3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win launched on 28 May 2026 and it immediately stands out as a different kind of Hacksaw Gaming release. The studio is known for cluster pays, cascading wins, and high-volatility mechanics. Here they went back to basics: 17 fixed paylines, a 5x3 grid, medium volatility, and a three-chest pot mechanic that gives each session a clear, learnable structure.
3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win at a Glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | Hacksaw Gaming |
| Release Date | 28 May 2026 |
| Grid | 5x3 |
| Paylines | 17 fixed, left to right |
| RTP | 96.30% (top), 94.37%, 92.30%, 86.29% |
| Volatility | Medium (3/5) |
| Hit Frequency | ~47% |
| Min Bet | €0.10 |
| Max Bet | €100 |
| Max Win | 2,500x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes, four options |
The Theme
You are on The Red Revenge, Anne Bonny's ship, hunting cursed treasure on an unknown island where souls are traded for riches. It sounds dramatic and it looks the part, bold colours, a treasure map as the playing grid, gems and gold everywhere, Anne Bonny herself standing to the left of the reels with a pistol roughly the size of a small cannon.
Premium symbols are the compass, a flagon of ale, a note in a bottle, a parrot, and Anne Bonny at the top of the pay table. Five Anne Bonnys on a payline pays 8x the bet. Low-paying symbols are coloured jewels. Five of the same jewels pays 1.2x. The soundtrack leans swashbuckling without going overboard, good background energy for a longer session.
What immediately strikes you about 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win is how different it looks from a typical Hacksaw Gaming release. Less dark, more adventurous. It works.
How the Base Game Works
17 fixed paylines, wins left to right. Three or more matching symbols on a payline from reel one pays. Standard Hacksaw production values in terms of animation and responsiveness. The hit frequency sits around 47%, meaning close to half of all spins produce something, unusually active for a Hacksaw release, though most base game hits are modest.
Three coloured Pot symbols sit above the reels at all times, Green, Red, and Blue, each connected to its matching Chest. When a Pot symbol lands on the reels, it charges the corresponding Chest. Once a Chest is charged, there is a chance it activates at the end of that spin after all wins have been paid. Only one Chest can activate per spin.
This is the core mechanic of 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win. Pot symbols charge Chests, charged Chests activate features. Three features, three very different outcomes.
The Three Chest Features
Green Chest, Cursed Wilds Respin
A single respin where only regular paying symbols, Wilds, and Wild Multipliers can land. Wilds substitute for all regular symbols. Wild Multipliers boost any winning combination they contribute to, with possible values ranging from 2x up to 100x. If multiple Wild Multipliers land on the same winning payline, their values add together before the multiplier is applied.
The Green Chest is the simplest of the three features and the one most likely to produce a clean, satisfying win from a single well-placed Wild Multiplier landing on a strong payline.
Red Chest, Cursed Coins Bonus (Hold & Win)
This is the Hold & Win feature. It starts with three lives, each representing one free spin. Dead symbols and Coins can land during the sequence. Coins stick to the grid until the bonus ends.
Every time a Coin lands, the lives reset back to three. The bonus ends when all three lives are exhausted without a new Coin landing, or when the grid fills completely with Coins.
Coins come in four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond, each paying progressively larger multiples of the bet. This is the feature that BigWinBoard noted as the most common Chest trigger by a significant margin, the Red Chest fires more often than the other two in base play.
Blue Chest, Cursed FS Respin
Only Dead symbols, FS symbols, and FS Upgrade symbols can land during this respin. The symbols that land determine which free spins mode activates and how many spins you get.
- Seven or more FS symbols: triggers Treasure Cove with 7-15 free spins
- Six FS symbols plus one FS Upgrade symbol: triggers Ghostly Gallows with 7-15 free spins
The number of FS and FS Upgrade symbols that land determines the exact spin count, each symbol represents one free spin. Landing a better mix during the Cursed FS Respin directly improves your entry conditions for the bonus game.
The Two Free Spins Modes
Treasure Cove (7-15 Free Spins)
All base game mechanics apply. The key addition is a guarantee system built around Pot symbols. When three Pot symbols of the same colour land during the feature, that Chest is guaranteed to activate. If a Chest activates before three Pots of its colour land, the counter resets.
