Stormforged (Hacksaw Gaming) RTP review: 96.18% (configurable)
Skip if: a base game that mostly exists to reach the bonus sounds like a chore rather than a build-up
Stormforged succeeds or fails for you on a single rule: inside its Runesmith Free Spins, the Hammer Multiplier rises with every winning cluster and cannot go back down for the remainder of the feature. If monotonically climbing multipliers are your weakness — and for many cascade players they are the genre's purest pleasure — this 2025 Norse smithy is the most committed version Hacksaw sells. The surrounding game: a 5x5 cluster grid where wins heat the forge, persistent Anvil Wilds take shape and remain on the board, and everything funnels toward that ratcheting bonus and a 12,000x cap.
Heat, anvils, hammer: the forge loop
The base game is openly preparatory. Cluster wins feed the forge state; Anvil Wilds — once forged — persist as fixed assets that strengthen subsequent boards; and the free spins are where the accumulated position pays off, with each cluster win striking the hammer up another notch. High volatility follows naturally from this architecture: nearly the entire return concentrates in feature rounds, so the between-time is lean by design. The 100x buy (unavailable on GB-licensed sites, and restricted in parts of the EU) prices marginally below base at roughly 96.15% — one of the rare Hacksaw buys that costs rather than pays.
The ladder beneath the anvil
Documented builds run 96.18 / 94.28 / 92.35 / 88.46. A game this bonus-dependent amplifies the damage of a weak build — you endure the same dry base game either way, but the feature that justifies it returns less — so the paytable check carries extra weight here. Open the info pages, read the figure, and hold out for the default.
Fellow multiplier-hoarders
The closest in-house comparison is Toshi Video Club, whose Daruma counter also persists through free spins but mixes additive and multiplicative growth with more base-game participation. Stack 'Em runs a progressive global multiplier in its bonus too, at similar 96.20-class math. Stormforged out-commits both: no reset, ever, within the feature — the purest ratchet of the three, priced at the same slightly sub-par default.
| Slot | Provider | RTP | Volatility | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stormforged (this slot) | Hacksaw Gaming | 96.18% | High | 12,000x |
| 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 |
Quenching the blade
3.5 out of 5. The forge fantasy is coherent, the never-reset rule delivers exactly the ascending tension it promises, and 12,000x is a respectable roof. What keeps it from more: a 96.18% headline in a catalogue with 96.4-class options, a buy that (unusually for this studio) underpays base, and a base game honest enough to admit it is a waiting room.