Hand of Anubis: Slot Overview

It’s curious how often the Ancient Egyptian god Anubis is portrayed as a kindly figure. In slot games, he frequently appears as a calm jackal statue. That clearly wasn’t intense enough for developer Hacksaw Gaming, which has taken a far different approach with its online slot, Hand of Anubis. After all, Anubis was the deity who weighed the hearts of the newly dead against a feather to decide what kind of eternity awaited them in the afterlife. That’s a staggering level of power and responsibility, considering eternity is, well, a very long time.

Anyone choosing Hand of Anubis may feel as if their deeds didn’t quite measure up, because the jackal-headed god doesn’t look particularly pleased here. A cold, blue-eyed jackal deity stands on one side of the grid, mirrored by an equally icy red-eyed counterpart on the other. Hacksaw leans into a deeply dark colour scheme across the entire game, and even with a pyramid in the background, Hand of Anubis is the complete opposite of the usual Egypt-themed slot aesthetic. It has a Stakelogic’s Gods of Death meets ELK’s Cygnus, meets ripped jackal vibe. The result is weighty, ominous, and probably not ideal for players after a lighter Egypt adventure.

The setup also feels a bit ELK-like, since every spin drops 30 symbols into a 5-column, 6-row grid, and you’re aiming to form clusters of at least 5 touching matching symbols. Volatility is rated at 5 out of 5, and in a Hacksaw slot, that’s no joking matter. Make sure you check the RTP, as there are four configurations, with the top version reaching 96.24%, plus a hit frequency of 36.92%. Stakes begin at just 10 p/c and climb to $/€100 per paid drop, and the game runs on any device.

To create clusters, players have ten standard tiles available to do so. The paytable uses 10-A card ranks as the lower symbols, topped by five gold, jewel-studded Egyptian-style tokens as the premiums. Small wins start with 5 low symbols paying 0.1x the bet, rising to 15x the bet for 11+ symbols. Hitting 5 high symbols returns 0.3-1x the stake, while premium clusters of 11+ pay 20-60 times your stake.

Hand of Anubis: Slot Features

Hand of Anubis comes with Soul Orbs, an Underworld bonus game, a Judgement bonus game, plus feature buy options.

Soul Orbs

During the base game, a red Soul Orb, a blue Soul Orb, or both can randomly hit. The Orbs act as wild symbols and carry progressive multipliers. The red Soul Orb increases its multiplier by +1 for every symbol in each winning cluster, while the blue Soul Orb increases its multiplier by +1 per winning cluster. These multipliers apply to any win involving the Orbs, and if more than one Orb contributes to a win, they multiply each other.

Underworld

Hitting exactly 3 bonus symbols launches the Underworld bonus round, set in a location that looks even more sinister than the base game. First, note the five numbers beneath the grid; each represents a multiplier that begins at zero. Every time a winning cluster lands, the count of winning symbols on each reel is added to the corresponding multiplier below it. In addition, Anubis Skull symbols may appear, and when they do, they multiply the number below them by x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10. These bottom multiplier values start off inactive, though, and require a green Soul Orb to land above them on the matching reel to activate. Each activation awards +3 spins are awarded. Crucially, the total of all active multipliers is applied to winning clusters. The max value of each multiplier is x9,999.

Judgement

Landing 4 bonus symbols starts Judgement. Here, regular symbols are removed, leaving only blank blocks or special blocks to drop. This hold & win feature begins with 3 spins and has multipliers positioned above each reel (similar in fashion to Chaos Crew). When Multiplier Modifier Blocks land, they increase the multiplier above them. There are four types:

• Skulls raise the value directly above them by +1-100.
• Epic Skulls add +1-100 to all multipliers.
• Anubis Skulls multiply the value above them by x2-x10.
• Epic Anubis Skulls multiply all values by x2 to x10.

If an Ice Block lands, it vanishes, and a Multiplier Block fills the empty space, taking the value of the multiplier above it. After each spin, Multiplier Blocks stack at the bottom of the grid while blank blocks are cleared away, and then the next drop happens. On top of that, Crusher blocks can appear, smashing Multiplier Blocks beneath them and collating their values into one block. Crushers also reset the spin count to 3. The bonus ends after three spins in a row without a Multiplier Block, Multiplier Modifier Block, or Crusher landing.

Bonus Buy

Where available, the feature buy button lets players jump straight into the Underworld bonus for 129x the bet (RTP 96.29%) or Judgement for 200x the bet (RTP 96.18%).

Hand of Anubis: Slot Verdict

Hacksaw Gaming’s imagination deserves credit. There may be as many Egyptian-themed slots as there are grains of sand in the desert, yet none feel quite like Hand of Anubis. The studio strips away the shiny gold trim and classic physical-slot styling that often comes with this theme, and there isn’t a single expanding symbol to be seen. Sure, it’s a cluster pays game, but you get the idea. Once again, Hacksaw shows how good it is at building dark, moody slots that are easy to get absorbed in.

They also excel at delivering the kind of seriously potent features found in Hand of Anubis, and it’s difficult to recall another review where we’ve typed the word “multiplier” so many times. Multipliers are central to Hand of Anubis across every stage of play—especially in the bonus rounds. Our first Underworld trigger showcased just how wild it can get when an x500+ multiplier appeared. Luckily, multiple green Soul Orbs had activated their values, allowing them to enhance wins. It’s not hard to picture the pain of assembling massive multipliers only to have them remain locked until the feature ends.

Maybe that strong first outcome influenced our view, but Underworld generally felt more tense and exciting than Judgement. Both bonus rounds carry hints of earlier Hacksaw Gaming titles, yet Hand of Anubis’ exceptionally rich atmosphere, along with its gameplay adjustments, makes it feel genuinely distinctive—and very entertaining. If you could push active multipliers in Underworld all the way to the x9,999 cap, Hand of Anubis might have gone toe-to-toe with Tombstone RIP as the alpha slot. Even so, there’s no doubt it has the firepower to hit its 10,000x win cap.

All told, Hand of Anubis is another heavyweight release from Hacksaw. Don’t be fooled: it can hit unsuspecting players with relentless harshness, but it also has what it takes to deliver some truly epic moments.