This means Chest triggers happen more consistently in Treasure Cove than in the base game, where activation is random after a Chest is charged. Landing three Green Pots guarantees a Cursed Wilds Respin. Three Red Pots guarantees a Cursed Coins Bonus. Building those counters across your spins is the session goal.
A Cursed Coins Bonus triggered during Treasure Cove counts as one free spin. Additional Cursed FS Respins can award two to ten extra spins. Landing an FS Upgrade symbol during Treasure Cove upgrades the feature to Ghostly Gallows, carrying over remaining and newly awarded spins.
Ghostly Gallows (7-15 Free Spins)
The stronger of the two modes. The pot trigger threshold drops completely, any Pot symbol that lands immediately activates its matching Chest on that spin. No three-Pot requirement, no counter to build. Every Pot that appears fires its feature directly.
The result is a much higher rate of Chest activation throughout the round. Cursed Wilds Respins and Cursed Coins Bonuses fire frequently, the Wild Multipliers stack up, and the Coin collection sequences run more often across the full spin count. Ghostly Gallows is the mode that gives 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win its highest potential outcomes.
Bonus Buy Options
Four ways to access features directly:
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| Cursed FS FeatureSpins | Each spin is 5x more likely to land the Blue Pot and trigger Cursed FS Respin |
| 3 Cursed Chests FeatureSpins | Increased chance of triggering any Chest feature |
| Treasure Cove direct buy | Skip straight to the Treasure Cove free spins mode |
| Ghostly Gallows direct buy | Skip straight to the Ghostly Gallows free spins mode |
For players who want to get straight to the free spins, the Ghostly Gallows direct buy is the most efficient route to the top-end feature. The Cursed FS FeatureSpins option is the lower-cost path, you are still spinning in the base game but with dramatically better odds of the Blue Chest firing on any given spin.
RTP, Volatility, and Hit Frequency
Top RTP is 96.30%, above average for the market. Four settings exist: 96.30%, 94.37%, 92.30%, 86.29%. As with Red Rascal, that bottom setting at 86.29% is notably low. Check your casino's in-game information panel to confirm which version is running before you commit to a real-money session on 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win.
Medium volatility with a 47% hit frequency makes this one of the more active Hacksaw Gaming releases session-to-session. Wins come regularly. Most are small line wins. The feature events, Chest activations and the free spins modes, provide the meaningful value, but the base game between Chest triggers is much less punishing than in higher-volatility Hacksaw titles like Red Rascal or Wanted Dead or a Wild.
Max Win
The max win is 2,500x your bet. At €0.10 that is €250. At €100 max bet it is €250,000.
The 2,500x ceiling is modest by Hacksaw Gaming's standards and by any 2026 measure. BigWinBoard called it "not the most bountiful" of Hacksaw releases. That is an honest read. 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win is not a slot you play chasing a 15,000x or 20,000x outcome. It is built for the mid-ground: regular feature activation, consistent Coin collection during the Hold & Win sequences, Wild Multipliers contributing to solid payline wins in Ghostly Gallows, over the course of a session.
How It Fits in the Hacksaw Catalogue
3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win is unusual for Hacksaw in two ways. The payline structure replaces the cluster-pays system most of their recent releases use. And the max win target is well below what players associate with the studio.
What it does well: the three-chest system makes every spin meaningful because any Pot symbol is contributing to a Chest counter. You are always building toward something. The Ghostly Gallows mode with direct Pot-to-Chest activation is genuinely engaging when it runs. And the Anne Bonny theme, with its real historical grounding and cheerful visual style, gives the game a personality that a generic pirate slot does not.
If you want Hacksaw's signature high-ceiling intensity, Red Rascal or Chaos Crew 3 are the right choices. If you want a more accessible, session-friendly pirate slot with three distinct feature types and a fair RTP, 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win earns its place.
Our Verdict
3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win is a solid, well-made slot that knows exactly what it is trying to be. The three-chest mechanic gives the base game more direction than most hold-and-win games. Ghostly Gallows makes Chest activation feel rewarding and fast. The 96.30% RTP is genuinely fair. Anne Bonny and The Red Revenge make for a memorable setting.
The 2,500x ceiling and medium volatility will not suit every Hacksaw player. But for players who want a manageable, enjoyable session with features that fire regularly and build meaningfully, especially casual players or those new to Hacksaw Gaming, 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win is the most accessible entry point in the studio's recent catalogue.