Densho: Multiplier Reels that add, both free-spins bonuses and the 10,000x cap

At a glance

Released

7 Sep 2023per reviews; SlotCatalog also gives 27 Aug 2023

Grid

5x410 fixed paylines

RTP

96.40%Hacksaw’s page; three review sites say 96.33%

Volatility

4 of 5Hacksaw’s scale; most reviews say medium-high

Hit frequency

24%per Bigwinboard and SlotCatalog

Max win

10,000xthe bet, per round

Bet range

0.10–100per review sites

Buys

3x to 250xfour options; not in the UK per SlotCatalog

How a spin pays

Five reels of four rows, crossed by 10 fixed lines. A win is three or more matching symbols on a line, on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost one, and only the highest win on each line is paid. Hacksaw’s rules print the paytable as blank placeholders, so the values below come from SlotCatalog and VegasSlotsOnline, which agree on everything except the owl. On their figures the best regular five-of-a-kind, the samurai, pays 20x the bet, the same as five Mountains wilds, so on our reading the larger wins come from the Multiplier Reels.

Bigwinboard and SlotCatalog give a hit frequency of 24%. Three of a low character pays a tenth of the bet, so a winning spin can still return less than the stake.

Densho symbols and Multiplier Reels

From Hacksaw’s in-game rules:

• It expands only when it helps. When a Densho symbol lands, it becomes a Multiplier Reel if the expanded reel would be part of at least one winning combination.
• The reel is wild and carries a multiplier, applied to each winning combination it is part of.
• Multipliers add. If one win runs through more than one Multiplier Reel, their values are added together before being applied.
• One per reel. Each reel can land only one Densho symbol at a time, so, by our count, a spin can have at most five Multiplier Reels.

SlotCatalog describes the Densho symbol as a bird and AboutSlots as a black raven, both saying it is marked with one, two or three dots for Common, Rare and Legendary. Bigwinboard and SlotCatalog list the Rare values as 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x and 50x, leaving out 6x to 9x; the rules include them, and so does AboutSlots.

On our reading of the rules, the 20x in that frame came from a Rare or Legendary symbol, since Common stops at 10x, and the two 6x reels from Common or Rare ones, since Legendary starts at 10x.

Free Spins and Super Free Spins

An Upgrade symbol levels up the tracker on its own reel, and as the minimum quality rises, so do the minimum multipliers that reel can produce. AboutSlots says the progress stays for the whole bonus, and SlotCatalog describes each tracker as a three-dot meter. Hacksaw’s page says level 2 guarantees Rare Densho symbols at a minimum, so on our reading no reel in Super Free Spins can produce a Multiplier Reel below 5x.

The rules describe retriggers for two and three scatters only, and say nothing about four or more inside a bonus.

RTP and volatility

The top two RTP figures are disputed. Hacksaw’s game page gives 96.40% and 94.38%; Bigwinboard’s info box, SlotCatalog and AboutSlots give 96.33% and 94.31%. Bigwinboard’s own review text says 96.4%, and so does VegasSlotsOnline. AboutSlots’ review is dated May 2023, before the launch; on our reading the 96.33% may be a pre-release value, but no source says so. The two lower versions are the same in every source that lists them. Hacksaw’s rules say the RTP was calculated by simulating 10 billion rounds, and the rules screen in the game shows the version being played.

Hacksaw rates Densho 4 out of 5 for volatility, on its game page and on the meter in its slots list, and Bigwinboard, SlotCatalog and VegasSlotsOnline call it medium-high; AboutSlots says medium. SlotCatalog’s reviewer found it “a tad less brutal than many other Hacksaw games”. By our arithmetic, the 88.34% version keeps 11.66% of stakes over the long run, about 3.2 times the 3.60% kept by the 96.40% version.

Bonus buy and FeatureSpins

FeatureSpins charge their price on every spin and stay switched on until Disable is pressed. At 50x, each Densho FeatureSpin costs half the 100x the reviews give for a Free Spins buy. Hacksaw’s page says the buy menu is offered “where applicable”, and SlotCatalog says it is not available in the UK.

The 10,000x cap

Hacksaw’s rules say the max win can come in the base game, Free Spins or Super Free Spins, but they don’t describe a particular combination, as the rules for some Hacksaw games do. Bigwinboard and SlotCatalog put the odds at 1 in 12 million spins. When the cap is reached the round ends at once, and any free spins left are discarded.

Some rough arithmetic of our own suggests why the cap matters. Five Multiplier Reels cover the whole grid, so every one of the 10 lines would be five wilds. If those pay as five Mountains wilds do, 20x a line, the screen is worth 200 times the summed multipliers. A total of 50x, five Common reels at their 10x top value, would already reach 10,000x, and the 500x maximum would be ten times past it. This is our calculation, not a rule. Kasinofamiljen showed a 10,000x base-game hit in demo mode on 18 August 2023, before release.

Big wins

• ClassyBeef, 10,000x, in a Kick clip titled “DENSHO - MAX WIN!!” and dated 10 September 2023, three days after the 7 September release date the reviews give. His YouTube upload two days later puts 10,000x in its title and calls it the game’s first max win. Neither states a cash amount or a bet. The bet on screen earlier in the clip was $100; if it stayed there, 10,000x would be $1,000,000 by our arithmetic.
• ElmiilloR, $127,050 (2,541x), from his Kick clip of 25 January 2024. By our arithmetic the two figures imply a $50 bet. Another of his clips on this site is titled “Densho - 33.600$ (X5600)”, which would mean a $6 bet; we have not checked it elsewhere.
• An unnamed player, over $19,000, from what the reaction channel DAILY Degens called “a crazy full screen near max win”, in a video of 26 August 2025. The streamer and the bet are not given.

Several other YouTube titles claim Densho max wins without naming a player or a bet. All of these come from streamer, fan or reaction channels; we found no casino or Hacksaw record of a Densho win.

Related games

Two reviewers put Densho in a line of Hacksaw games built on expanding multiplier wilds. AboutSlots points to Wanted Dead or a Wild, adding that Densho has no VS mode; our VS reels explainer covers how those reels add. Bigwinboard names Temple of Torment, Beast Below and Stormforged. RIP City uses a similar rule: expanded Wild Cats whose multipliers add.

For another samurai theme, SlotCatalog suggests Ronin StackWays, which it calls a less “serious” 5x4 game with a 5,000x cap. Bigwinboard’s verdict on Densho is that its “striking artwork significantly elevates what is otherwise pretty standard gameplay from Hacksaw Gaming”.