ABOUT
Sand and Ashes is Hacksaw Gaming stepping fully into the dark. This is not the golden, sun-drenched Egypt you have seen a hundred times, it is cursed, storm-ravaged, and watching you from the shadows. The centrepiece is the Wild Scarab Multiplier, a symbol that lands loaded with values between x2 and x200, locks onto the 5x5 grid, and sets off a chain of respins that can be supercharged by Firestorms or reshuffled by Sandstorms.
Two free spin modes, Desert Fury and Storming Sphinx, offer different paths to the 10,000x maximum win, while 4 feature buys give players full control over how deep they want to go. With a 96.27% RTP and medium volatility, Sand and Ashes is one of the more distinctive Egyptian slots to land in a while.
Betting Options and Bonus Features
Sand and Ashes is built around one central mechanic that feeds everything else, the Wild Scarab Multiplier. Once you understand how it behaves, the respins, the storms, and the two free spin modes all fall into place naturally.
The Wild Scarab Multiplier is the heartbeat of Sand and Ashes. It lands on the grid carrying a multiplier between x2 and x200, fills in for all regular symbols, and immediately kicks off a respin where it stays locked in place while new symbols drop in around it. Fresh scarabs extending the chain trigger further respins, continuing until the grid is full or no new scarabs appear.
Before new symbols land on each respin, the game can deal one of two cards:
Firestorm cranks up all scarab multipliers currently on the grid by x1 to x100. Values are capped at x999.
Sandstorm pushes every scarab one reel to the left, opening up new winning combinations. Scarabs pinned to the leftmost reel or blocked by a neighbour stay put. The two events are mutually exclusive, only one can fire per respin.
When enough scatters land, the base game mechanics carry over into one of two free spin modes, each one taking the scarab system in a different direction.
Desert Fury
The entry-level bonus, triggered by 3 scatters anywhere on the grid. Eight free spins are awarded, the full base game mechanics are in play, and scarabs land more frequently than usual. Two or three additional scatters during the feature add two or four extra spins respectively.
Storming Sphinx
Four scatters unlock the premium mode, 10 free spins where the rules shift meaningfully. Respins are off the table entirely, but Firestorms and Sandstorms can trigger on every single spin. More importantly, every scarab that lands stays exactly where it is until the final spin. It is a deliberate, building tension that can end in a grid packed with high-value multipliers if things go the right way.
Feature Buys
Sand and Ashes gives players multiple ways to take control of the session, ranging from a light nudge in the right direction to a straight shot into the top bonus mode:
- BonusHunt FeatureSpins (3x bet): Each spin is 5x more likely to trigger a bonus
- Pharaoh Frenzy FeatureSpins (50x bet): Guarantees at least two Wild Scarab Multipliers
- Desert Fury (100x bet): Direct entry into Desert Fury free spins
- Storming Sphinx (200x bet): Direct entry into Storming Sphinx free spins
Roshtein’s Take
Hacksaw knows how to build tension and Sand and Ashes is a good example of that. The scarab respin chain is the part I find most compelling. When you hit a Firestorm mid-chain with 3 or 4 scarabs already on the board, the numbers can move very quickly. Storming Sphinx is where the real potential lives though. The persistent scarabs combined with repeated Firestorms across 10 spins is the kind of slow-burn build that can absolutely explode by the end.
Medium volatility keeps the base game alive between bonuses, which I appreciate. My go-to here is the 200x Storming Sphinx buy, at that price point it is one of the more reasonable direct entries in a Hacksaw release. Solid game overall, with more depth than the volatility rating might suggest.
