Xmas Drop Slot by Hacksaw Gaming - Free Play & Review 2024

Xmas Drop Review

The Holidays season is also a season for reskin jobs in the world of online slots, and that’s exactly what you get from Hacksaw this time. Xmas Drop is a Christmas version of RIP City, and Santa keeps you company all the way. He provides typical jolly action commentary and ho-ho-ho, and at first glance, this looks like a surprisingly traditional Xmas release from the usually creative developer. There is a jaw-dropping moment to look forward to, however, and we mean that quite literally.

The Santa Wild drops his jaw downwards as the symbol expands, and you can get multiple wilds that fill entire reels. What’s more, if the jaw drops through a Xmas Gift Wild on the way down, the Santa Wild gets upgraded with a multiplier up to x200. This keeps the base game interesting, and you get even more jaw-dropping action in the bonus round. The top-tier bonus round comes with activatable reels for guaranteed Santa Wilds, and the 12,500x seems generous for a medium volatile seasonal game like this.

Hacksaw Gaming - Slot Developer

Hacksaw Gaming started out with cartoonish slapstick slot releases, but their big break only came when they started to explore their dark side. They are amongst the most popular game providers out there, and this is impressive since they’ve only been around since 2018.

Slot Theme And Storyline

The Christmas theme you get in Xmas Drop looks traditional and almost boring at first glance, so the jaw-dropping Santa Wilds really took us by surprise. It’s a bit of a spoiler to be aware of this before you test the game, but hopefully you’ve already tried the free Xmas Drop demo game at the top of this review page. You get cozy action commentary from Santa himself, which is not uncommon with a theme like this.

Xmas Drop RTP, Volatility, And Max Win

The top-tier Xmas Drop RTP of 96.22 % is a bit above average. However, the RTP can be adjusted down to 94.27, 92.32, or 88.02 %, depending on the market. This is a medium volatile Christmas installment from Hacksaw, which makes it suitable for most player types. The Xmas Drop max win of 12,500x the stake is unusually solid for this volatility level, which is something to consider.

Xmas Drop Slot - Reels Screen

Xmas Drop Rules And Gameplay

You can place bets between £0.1 and £100 per spin in Xmas Drop slot, and the game plays out on a 5x5 grid with 19 paylines. You win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols across any given payline starting from the leftmost reel, and the win hit frequency is 18 %. This means that you can expect a win around every 4 spins on average, and both wild symbols substitute for any pay symbol to help complete or improve wins. Wilds also pay for 5 of a kind only, and they come with more tricks up their sleeves as we shall see below.

Symbols And Paytable

Xmas Drop Bonuses And Special Features

Both wild symbols play a central part in this game, and not least when they combine forces to give you jaw-dropping (literally) multiplier wilds. You also get 2 bonus rounds in Xmas Drop slot, and the wild features take center stage in an enhanced way.

Wild Santa Symbol

Wild Santa symbols expand downwards to the bottom of the grid if this means that at least one winning combination can be formed. Non-expanding Santa Wilds still count as a 1x1-sized wild, however, and the expanded Santa Wild also substitutes for pay symbols on all expanded positions. You can land only one Santa Wild per reel.

Wild Gift Symbol

The Gift Wild symbol also substitutes for pay symbols to help complete wins, but the magic happens when the Santa Wild expands through a Gift Wild symbol. This upgrades the expanded Santa Wild with a multiplier of x2 to x200, and Santa Wild multipliers are added together if more than one expanded Santa multiplier wild is part of the same win.

Night Before Xmas Free Spins

You need 3 FS scatters in view to trigger the Night Before Xmas Bonus Round, and this gives you 10 free spins. You can expect more frequent Santa and Gift wild symbols to land than in the base game, and you get +4 extra spins if 3 FS symbols land on the same free spin. Landing 4 FS scatters gives you the top-tier Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Bonus Round after the current feature has played out.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Free Spins

You can trigger the Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Free Spins feature from the base game as well, and this is done by landing 4 FS scatters in view. You get 10 free spins either way, and Wild Santa symbols can activate reels at random times when they appear. Activated reels remain active for the duration of the feature, and this guarantees that a Wild Santa lands per free spin. You win +4 extra free spins should you land 3 FS scatters during the bonus round.

