role of the Hand of Surtur Scatter from the base game – it drives downwards to create a portal if by doing so it would create winlines. It also acquires multipliers from any wilds it passes through and opens any Treasure Chests too.

This round can be enhanced by landing 2, 3, 4 or 5 further scatters to earn 2, 4, 6 or 8 extra spins.

Warriors of the Storm Bonus Round

The second bonus round is triggered by landing 3, 4 or 5 Viking Scatters to earn 10, 12 or 14 free spins. Now, the Hammer of Thor may land, turning any reel it drops onto into a fully wild reel filled either with a Viking Warrior or a Storm.

Viking Warriors come in 3 formats and are wild for the whole round – Rogue has a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x or 5; Shieldmaiden has a multiplier of 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x or 10x; Berserker has a multiplier of 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x or 200x.

Storm Reels are wild for only the first spin after they appear. Then they move one reel to the left, pushing any other Storm Reels further left as they do. If there is no available space to the left of the Storm Reel then it stays where it is.

This round can be extended when 2, 3, 4 or 5 Viking Scatters earn the player 2, 4, 6 or 8 extra spins.

The Final Verdict

Stormforged is an excellent high variance slot from Hacksaw, arguably one of their best to date. The theme is a little over-used, and the design style less unique than Hand of Anubis for example, but we quickly set those reservations aside. And whilst Stormforged utilises features that we have seen in other games by this provider, what sets it apart is the addition of further triggers that can push wins up to new heights.

For example, the expanding wilds, or Portals to Muspelheim as they are here, have appeared as Siren Wilds in Beast Below, and Cursed Chests in Cursed Seas, with equally high multipliers. But on this occasion, Hacksaw have added in the chance to trigger Treasure Chests with huge potential as the symbols expand downwards. And in Temple of Torment we had Sticky Wild Scarabs during free spins, much like the Sticky Wilds that appear here, but this time they appear alongside the Frost Swords that combine with Treasure Chests and Wild Multipliers once again. So, not just a case of treading the same ground, but more evolutions of ideas in this case.

The stand-out feature is the Warriors of the Storm Round which we played with Bonus Buy on the Hacksaw site. With potential for Sticky Wild Reels with multipliers up to 200x on multiple reels, you can see how this round can stack up massive wins.

And big wins are definitely going to be possible here – the high values in the paytable, huge multipliers and big Treasure Chest all point in that direction– though they will be rare things.

So, overall, a high quality, if volatile offering from Hacksaw, and one that fans of the studio, and high risk slot fans in general, will definitely enjoy.