Beast Below Slot by Hacksaw Gaming

14 Paylines on a 5x4 Grid

Beast Below runs a 5-reel, 4-row layout with just 14 fixed paylines - a throwback structure for Hacksaw Gaming, a studio that usually leans toward cluster pays or scatter-based win mechanics. The paytable splits into five tiers of low-paying card symbols (10 through Ace, styled as barnacle-encrusted underwater relics) and five high-paying sea creature symbols topped by a menacing anglerfish. An Octopus wild substitutes for everything and pays 20x for five across a line.

The Siren symbol is where this game separates itself. Yellow Sirens appear in the base game and expand upward to the top of their reel when they form part of a winning combination. Each expanded Siren carries a multiplier between 2x and 200x. Land two Sirens on the same payline and their multipliers add together before applying to the win - so a 5x and a 10x Siren produce a 15x multiplier, not 50x. That additive math caps the ceiling but keeps wins more consistent than multiplicative systems.

Two Bonuses, One Scatter Count Apart

Three scatter symbols trigger The Siren's Call. Four scatters trigger Down Below. No choice, no gamble wheel - the number of scatters you land decides which bonus you play.

The Siren's Call awards 10 free spins with a higher frequency of Siren landings. It introduces Pink Sirens - sticky expanding wilds that remain on the grid after expanding. But they don't stay forever. Each spin, a Pink Siren nudges one row upward, eventually sliding off the top of the reel. The mechanic creates a countdown: you want new Sirens landing before old ones disappear. Retriggering adds 2 spins for 2 scatters and 4 spins for 3.

Down Below plays differently. Its 10 free spins feature Diver symbols that always expand into full-reel wilds with multipliers up to 200x. Each Diver starts with 3 oxygen charges. At the beginning of each spin, a Diver may move to an adjacent reel, consuming one charge. When oxygen hits zero, the Diver disappears after that spin. Up to 3 Divers occupy the reels at once, and like Sirens, their multipliers add together on shared paylines.

The Oxygen Charge System

The Diver mechanic in Down Below is the most original element here. A Diver that lands on reel 3 with 3 charges could cover reels 2 through 4 across three spins - or stay put and conserve its full charge. Movement is random, which means some Divers burn through oxygen fast by hopping every spin while others linger by staying still. This unpredictability is what gives Down Below its big-win potential: if multiple Divers land and survive long enough to overlap on paylines, the additive multipliers stack into serious payouts.

Getting into Down Below naturally requires 4 scatters on a single spin. That's a rare event on 14 paylines with 5 reels, and the direct buy at 200x your bet reflects that rarity.

FeatureSpins and Buy Options

Hacksaw's BonusHunt FeatureSpins cost 3x the base bet and boost bonus trigger probability by 5x per spin. Beast Below adds a second tier - Siren FeatureSpins at 50x - that guarantees at least 2 Siren symbols land every spin. Neither option triggers a bonus directly; they increase probability and stay active until toggled off.

Direct bonus purchases cost 120x for The Siren's Call and 200x for Down Below. The 200x price is steep given the 10,000x cap. At a €2 bet, that's €400 for a bonus round where average returns fall well short of max win in most sessions. The 120x Siren's Call buy offers better value relative to risk, though the Pink Siren nudge mechanic means bonus length matters as much as multiplier size.

Hacksaw's Dark Horse From Mid-2023

Beast Below launched June 22, 2023, during a stretch where Hacksaw released three expanding wild multiplier slots in four months - Stormforged in March, Temple of Torment in May, then this. All three share the same DNA: expanding wilds with multipliers up to 200x, additive stacking, and similar max win targets. Temple of Torment grabbed more attention, and Beast Below ended up overshadowed despite having the more interesting bonus mechanics of the three.

The art direction is strong. Everything sits below the waterline of a rickety fishing boat, with murky green-blue tones, bubble particle effects, and sea creatures designed with a grotesque edge - pufferfish with too many teeth, anglerfish with glowing lures, eels wrapped around themselves. The soundtrack pairs sonar pings with low, ominous drones that sell the deep-sea atmosphere.

RTP ranges from 96.29% down to 88.28% across four operator-configurable tiers, with intermediate steps at 94.27% and 92.25%. The 10,000x max win is modest by current Hacksaw standards - Wanted Dead or a Wild and Cursed Seas both offer 12,500x, while newer releases push past 25,000x. For underwater slots specifically, Razor Shark from Push Gaming remains the category standard with uncapped potential and a higher base RTP. Beast Below does something different with its dual-bonus structure and oxygen charge mechanic, but players chasing raw max win numbers will find better odds elsewhere in Hacksaw's own catalog.