Xmas Drop Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players can choose from 5 different feature and bonus buy options in the Bonus Buy menu, and these are as follows:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins (RTP of 96.44 %) - pay 3x the stake to boost your bonus round chances by 5x.
• 2 Wild Santas FeatureSpins (RTP of 96.34 %) - pay 20x the stake to be guaranteed 2+ Wild Santas.
• 3 Wild Santas FeatureSpins (RTP of 96.31 %) - pay 50x the stake to get 3+ Wild Santas per spin.
• Night Before Xmas FS (RTP of 96.2 %) - pay 110x the stake to get this bonus round.
• Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (RTP of 96.41 %) - pay 200x the stake to get this bonus round.

The 200 Spins Xmas Drop Online Slot Experience

You get a brief and uneventful taste of the base game, before we purchase the top-tier Xmas Drop Free Spins round at 0:31 into the 1:38-minute highlights video. You get to see some jaw-dropping Santa Wild action for sure, and you can click the play button below to check it all out for yourself.

Review Summary And Verdict

We have to admit that our jaw dropped almost as far as the Santa Wilds’ the first time we saw this feature in action. It’s a hilarious spectacle to behold for sure, but other than that Hacksaw hasn’t really poured too much creativity into this release. It’s more or less a reskin of RIP City for starters, and the Xmas theme doesn’t really stick out too much overall. Understandably, studios don’t prioritize seasonal releases, but we have seen far worse reskin jobs than this in that regard.

That being said, Xmas Drop is a highly playable and fun game, and you get plenty of expanding wilds action in all stages. Up to x200 multiplier wilds that cover up to full reels can certainly do damage, and not least since the multipliers combine if more than one is part of the same win. Hacksaw usually delivers well-balanced games where massive payouts can come out of the blue, and this is also the case with Xmas Drop slot. Overall, this is a pretty solid Holidays release, and the 12,500x potential is well above average for a mid-range game like this.

Pros And Cons Of Xmas Drop Online Slot

How To Play Xmas Drop At An Online Casino

We have already given you our opinion in the Xmas Drop review verdict above, and we suggest that you try the free Xmas Drop demo game before playing for real money at a casino. If you feel ready for it, however, you can follow these simple steps to get started with Xmas Drop real money action in no-time:

• Follow this link to find a confirmed Xmas Drop casino at the top of this page.
• Sign up with your chosen casino and deposit money to claim your welcome offer.
• Head to the game lobby and search for Xmas Drop.

Similar Slots To Try

If you enjoy Xmas Drop game, you can also try:

RIP City - is a black and white-ish slapstick cartoon slot from Hacksaw, and it’s very similar to the game at hand except for the theme. You get highly entertaining cat-and-mouse antics in this original game, and you can win up to 12,500x your stake.

Let It Snow - is a previous Xmas slot from Hacksaw, and it plays out on a 6x6-sized cluster pays grid with spreading symbols. The direction is determined by a compass needle, and you can also look forward to a bonus round for payouts up to 7,400x the stake.

Fat Santa - is a Push Gaming Xmas release that’s a clone of their popular Fat Rabbit. However, it comes with a 3 times higher potential of 6,405x your stake, as well as a bonus buy option for eligible players. This makes the game well worth checking out, and not least in the Holidays season.

Play The Game On Your Mobile

You can surely play Xmas Drop on your mobile, and this game is optimized for all handheld units. This means that you can enjoy playing at all the boring Christmas parties you may have to attend, if you wish, and it works perfectly on both Android and iOS units. No mobile app is needed to play either, thanks to HTML5 technology.

Strategy And Tips For Winning

The best Xmas Drop strategy is to play the free demo game first, and then decide if you want to play for real money. Other than that, you can play with a strategy that we think is fun at least. Try to guess when the next bonus round triggers, and increase your bet level before it happens to possibly win more from the feature.

Xmas Drop Demo Version And Free Play

You can check the free Xmas Drop demo via this link to the top of the review page. It’s a good idea to test the free version first, as this gives you a good idea of what you can expect when you play for real money. You get a sense of the game’s volatility, and you can find the best bet level for your specific budget.