Fawkes Slot by Wicked Games

A Hidden Row of Gunpowder

Fawkes runs on a 6x4 grid with 4,096 base ways, but the defining feature sits below the reels. The Gunpowder Cache is a separate horizontal row that spins right-to-left beneath the main grid, carrying Gunpowder Barrels and empty positions. When barrels land alongside a Wild on the main reels, one of three Execution Modifiers fires. Four or more barrels skip the modifiers entirely and trigger free spins.

The barrel count determines which modifier activates. One barrel with a Wild triggers Hanged: any partial Wild nudges up or down to cover the full reel. Two barrels trigger Drawn: every Wild position splits into two symbols, inflating the ways count. Three barrels trigger Quartered: Wilds get replicated onto an adjacent reel, and overlapping Wilds multiply up to 3x. Each modifier transforms the grid differently, and the ways counter jumps from 4,096 toward the 5,159,700 ceiling when Drawn or Quartered kick in.

Four Free Spins Modes

Landing four barrels in the Cache awards 11 free spins with a pick screen - choose Hanged or Drawn as the active modifier for the entire round. Five barrels award 8 Quartered free spins. No picking; the strongest single modifier locks in automatically. Six barrels, the rarest trigger, award 5 High Treason spins where all three modifiers fire simultaneously on every Wild landing.

During free spins, the Cache row changes behavior. Barrels under reel 1 reveal 1 to 5 extra spins. Barrels under reels 2 through 6 reveal Wilds that count as additional symbols on the reel above, pushing the ways counter higher. Three or more scatters retrigger with +5 spins.

High Treason is where the 20,000x ceiling lives. A Wild landing during High Treason gets nudged to a full reel (Hanged), then each position splits (Drawn), then the splits replicate to adjacent reels (Quartered) with up to 3x multipliers on overlaps. Five spins sounds thin, but a single Wild landing triggers all three transformations at once.

Seven Buy Bonus Tiers

Wicked Games built an unusually deep buy menu for Fawkes. Buy Hanged or Drawn at 75x guarantees 4 barrels and 11 spins with your chosen modifier. Buy Quartered at 150x guarantees 5 barrels and 8 spins. Buy High Treason at 600x guarantees the full 6 barrels and 5 High Treason spins. Two Chance options sit between: 165x gives a weighted random result (40% four barrels, 50% five, 10% six), and Big Boom at 240x shifts the odds (30/45/25). The Execution Bet at 10x per spin guarantees a modifier every round and triples free spin trigger rates - an aggressive middle ground between base play and buying in.

The Puppet Theater and Its Rough Edges

The visual style sells the theme. Everything looks hand-crafted - wooden stage framing, puppet-like character animations, smoke and firelight against a London skyline silhouette. The intro sequence sets the scene ("Year 1605. Guy Fawkes readies forty barrels of gunpowder beneath the Houses of Parliament") and the execution modifier names tie directly into the historical punishment for treason. Slots almost never touch this period of British history. One title from Golden Rock Studios, released three years earlier with a 5x3 grid and fireworks celebration tone, is the only other attempt. Fawkes takes the darker route.

The weakness is information overload. Three distinct modifiers, four free spin modes, seven buy options, two ante bet tiers, a separate Cache row spinning in the opposite direction. First-time players will spend time in the paytable before the mechanics click. The art direction also borrows heavily from the Peter & Sons visual playbook - the exaggerated proportions, layered textures, and storybook palette. It works, but players familiar with that studio's catalog will notice the resemblance.

Fawkes launched five months after Wicked Games went public as a branded studio, and the ambition shows. Their previous release capped at 1,500x. Jumping to 20,000x with the most complex feature architecture in their catalog was a statement. In the broader 2025 market, where 50,000x to 150,000x ceilings are common at top-tier studios, the ceiling sits at the lower end of the high bracket. Enough to turn a €1 spin into €20,000. No documented big wins have surfaced yet, and the studio's limited operator footprint (primarily crypto-friendly platforms) means Fawkes is still finding its audience.