Sand and Ashes Slot Preview: Hacksaw Heads to Egypt

by Kevin Lentz, 8 May 2026

Sand and Ashes by Hacksaw Gaming sweeps in on May 14, 2026, bringing a much darker Egyptian theme with sticky respins, storm modifiers, and multipliers up to 999x. With a 10,000x max win and medium volatility, it’s all about familiar mechanics but pushing them harder.

Respins with multiplier wilds in desert setting

Sand and Ashes in Brief:

• Release Date: 14 May 2026
• Type: Video Slot
• Theme: Ancient Egypt, Afterlife, Desert
• Software Studio: Hacksaw Gaming
• RTP: 96.27%
• Hit Frequency: 32.9%
• Volatility: Medium
• Special Features: Respins, Multipliers, Storm Modifiers
• Bonus Rounds: Desert Fury, Storming Sphinx
• How to Trigger Bonus Round: Land 3 or more Scatter Symbols

We’re not sure if we’re meant to fear the mummies or the weather here. We’ve got Firestorms and Sandstorms alongside Desert Fury and Storming Sphinx, so best to keep an eye on the circling skies as we settle into another Ancient Egyptian-themed slot.

Hacksaw has decided against any light-hearted attempts at levity here, perhaps hoping not to tempt Anubis’s scale. It has gone for a slightly spookier horror feel, as evidenced by the skull and the glowing red-eyed wraith in the foreground of the base game.

The action itself takes place on a 5×5 grid with 19 paylines. You can expect a mix of short-term, smaller wins with bigger payouts happening less frequently, for a true medium volatility, with an expected RTP of 96.2%.

Full Rules & Information About the Sand and Ashes Online Slot

Keep an eye out for the blue wild scarabs, as they can sub for any symbol in the game, but more importantly, they carry a multiplier value from 2x to 200x. If there is more than one scarab in the winning paylines the totals are added together.

Once everything is totalled up, there is a respin, but the scarab and, more importantly, its multiplier stay stuck in place. Land yet another scarab, and you get yet another respin, and so on.

The other thing is that when these scarabs appear is when the weather can change rapidly, as there is a chance that you might trigger a Firestorm or Sandstorm before that respin. In the Firestorm, the multipliers on all the wild scarab beetles randomly go up. Then the new symbols spin in, and any new winners are paid.

In the Sandstorm, however, the beetles instead scurry to the left. Then new symbols land, and new winning payline are totaled up. Though clearly those already on the far left reel are stuck as are those blocked by other symbols.

Sand and Ashes Symbols & Payouts

The lower paying symbols are some rather sharply detailed Jack through Ace, then we have Sobek the Crocodile God, Anubis looking rather warriorlike, a golden Horus Hawk, and the Pharaoh. Five Scarabs also pay as well.

Multiplier wilds and top symbol payouts

• All symbols: 9
• Highest-Paying Symbol: Pharoh
• Wilds: Mutliplier Wilds
• Paylines Pay: Left to Right
• Maximum Win: 10,000x

Sand and Ashes Bonuses & Features

Three of the FS scatters puts us into the Desert Fury Bonus Game, which gets us 8 free spins, as well as an increased chance at landing those valuable blue scarab multiplier wilds. Two additional FS Scatters give us +2 free spins, and three FS Scatters in this round give us +4 free spins.

200x your bet gets you into Storming Sphinx with ten free spins

If we land four FS scatters back in the Base Game, it kicks us into the Storming Sphinx bonus game. This one gives us ten free spins, but no scarab respins this time; instead, we can land either Firestorm or Sandstorm in each free spin.

If you land one of those blue bugs now, they are sticky until the bonus round ends, which can add up very quickly, though the Sandstorm might move them around the grid a bit.

Similar Games & Best Alternatives

This game immediately drew us back to other Ancient Egyptian slots from Hacksaw like Hand of Anubis or Temple of Torment, both of which still rank amongst our favorite Old Egypt titles to play from any studio.

While it has a completely different feel than this game, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Hacksaw’s lighter take on Mummies in Le Pharaoh. All the traditional elements of Smokey Le Bandit titles, Sticky Redrops, Clover and Coin symbols, the Golden Squares, but you know, in a pyramid.

Ancient Curses, RTP Treasure

The thing with Hacksaw is that they don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They have tried-and-true mechanics that fans love. All they really have to do is change the theme and shuffle through this parade of hit features they’ve come up with, and they’ve got another hit on their hands.

Here, not only do they have a classic theme, eerily well presented, but also their always-hot multiplier wilds that can go as high as 999x, alongside sticky scarab respins. Best of all, they haven’t tweaked the volatility to such a nosebleed level that it’s painful to play.

Not only is the medium volatility refreshing, but the fact that they kept RTP over 96.2% means we can get some actual time on device, well, if we are tempted by all those expensive bonus buy features, in any case.