Invictus

Invictus: Slot Overview

Invictus, a Latin word meaning things like invincible, unconquered or undefeated, is the title of a thought-provoking online slot by software provider Hacksaw Gaming. This is a game which explores intriguing subject matter while delivering a batch of equally intriguing gaming techniques. It's a slot that might get into your head if you let it, but one which can also trigger visceral thrills via a host of multiplicative abilities, Olympian Respins, and three bonus rounds, each one better than the last in terms of power creep.

Visually, Invictus walks in the footsteps of earlier Hacksaw Gaming titles, most notably Itero, with its bold, grayscale aesthetic punctuated by sharp splashes of color. The action unfolds within a weathered, stone temple flanked by crumbling statues of ancient warriors, evoking a mood of faded glory. Pay symbols are carved in a heavy Roman font, while character busts, rendered like marble sculptures, are highlighted with geometric backdrops in bright orange and green, drawing the eye amid the otherwise desaturated palette. Subtle touches like lightning flashes and fog swirling around the statues help maintain an ominous, dramatic tone throughout.

Invictus' gaming area is a 5x4 space built with 14 paylines to evaluate wins left to right from the leftmost reel. A quartet of RTP configurations accompany the game, and the highest is 96.24% when betting 10 c to $/€100 per spin. Technically, the math model could be more volatile, but a 4 out of 5 rating means it is highly so.

On the low side, we have 10-A card royals worth 1x the bet for 5-of-a-kind, then four busts as the high pays, awarding 2x to 10x the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds hit anywhere, replacing any regular pay symbol and are worth 10x for a line of 5 of them.

Invictus: Slot Features

Pantheon Multipliers boost wins, complemented by an Olympian Respins feature. Three bonus rounds may be organically triggered, but only two may be bought from the feature buy.

Pantheon Multipliers

Pantheon Multipliers appear beside each row. On the left, visible multipliers (x1–x100) change with each spin and lock during respins. On the right, hidden multipliers (x2–x20) are revealed only on 5-of-a-kind wins. When a win occurs, the left and right multipliers are combined and applied to the payline.

Olympian Respins

When a win occurs with any combination of high-paying or wild symbols, those winning symbols stick to the reels while everything else respins. This continues as long as the high-paying wins keep growing, new high-paying wins are formed, or there are no more empty positions. Low pays do not stick or trigger respins. All low-paying symbol wins during Olympian Respins are directly awarded, while wins with high-paying symbols are awarded at the end of the respin sequence. A win with 5 wild symbols pays twice - when it lands and after the respin.

Temple of Jupiter

Temple of Jupiter and 10 free spins are awarded when 3 FS scatters land in the base game. This bonus retains the mechanics of the base game, plus there's an increased chance of triggering higher multipliers. In all bonus rounds, hitting 2 or 3 FS scatters awards a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Immortal Gains

Hitting 4 FS scatters in the base game awards 10 free Immortal Gains spins. In this feature, the rules of Temple of Jupiter apply, in addition to Left Multipliers all having a minimum value of x5.

Dominus Maximus - Hidden Bonus

Dominus Maximus' 10 free spins are triggered when landing 5 FS scatters in the base game. It keeps the mechanics of Immortal Gains and adds a Middle Multiplier to the third reel. The Left and Middle Multiplier are multiplied and applied to all wins with at least 3 symbols after the spin is complete. Possible values on the Middle Multiplier are x2 to x20. When a 5 OAK win occurs, all 3 multipliers are activated.

Feature Buy

BonusHunt FeatureSpins make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game and cost 3x the bet. Fate and Fury FeatureSpins cost 50x to guarantee at least one win with a high-paying symbol. Bonus rounds can be bought at 100x for Temple of Jupiter or 200x for Immortal Gains.

Invictus: Slot Verdict

Few, if any, software providers do the dark, monochrome, broody thing quite like Hacksaw Gaming does. One explanation for its successful implementation is that the heavy visuals don't just pair well with a heavy-duty set of features and math model but also because the studio brightens up the place with dabs of striking colours, made all the brighter due to the contrasting black, white, and grey. This technique arguably first saw use in Chaos Crew, an early release that helped stamp Hacksaw Gaming's premier slot designing credentials on the gambling scene and has been regularly rolled out over the years to become a key plank in the studio's tool kit.

On the mechanical side, multipliers, in whatever form, are another Hacksaw Gaming staple. The particular way Invictus drops multipliers into the action is quite unique for the studio, however, and the way players get a hint of their abilities in the base game before increasingly tweaked and potent forms of the feature grace the three ascending bonus rounds is a classic Hacksaw Gaming move, too.

Individually, Left Adding Multiplier values can theoretically get quite high, but combining up to three of them is where things get silly, in a good way. Invictus's acme phase, Dominus Maximus, if you can trigger it, has a steep parabolic effect where a 3 OAK gets two multiplied multipliers, but a 5 OAK gets all three combined. Hacksaw Gaming has shown a lot of love for Hidden Bonuses that cannot be bought recently, so a sizable dollop of patience and luck might be needed to witness them.

There was something a tad one-dimensional about the multiplier mechanic, despite it levelling up through bonus rounds, though Olympian Respins does help offset this impression to a degree. Invictus remains a strong game, though, with a 10,000x win cap and explosive Hacksaw Gaming gameplay that can go from zero to a hundred in a blink.