Beast Below (Hacksaw Gaming) RTP review: 96.29% (configurable)
Hacksaw shipped two dark maritime slots within two months of each other in 2023, and choosing between them is the natural way into Beast Below. Cursed Seas is the pirate one — surface-level, chest-driven, comparatively busy. Beast Below goes underneath: a 5x4, 14-line descent into black water where Siren wilds expand upward whenever they join a win, hauling multipliers of up to 6x with them in the base game, and an expanding Diver blankets entire reels once you reach the Down Below bonus. Both games grade 4/5 for volatility; the deep-sea entry runs a slightly better default (96.29% against 96.22%) while conceding ceiling, 10,000x to the pirates' 12,500x.
| Slot | Provider | RTP | Volatility | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beast Below (this slot) | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.29% | High | 10,000x |
| Wanted Dead or a Wild | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.38% | High | 12,500x |
| Le Bandit | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.34% | Medium | 10,000x |
| Hand of Anubis | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.24% | High | 10,000x |
| Chaos Crew | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.30% | High | 10,000x |
Sirens that climb the reels
The expansion rule is directional, and that shapes everything: a Siren landing low on a reel has room to stretch upward through the grid, so where symbols fall matters as much as whether they fall. Multiplier-bearing wilds spreading vertically mid-win produce the game's signature moments — a losing board converting to a multi-line multiplied hit in one animation. Two free-spins variants deepen the system, with the Diver version turning single positions into full wild reels. It is atmospheric, legible, and less random-feeling than cluster chaos: you can always see why a big win happened.
Numbers from the abyss
SlotsMate and Clash of Slots document the operator ladder at 96.29 / 94.27 / 92.25 / 88.28 — the studio's standard four-step, roughly two points per rung. As ever, the build your casino licensed is stated only in the game's own info pages, and reading it before depositing is the whole defense. The two ante-bet options and the free-spins purchases are stripped from GB-licensed lobbies under UK rules; the 96.29% base game itself travels everywhere.
Verdict: the better-lit half of the deep
Skip if: you'd trade atmosphere for the extra 2,500x its pirate sibling offers
Beast Below is the more elegant of Hacksaw's 2023 sea pair — a single strong idea executed with the studio's best restraint, at a marginally healthier default figure. 3.5 overall: it lacks a truly distinctive top-end hook, and 4/5 variance still means the bonus does the heavy lifting, but as a mood piece with honest math it holds up beautifully. Check the deployed build, then enjoy the dark.