The Count

The Count: Slot Overview

The Count is a vampire-themed slot developed by Hacksaw Gaming, featuring a monochrome cartoonish horror aesthetic inspired by numerical obsession with a dark, blood-soaked twist. It utilises a 5×5 grid layout with 19 fixed paylines, delivering a classic slot gameplay style where wins form through matching symbols from left to right. Classified as high volatility rated at 4/5, the game offers an RTP of 96.36% and a maximum win potential of 12,500x the stake. Targeted at players who appreciate high-risk, high-reward experiences with expanding symbols, stacked multipliers, and escalating bonus features, The Count refines familiar mechanics into a focused, chaotic session that demands patience and tolerance for variance.

Design and Graphics

The Count employs a distinctive black-and-white cartoon horror visual style, accented by vivid red splashes during blood-related activations, creating a clean yet striking presentation. This aesthetic echoes other Hacksaw Gaming titles but stands out with its playful, slapstick tone. The central 5×5 grid is flanked by an animated vampire protagonist on the left, who bounces energetically, and a grinning skeleton companion on the right, mirroring his actions to add personality and dynamism.

The Count Slot – Base game

Symbols are designed as bold, chunky icons for optimal readability amid fast action: low-paying J to A card ranks in gothic font, and premium symbols including hammers, stakes, coffins, skulls, spiders, and headstones. The restricted monochrome palette ensures the grid remains uncluttered, even as multipliers and expansions overlap across reels. Background elements evoke a gothic laboratory or crypt, with subtle fog and cobwebs enhancing immersion without distraction.

Animations are crisp and purposeful, emphasising escalation. Expanded Bloody Wilds trigger thick red streams cascading down reels, while Wild Bat appearances feature fluttering wings and glowing effects. Transitions between spins are smooth, with expressive reactions from characters that heighten excitement during wins. Overall, the design balances spectacle and clarity, making it suitable for both desktop and mobile play, where the responsive graphics maintain quality across devices.

Gameplay Mechanics

The Count operates on a 5×5 grid with 19 fixed paylines, where winning combinations require 3 to 5 matching symbols landing from left to right on adjacent reels. The base game flows straightforwardly: players select their bet, spin the reels, and evaluate payouts based on symbol values. Low-paying symbols are the J, Q, K, and A card ranks, offering standard returns for clusters of 3-5. Higher-value symbols—hammers, stakes, coffins, skulls, spiders, and headstones—provide superior payouts, with headstones as the top symbol delivering the highest line wins.

Special symbols drive the core excitement. Wild symbols substitute for all regular paying symbols and independently pay 5x the bet for five-of-a-kind. Their potency stems from attached multipliers, which integrate into wins dynamically. Blood symbols can transform into Expanded Bloody Wilds: upon landing, a Blood symbol expands to cover its reel if it contributes to a win, potentially revealing a standard wild or a multiplier from x2 to x500. Multiple Expanded Bloody Wilds in a single win have their multipliers summed before applying to the total payout.

Wild Bat symbols further amplify potential, each carrying an additive multiplier from x2 to x500. When multiple Wild Bats land in the same winning spin, their values add together. An Epic Wild Bat, identifiable by distinct visuals, spreads its multiplier value to all other Wild Bats and Expanded Bloody Wilds on the screen, enabling chain reactions where modest wins escalate exponentially. These mechanics ensure the base game, while simple, builds tension through random special symbol appearances, with a 31% hit frequency providing moderate win occurrences punctuated by high-variance spikes.

Bonus Features

The Count’s bonus features revolve around scatters triggering three distinct free spins rounds, alongside pervasive base-game specials like Expanded Bloody Wilds and Wild Bats. These create layered volatility, with potential for multipliers to stack dramatically.

The Count Slot – Free spins

Expanded Bloody Wilds and Wild Bat Symbols operate in both base and bonus play. Blood symbols expand to wilds with x2-x500 multipliers if winning; Wild Bats add their x2-x500 values, and Epic variants propagate multipliers across all qualifying symbols, often resulting in screen-wide boosts.

The bonuses escalate with scatter count:

The Count Slot – Bonus Buy

Feature buy options enhance accessibility: BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x the bet increase bonus chances; Fangtastic FeatureSpins at 50x boost special symbols; direct buys for Bat to the Bone (100x bet) and Rest in Pieces (300x bet). These allow strategic entry into high-volatility phases, complementing organic triggers.

Betting Options and Payouts

Betting accommodates a wide range from €0.10 to €75 per spin, appealing to casual players and high rollers alike. The 96.36% RTP is competitive, paired with high volatility (4/5) that favours infrequent but substantial wins, evidenced by the 31% hit frequency where base-game payouts cluster around special symbol interactions. Payouts scale linearly with bet size, emphasising premium symbols and multipliers: headstones yield top line pays, amplified exponentially by Wild Bats and expansions.

The 12,500x max win is realistically achievable via Count on Blood with stacked Epic multipliers, though variance demands extended sessions. Feature buys provide controlled volatility access, with costs reflecting payout upside—e.g., 300x for Rest in Pieces suits aggressive strategies. Overall, payout behaviour rewards feature chaining, where summed multipliers (up to multiple x500s) transform standard wins into peaks, balanced by dry spells inherent to high volatility.

Conclusion

The Count excels in refining Hacksaw Gaming‘s signature elements—expanding wilds, additive multipliers, and tiered free spins—into a cohesive, high-volatility package with a charming monochrome design. Strengths include the seamless integration of base-game specials like Expanded Bloody Wilds and Epic Wild Bats, which sustain engagement, alongside versatile betting and buy options for varied playstyles. The 19-payline grid and readable symbols ensure intuitive flow, while bonus progression via scatters adds strategic depth.

Weaknesses encompass the reliance on features for big wins, potentially frustrating low-volatility seekers, and a base game that, while functional, lacks independent depth beyond specials. The cartoon aesthetic may polarise, feeling too whimsical for grim horror fans. Nonetheless, it delivers explosive potential reliably. Players can test the slot risk-free using the built-in demo available on this page. The Count suits thrill-seekers chasing 12,500x chaos in a polished, personality-driven format.