Circle of Life: Slot Overview

No one knows what comes after we leave this world, but one certainty is that our bodies don’t last forever. Maybe the comfort is in being part of the circle of life: the ongoing natural loop where living things are born, grow, die, and eventually make way for new life. A constant cadence where every start is born from an ending, and every ending fuels what follows. Sorry if that turns a little weighty, but that’s exactly the kind of mindset sparked by developer Hacksaw Gaming’s release Circle of Life, an online slot with unusually serious themes, and a title that shares DNA with the studio’s earlier game, Life and Death.

As with its predecessor, Circle of Life leans heavily into a near-monochrome look, saving brighter tones for the evolving Tree of Life feature. The restrained palette adds to the gravity, and Circle of Life isn’t the pick for anyone chasing light, cheerful, everyday spinning. Still, everything Hacksaw Gaming puts on display is crafted with care—from the faceless figures flanking the grid that collapse into skeletons and return again, to the tree visuals behind the reels. Circle of Life feels deliberately built not only to deliver adrenaline spikes when it heats up, but also to keep the mind engaged during quieter stretches.

To nurture this symbolic garden, players select a stake of $/€0.10 to $/€50 per spin, and there are four feature buys to choose from. This is a highly volatile slot, and among the four RTP setups, 96.33% is the top value. The action plays out on a 5×4 matrix, with 14 paylines used to calculate winning combinations.

Dropping onto the reels are 10-A card ranks that pay 1x the bet for a 5 OAK line-up, alongside five detailed premium symbols tied to the theme, paying up to 2x to 5x the bet. Wilds can land on every reel, replacing all standard paying symbols, and they pay 5x when five of them form a win.

Circle of Life: Slot Features

Circle of Life populates its reels with Tree of Life symbols, the Circle of Life, three bonus rounds – Origin, Eternal, and Rebirth, plus feature buys.

Tree of Life

Tree symbols act as wild symbols, and they reveal an added multiplier of x2 to x100. When included in a win, the multiplier boosts the payout amount, and if multiple wilds contribute to the same win, their values are added together. If a Tree symbol helps create a win, a respin is activated, and the Tree expands into a Tree of Life. Any winning Tree symbols stick to the grid for the respin and grow upward by one row. Respins keep rolling as long as new wins land on the Tree of Life or via other Tree symbols. The Tree of Life continues to extend by one row with each respin sequence. Once a Tree of Life is fully expanded, it is removed on the following respin or spin.

Circle of Life

When a Tree of Life fully expands from the bottom row all the way to the top row, the Circle of Life activates on it, triggering during the respin before the grid locks in. The Circle of Life spins and stops on a multiplier or a Skull. Any multiplier result is combined with the Tree of Life, either adding x2 to x100 or multiply it by x2. The Circle of Life keeps spinning and applying outcomes until it hits a Skull, which ends the sequence.

Spreading FS Symbols

When 3 or more FS scatters appear, each one expands to cover the full reel it landed on after payouts are awarded. Every position the FS symbol spreads into displays a number of free spins, and all values are totalled and granted. Possible values are +1, +2, or +3. When a bonus is triggered or purchased, there is a chance FS symbols transform into Upgrade symbols, which move players into a higher bonus. Landing 3 scatters with 1 Upgrade grants Eternal, while 3 scatters with 2 Upgrades or 4 scatters with 1 Upgrade grants Rebirth.

Free Spins

• Origin Bonus Game – 3 expanding FS symbols trigger this feature. It keeps the base game mechanics, plus, when a Tree is part of a win, the Tree of Life is sticky on the next free spin, and remains sticky until it is no longer part of a win. A fully expanded Tree of Life is removed for the next free spin. Respins do not trigger. In the two lower bonus games, landing FS symbols awards extra free spins, +4 to +12 each.
• Eternal Bonus Game – 4 landed FS scatters trigger this round. On top of Origin’s mechanics, a reel becomes activated when a Circle of Life triggers on it. The reel stays active till the end of the round, and guarantees a Tree symbol lands on each spin, unless it already has a Tree or a Tree of Life.
• Rebirth Hidden Epic Bonus – Landing 5 FS scatters unlocks the hidden epic bonus round. It keeps the mechanics of Rebirth while activating reels 2 and 4 from the start.

Feature Buy

Circle of Life’s feature buy menu includes four options. These are BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 5x, which makes each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game (the game sheet says 10 times more likely), and Life or Death FeatureSpins at 70x to purchase a spin that guarantees at least 2 Tree symbols land. Buying Origin costs 100x, while Eternal is available for 300x the bet.

Circle of Life: Slot Verdict

Circle of Life is a Hacksaw Gaming title that fuses mechanics and atmosphere so tightly that the gameplay doesn’t merely sit alongside the theme—it becomes part of it. For that reason, it’s likely not the best choice for casual spins aimed at colourful, switch-off entertainment. Instead, Circle of Life serves up tension and suspense, and feeds a strangely morbid curiosity as you watch things grow, fall apart, and start over. Much like Life and Death, it earns praise for stepping away from the usual neon slot aesthetic. The harsh visuals, deteriorating figures, and sudden colour from the growing trees create a mood that’s reflective, unsettling, and oddly beautiful at the same time. It’s the kind of slot that invites thought as much as it invites another spin.

The Tree of Life feature is the game’s core driver, and once it starts growing, the grid shakes off its grey gloom and opens up more ways for things to escalate. That impact ramps up even further when multiple Tree of Life symbols are active together and their multipliers stack. Hacksaw Gaming has used the expanding multiplier concept plenty of times, and some players may feel it’s familiar territory, but it remains a ruthless engine when a small spark turns into a blaze, then into a full inferno of expanding Trees and rising multipliers. The Circle of Life adds another strong layer; if it avoids the Skull segment for long enough, it can generate hefty multiplier outcomes. Spreading FS symbols feels like a fresher touch for Hacksaw Gaming, and this trigger style can hand out a substantial number of free spins.

As with its grim sibling, Circle of Life offers a top win of 15,000x the bet, available across all modes. Even with the clear connections, Circle of Life stands on its own, though it leans more toward a classic expanding wild multiplier Hacksaw Gaming formula, with respins, the Circle of Life, and spreading scatters added into the mix. So while it may not be an obvious upgrade over Life and Death, Circle of Life is a strong entry, and it just might revive a struggling bankroll when it starts to bloom.