Twisted Lab

Theme and Design

Bionic Rats, Mad Scientists and Splashes of Neon In A Typical Hacksaw Slot

Hacksaw’s take on the mad scientist theme deployed in a few online slots – Dr Toonz for example – is a typically bonkers one. Mr Melker the scientist, and his pet rat, Pat (of course), are mixing potions in a dark underground lab with lots of pipes and bubbling containers all around them. It has a dark cartoon feel,  but splashed with lots of neon colors. The experimental themed is carried through into the actual game design in which the 5x5 grid rotates when special Rotogrid™ symbols drop. Hacksaw are a reliably eccentric bunch and this looks like another top class hit from them.

RTP and Variance

Twisted Lab has 4 RTP rates – 96.3%, 94.2%, 92.18% and 88.23%. Your casino operator may choose to run the game at any of these RTP settings. Beware, some will go for 88.23% to improve their house edge and that reduces your chances of coming away cash positive. Always check the RTP where you play to make sure you are getting value for money on your wagering. Just check the game info screen when you load up Twisted Lab to find out what rate you are playing at.

I recommend MrQ from Lindar Media which consistently runs Hacksaw slots at the maximum RTP rates.

This is one of Hacksaw’s high variance games. The studio is known for their volatile output like Hand of Anubis and 2 Wild 2 Die, so expect it to be a tight play though it can kick out some big wins from time to time too.

Maximum Win

Recently Hacksaw have been pushing the potential of their slots up a notch. They used to cap most at 10,000x but on this occasion the top payout is 15,000x. That’s still a long way short of games by rivals like Push or Nolimit City, but a decent figure to aim for nonetheless.

Symbols and Paytable

Good Value In The Paytable Can Be Extended With Huge Multipliers

Twisted Lab is played on a 5x5 grid with 19 paylines to win across. Wins are scored by landing 3 or more symbols on a line from left to right, starting at the left most reel.

There are 8 standard pay symbols in the game plus 3 special Oozing Beaker symbols. The 8 standard symbols are the feather, leaf, egg, mushroom, tentacle, eye, teeth and brain. Their values range from 0.2x for 3 feathers up to 10x for 5 brains.

The 3 special Oozing Beaker symbols are in purple, blue and pink. They have extra powers described below but they also pay out 20x each if 5 land on a payline.

Features and Gameplay

The gameplay in Twisted Lab might sound complex at first but in fact it’s very easy to follow. It didn’t take me long go understand what was happening when I tested the game. The main thing to look out for – aside from grid rotations – is the ooze that spills and spreads powerful multiplier wilds across the grid.

Here is how it all works:

Rotogrid™ - Spinning Grid Unlocks More Chances To Win

The Rotogrid™ is Hacksaw’s own unique invention. It is a feature triggered by landing the Rotogrid™ symbol in yellow and grey ANYWHERE on the grid. When it lands it will carry a charge of between 1 and 4 that causes the entire grid to rotate 90 degrees between 1 and 4 times.

What does this do? With each rotation the chance to create left to right paylines recurs. What was bottom to top becomes left to right for example. With each rotation payouts are made for paylines completed before the next rotation occurs.

Oozing Beakers Transform Pay Symbols Into Multiplier Wilds

This part is genius!

Watch those high-paying beaker symbols. When one is visible during a rotation all its liquid is spilled and oozes to the bottom of the grid. Positions covered by ooze during the process are turned into wilds that substitute for pay symbols to complete lines.

Now, this being a Hacksaw slot there are of course multipliers to look out for too. These are only active when the pink or blue beakers spill their ooze. The blue beakers will add 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 100x to the wilds they create. The pink ones will add 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x multipliers to their wilds.

And that’s not all. In this game, ooze can land on ooze! When this happens, multipliers are added together and applied to ALL wilds on the reel.

Two Free Spins Rounds

The free spins rounds are triggered by landing special FS bonus symbols. There are two bonus rounds.

Unleash The Ooze

The first free spins round is triggered by landing 3 FS symbols. You get 10 spins where the odds of landing FS symbols, oozing beakers and Rotogrid™ symbols is higher.

The Twist Of The Twisted 

This bonus is unlike anything you have seen before. There are elements of Hold and Win, but in truth it’s a unique format.

Twist of the Twisted plays on the same 5x5 grid but now ONLY Blue Twisters, Pink Twisters, Collect Symbols, Rotogrid™ or non-paying symbols appear. Non payers are a fish skeleton, cat skull, apple core and birds skull.

But the important symbols are the twisters. Each one is a box shape with 4 multipliers displayed – one on each side. The one at the top is active, so when the grid rotates, a new one moves to the top and becomes the active one.

Possible multiplier values are 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x or 1,000x.

So what’s the difference between Blue and Pink twisters? The blue ones only rotate with a Rotogrid™ event, whilst pink rotate with EVERY spin AND Rotogrid™ events.

And when do the multipliers pay out? Here’s how … Remember that Collect symbol? When it lands, it collects up the value of ALL active multipliers. Twisters stay on the grid until either they are collected or the whole round ends.

This bonus feature keeps playing until either 3 spins go by where no Twisters or Collects land OR you hit max win. There is a spin counter next to the reels to show how many spins you have left.

And finally, when the round ends, all multiplier values are added or multiplied, one reel at a time from top to bottom and left to right across the grid. Whatever the total is will be multiplied by your stake to give you the final win value.

And that’s it!