Through the Fire: Slot Overview

The latest chapter in South Africa-based NowNow Gaming‘s unpredictable run has the studio setting humanity against one of its oldest terrors: the wolf. And not a typical beast, either—this one walks upright, dresses in clothes, and wields a stabbing weapon rather than stalking on all fours and relying only on claws. Created in partnership with Hacksaw Gaming, the slot is Through the Fire, and alongside its feral theme, players should keep an eye on the sticky wild, total multiplier, respin combination.

NowNow Gaming calls Through the Fire a ‘dark gothic fantasy where primal forces of nature and humanity clash’, and that conflict plays out across two stages. In the base game, you face a wolf in a ragged suit, knife in hand, poised to tear through a gloomy, wooded, graveyard-like setting. Trigger or buy the bonus, and a cut scene introduces two human warriors before a red mist takes over the palette. The duo—made up of a ‘fierce lady’ and a ‘stoic man’—quite literally fights the wolf on the reels to generate sticky wilds and more, in a presentation that atmospherically recalled the studio’s slot Shadow Treasure.

Through the Fire is a 5×5 slot featuring 19 paylines, paying on combinations of 3 to 5 OAK. In terms of stakes, the minimum is $/€0.10, while the top bet reaches $/€100 per spin. Its highly volatile model is offered in two RTP versions, with 96.26% being the preferred return.

The low-paying symbols are five extra-spiky 10-A card royals, returning 1x to 2.5x the bet for 5-of-a-kind. Higher-value icons include a cup, a vial, a cross, a Lady, and a Man, paying 5x to 25x for five in a winning line. The Wild Wolf substitutes for every paytable symbol and only enters the reels after a successful Wild Wolf Battle. Landing 5 wilds on a payline awards 50x the bet.

Through the Fire: Slot Features

To make it through this blaze, the game brings Wild Wolf Battles, sticky wilds, respins, a multiplier meter, free spins, and feature buys.

Wild Wolf Battle

Whenever a Battle symbol lands at the same time as at least one Man or Lady symbol, a Wild Wolf Battle Occurs. Each Lady or Man symbol fights the wolf in its position, with two possible results. If the Wolf loses, the Lady or Man symbol remains unchanged. If the Wolf wins, the Lady or Man symbol transforms into a Wild Wolf, which is a sticky wild that locks in place for the rest of the sequence. If at least one Wolf won a battle, a respin is triggered where sticky wilds remain locked. Any new Lady or Man symbols that land start fresh battles, which can keep producing respins until no additional Wild Wolf is created.

Wild Wolf Multipliers

Sticky wild symbols created through a battle may arrive with a random multiplier of x1 to x500 for the Man symbol multipliers, or x1 to x50 for the Lady. During the Wild Wolf Battle, all multipliers from sticky wild symbols are added to the multiplier meter before any payouts are made. Once a multiplier is collected, the wild stays locked on the reels but no longer carries its multiplier. Any newly created sticky wilds with multipliers add their values to the meter before wins are evaluated. All payline wins are multiplied by the current multiplier meter value, and wins from later respins are multiplied by the updated meter at the moment each respin resolves. The meter activates when the Wild Wolf Battle starts, continues building throughout the feature, and does not reset between respins. It resets only when the feature ends, then starts again the next time a Wild Wolf Battle triggers.

Inferno Hunt Bonus

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. The base game rules remain in effect, with the key difference that the multiplier meter does not reset for the entire bonus round. Scatters do not appear during the feature, so it cannot be retriggered.

Feature Buys

BonusHunt Feature Spins increase the chance of triggering a bonus game by 5 times for 3x the bet, while Wolf Battle FeatureSpins cost 50x to guarantee the Battle symbol plus at least a Man or Lady symbol on every spin. The Inferno Hunt Bonus can be purchased for 100x the bet.

Through the Fire: Slot Verdict

Following slots such as Forbidden Fury, Street Knockout, and now Through the Fire, NowNow Gaming once again shows a taste for building confrontation into its releases. Here, that tension plays out when a Battle symbol lands and sparks fights on every Man or Lady symbol currently on the screen. Curiously, you’re actually hoping the wolf wins these duels, because that’s what converts those symbols into sticky wilds. At first, the setup carries a faint echo of Hacksaw Gaming’s VS symbols, especially since each converted sticky wild can also bring a multiplier.

That said, it feels more like a nod than a copy of VS symbols, as the transformed Lady or Man symbols don’t expand to cover their reels and instead stay standard-sized. They also remain sticky for the following respins, which can, in theory, generate additional sticky wilds to extend the respin chain and keep wins coming. At times, Through the Fire also suggested shades of Yggdrasil Gaming’s Vikings Go series, though with a tighter focus rather than the rage meters, chests, and other Viking-slot extras. A standout element is the multiplier meter, and with potential values of up to x50 or x500 from Lady and Man symbols, it can theoretically climb to a formidable level—helped in free spins by the fact it persists until the feature ends.

Overall, Through the Fire is a solid man-versus-beast slot that fills the reels with sticky wild respins and multipliers as it goes. It can feel a touch repetitive since the core action is broadly similar in both the base and bonus games, but that also means the 10,000x max win is in play at any point. A higher-tier free spins mode with an added mechanic might have brought more variety and an extra reason to keep pushing to unlock it, yet what’s included can still deliver a suitably bloody, knife-edged rush.