Beam Boys

When you first load Beam Boys from Hacksaw Gaming, expect to see a monochrome 6x4 grid flanked by a cybernetic cat with hollow eyes crackling with lightning. The black-and-white art style echoes earlier Hacksaw releases, broken only by flashes of blue or orange depending on your chosen volatility. Look for the Volatility Switch on the left side of the reels before you place your first bet.

Notice how flipping to Normal bathes everything in blue, while Extreme shifts the colour scheme to orange. Bets run from 0.10 to 100 per spin, and the grid uses a ways-to-win system rather than fixed paylines, offering up to 6,561 ways. The default RTP sits at 96.35% on Normal and 96.26% on Extreme, with a maximum win capped at 12,500x your stake.

Keep an eye on the paytable here because it splits neatly into two tiers. The low-paying set consists of greyed-out 10, J, Q, K, and A card ranks, all paying 0.5x your stake for a six-of-a-kind way. The premium symbols are themed around grim trophies a cat might bring home: a dead mouse, a dead bird, a dead fish, a rabbit, and a snake. Six matching premiums pay between 0.8x and 2x, with the snake sitting at the top.

The wild is the Laser Cat symbol itself, appearing only on reels 2 through 6. Land six wilds across a winning way and you collect a direct payout of 5x the bet. Then look for the FS scatter, styled in blue and orange lettering. Three or more of those anywhere on the grid will pull you into the free spins round.

The core mechanic to understand is Wild Rows. Whenever a Wild Laser Cat lands on reels 2 to 6, it fires a beam to the left across every position on that row, turning them all wild. Picture a cat landing on reel 5: every symbol on that row from reel 4 back to reel 1 becomes wild instantly. This is where the big payouts hide, especially when a cat appears on the rightmost reel and floods the entire row.

For the Photonic Fur Bonus, land 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters to receive 5, 10, 20, or 40 free spins respectively. During free spins, Wild Laser Cats appear more frequently, so expect to see rows lighting up with wilds far more often than in the base game. Retriggers are possible too: 2 scatters in view add 2 extra spins, while 3 scatters add 4. Outside the UK, four bonus buy options are available, ranging from the 5x BonusHunt FeatureSpins to the 200x Narrow Spectrum FeatureSpins, which guarantees at least one wild landing on reels 4 to 6.

This is a feature worth understanding before you commit to a session. Normal Volatility carries a hit rate of roughly 35.75%, so wins come fairly regularly but tend to be modest. Switch to Extreme and the hit rate drops to about 33.11%, meaning dry spells are longer but individual wins can be substantially larger. Both modes share the same 12,500x max win, so the ceiling does not change with your choice.

Beam Boys is a streamlined release from Hacksaw Gaming that puts one mechanic front and centre: spreading wilds driven by a laser-firing cat. There are no multiplier trails or layered bonus rounds to navigate. Instead, everything hinges on where the Wild Laser Cat lands and how many rows it can flood. The volatility switch adds a welcome layer of player control, and the 12,500x max win gives the game genuine teeth.

If you prefer slots that keep things mechanically focused rather than stacking feature upon feature, this one is well worth your time. Set your volatility, watch the cat, and let the lasers do the rest.