By Alex Smith Feb 29, 2024

Deadwood Review

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Deadwood is one of the most successful releases from growing industry giant Nolimit City. This Western-themed video online slot is somewhat of a sequel to Tombstone slots, a popular release from Nolimit City back in 2019.

Deadwood pretty clearly picks up where Tombstone left off. The new sequel is bolder, brighter, and offers an even higher degree of volatility, making it perfect for those in search of those big hits.

In this Deadwood slot review, we will take a comprehensive, in-depth, and impartial look at what the slot has to offer.

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SoftwareNolimit City
RTP96.03%
Paylines576
Reels5
Min Bet0.20
Max Bet100

Which Online Casinos Play Deadwood?

CasinoMax
8.8
Ours
8
Players
Payout speed empty starempty starempty starstarstar
Withdrawal limits empty starempty starstarstarstar
Customer service starstarstarstarstar
3Dice Casino
9.1
Ours
9.5
Players
Payout speed starstarstarstarstar
Withdrawal limits starstarstarstarstar
Customer service starstarstarstarstar
Pub Casino
9.6
Ours
8
Players
Payout speed empty starempty starstarstarstar
Withdrawal limits starstarstarstarstar
Customer service starstarstarstarstar

Overview

Wild West games are certainly nothing new. When we started to write this review, we were worried Nolimit City would be greeting us with yet another cookie-cutter Wild Western themed slots with a generic free spin bonus.

The reality, thankfully, couldn’t be further from the truth. Deadwood is now one of the most successful Nolimit City releases in history.

Deadwood has 5 reels, and it uses a 3-4-4-4-3 format, so there are 576-ways-to-win active on each spin. This 576-ways-to-win mechanic eradicates paylines; simply landing a 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, or 5-of-a-kind combo from left-to-right anywhere in view secures a win.

Deadwood can be played from as little as $0.10 per spin, with a default max bet of $100. We say by default because some slots sites have a lower max bet due to the significant win potential from a player spinning for $100!

Bonus features are what this game is all about. Later in this review, we’ll look at details of these and how the main free spin bonus works.

RTP and Volatility

Nolimit City has a bit of a thing for developing slots that are high volatility. High variance games appear to be popular with players too. With many such games (including NetEnt’s Dead or Alive II and Relax Gaming’s Money Train 2 offering a win-potential of 100,000 and 50,000 times your bet, respectively), there’s a big market for these kinds of games.

Make no mistake; Deadwood is very volatile. The game offers a maximum win of a staggering 13,950 times your stake per spin, so you can expect the base game to play pretty brutally at times, like all high variance slots.

When it comes to the RTP, 96.03 is what you’ll get when playing Nolimit’s Deadwood slot. It’s a fair RTP of a slot game of this nature. We should point out that if you use the bonus buy feature, the RTP increases slightly by 0.10%.

Symbols and Payouts

As part of writing this Deadwood review, we looked at the game’s symbols and payouts. In their Deadwood slot, Nolimit City has used playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace, to represent the lower-paying symbols.

The high-value symbols – the premiums – include a Double Barreled Shotgun, Gold Bars, Whiskey Bottles, Money Safes, Gold Watches, and three scatters, giant Buffalo Skulls. There are also Sheriff Badges on reels 1 and 5. When you play Deadwood, you’ll want to watch these, as they play a major role in the free spin bonus. More on that shortly.

Bonuses and Features

If you ever had the chance to play Tombstone, you’ll probably recognize a few of the base-game features in Deadwood. The software provider has packed plenty of new bonuses and features into their Deadwood slot, too, so it’s a brand-new experience for all.

Below, in the next part of our slot review, we will be taking a look at the various bonuses and features.

xNudge Wilds

The Hunter Wild is what most players will probably recognize most from Tombstone. This fully stacked symbol – the Hunter Wild – can appear stacked on reels 2, 3, and 4. When one or more of the hunter wilds land partially in view, Nolimit City’s xNudge Wilds feature comes into action.

This sees the hunter wild nudging up or down to cover the entire reel. For each “nudge,” a multiplier increases by 1X. This multiplier is applied to the total win for that spin, and multipliers multiply against one another, too!

Shoot Out Feature

The Shoot out Feature in Deadwood is similar to the Justice Spins bonus we saw in Tombstone. During the base game, if you land the Sheriff Badge on reels 1 and 5, you will trigger the shoot out feature.

Once triggered, all of the low-value symbols on the middle three reels will transform into wild symbols, making it fairly easy to form 5-of-a-kind combos all the way across.

Free Spins

Deadwood is all about the free spins bonuses, and there are two different free spins features to look forward to. The free spins features are triggered in the same way. You’ll need to land three of the Buffalo Skull scatter symbols on the middle three reels during the base game.

You will then get to choose from two free spins options. These two free spins options offer you a lower variance and higher variance free spins feature, so you can customize the game’s volatility! Below, we’ll look at how both the free spins features work. There’s also a super bonus, of sorts, which we’ll cover shortly!

Both of the features see stacked wilds and the xNudge wild mechanic coming into play – so landing the xNudge wild symbol is beneficial. The Hunter Wilds appear in both, too.

Gunslinger Spins

The Gunslinger Spins is the higher variance free spins feature you’ll be able to choose from. If you select the Gunslinger Spins feature, you’ll be awarded 8 Gunslinger spins.

During the 8 Gunslinger spins, any hunter wild that lands on the reels nudges up and increases the multiplier; this multiplier is then locked in place for the duration of the free spins feature. You can also win bonus spins; bonus spins are awarded for landing one of the Sheriff Badge scatter symbols on reels one or five, awarding you with one extra free spin.

If you land a Sheriff badge on reels one and five on the same spin during the Gunslinger spins, you’ll trigger the Shoot Out Gunslinger spins. We’ll talk more about this – and how the Shoot Out Gunslinger Spins work in just a moment.

Hunter Spins

The second of the two free spins feature options you can choose is the Hunder Spins. If you choose the Hunter Spins, you’ll be awarded 8 “Hunter Spins.”

The 8 Hunter Spins free spins option is the lower variance (less risky) of the two bonus spins rounds, so you’re more likely to win – but you’re much less likely to win big.

At least one Hunter Wild is guaranteed to land on every spin during the Hunter Spins feature. There is no progressive multiplier, although if you manage to land the Sheriff Badges on both reels 1 and 5, you’ll also trigger the Shoot Out feature.

Shoot Out Free Spins

The biggest appeal to playing Nolimit City’s Deadwood slot is the Shoot Out Free Spins. There are two ways of triggering this. First, you can land the three regular scatter symbols during the base game and the Sheriff Badges on reels one and five. You can also trigger it by landing both the Sheriff’s Badge symbols during either of the regular free spins features.

During the Shoot Out Free Spins bonus, the Sheriff Badge symbols remain locked in place. All of the low value symbols on the middle three reels will turn wild on every spin.

Thanks to the xNudge feature, every time one of the Wild Hunter wilds lands on the middle reels, the win multiplier increases by 1X. This win multiplier then locks in place for the remainder of the bonus. You can land up to three Hunter Wilds on the middle reels on one spin!

With all of the low paying symbols transformed into wilds on every spin, if you can get a decent multiplier up on the online slot – and make it across with a premium like the gold bars – you can win up to 13,950X your stake per spin!

We should point out – landing the Shoot Out Free Spins bonus is not easy. At all.

It’s probably one of the hardest bonus features to land naturally – as you need the Sheriff Badges on reel 1, the regular scatter symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4, and the Sheriff Badges on reel 5. It’s like the super bonus on WMS’ Bruce Lee; it’s very hard to trigger.

Thankfully, Nolimit City has offered players an easier way to trigger the “super” free spins bonus in their Deadwood slot – details of which we cover below.

Feature Buy

We’ve seen bonus buys, features buys – whatever you want to call it – becoming a popular feature in many video slots released today. Barcrest likely started the trend way back with their Big Bet Machines. However, it wasn’t until Big Time Gaming came along and started to offer bonus buys that this type of playing kicked off.

Nolimit City has built a free spins feature buy mechanic in their Deadwood slot, allowing you to pay a fixed price to trigger any of the three bonus features the Wild West theme game offers.

How much the bonus buy costs depends on which option you choose. The two regular free spins bonuses – including the high risk Gunslinger Spins and the low risk Hunter Spins – start at 100X your stake, while buying instant access to the Shoot Out Free Spins feature costing a whopping 750X your stake!

This should give you an idea of how much this slot game can pay per spin; it is roughly the average amount the Shoot Out Free Spins feature will pay in the slot game!

Note: Not all online casinos offer feature buys. For example, no online casinos can offer real money bonus buys to UK players due to new regulations brought in by the UKGC. And, if you do choose to buy the bonus on Deadwood, you should make sure you play responsibly, as 750X your stake is a huge amount of money to risk!

Our verdict

Deadwood is a fantastic slot from Nolimit City. The game centers heavily around the free spins bonus, but you can hit some decent wins even without triggering the free spins.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the Shoot Out free spins. If you are lucky enough to trigger the free spin super bonus naturally, you’re all but guaranteed to hit a win of a few hundred times your stake – and, usually, much more.

The free spins are volatile – so even when you do land the regular free spins bonus, you can expect to see some dead bonuses. That’s all to be expected from slots like Deadwood; it just takes one good free spins bonus to deliver that once-in-a-lifetime win!

Deadwood Review FAQs

There are three ways of triggering this. First, you can land the three regular scatter symbols during the base game and the Sheriff Badges on reels one and five. You can also trigger it by landing both the Sheriff’s Badge symbols during either of the regular free spins features. Finally, Nolimit City lets you buy the feature for 750X your stake!

The software provider, Nolimit City, has built their Deadwood slot around a pretty decent RTP – and the game’s default RTP is 96.03%. Plus, if you choose to use the bonus buy option, the RTP increases by 0.10%

Like most slots around today, the actual betting limits in Deadwood are generally set by the casino hosting the game. However, while putting this review together, we discovered that the default betting limits – i.e. those offered by the developer as “standard” – are $0.10-$100. Bonus buys cost 750X your stake, so playing at $100/spin would cost an insane amount of money!

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Alex Smith

Alex is a 26-year-old writer from Brighton, in the UK, and for the past 8 years, he’s worked with a number of companies, creating content for blogs, news articles, and more. While Alex has written on a wide variety of topics, his speciality is online gambling – an industry he’s both passionate about, and experienced in. Having enjoyed gambling for over 7 years, Alex is a huge fan of video slots, and cites NetEnt, Big Time Gaming, Thunderkick, and Quickspin as his favourite providers. The topics he writes on are varied, but he loves nothing more than a good old slot review (he’s written over 1,000 slot reviews in his career), and he also enjoys writing in-depth gambling guides, along with casino reviews. In his spare time, Alex enjoys playing the guitar, and is a self-proclaimed horror film buff.

SoftwareNolimit City
RTP96.03%
Paylines576
Reels5
Min Bet0.20
Max Bet100