What xWays Actually Is
First, separate two things. A plain stacked symbol is already a stack on the reel before you spin — it looks that way from the start. xWays is different: a uniform-looking mystery symbol lands on the board, and only once the reels settle does it 'reveal' which ordinary symbol it stands for, expanding on the spot into two or more of that symbol and turning a single cell into a full stack down the reel.
The key is that reveal. At the moment the reels stop you still do not know what it is; you only find out after it opens up — which is exactly why it is called a mystery symbol. The result is a sudden jump in how many of that symbol sit in the reel.
xWays = a covered mystery symbol lands first, then reveals into a stack of the same ordinary symbol. What changes is how many identical symbols sit in a reel.
Why It Multiplies Ways, Not Lines
To see the power of xWays, first separate two payout skeletons: lines and ways.
Lines are fixed paths: symbols have to appear along a preset line, running from the leftmost reel in sequence, to count. Ways relax that — as long as each reel holds at least one target symbol, you pick one from each reel left to right to form a path, no matter its height in that reel.
The total number of paths on a ways game equals the symbol counts of each reel multiplied together. That is where the xWays payout logic lands: it stuffs more of one symbol into a reel, that reel's 'choices' grow, and the multiplied total ways balloon.
So xWays does not 'hand you one more line'; it multiplies the whole set of possible paths. That also explains why some spins look dead until a few positions reveal together and the board suddenly fills with the same symbol.
Several xWays at Once: Multiply, Don't Add
A single xWays can already widen a reel; the real burst comes from several xWays revealing on the same spin. Because ways multiply across reels, two or three widening at once is not additive but compounding.
| Scenario | What happens | Effect on ways |
|---|---|---|
| 0 xWays | Ways counted on the base board | Baseline |
| 1 xWays reveals | One reel gains more symbols | That reel's count rises, total ways multiplied up |
| Several xWays reveal | Multiple reels widen at once | Each reel's gain compounds; ways can spike |
One common misread to flag: a ways spike does not mean a guaranteed big win. Ways are only the count of paths that could land; the settlement still depends on whether the revealed symbols are high-pay and whether they connect into a paying combination. xWays widens structural possibility, not a promise.
Three Things to Watch in the Demo
Every Hacksaw game on this site offers an official free demo, so you can watch with virtual credits. With the demo running, watch xWays for three things on purpose:
- How often the mystery symbol appears: how frequently it lands and usually how many at a time. This sets whether the title runs 'frequent small reveals' or 'rare big ones'.
- What it reveals into: a high-pay symbol, a low-pay, or a wild. Widening the ways with a high-pay reveal versus a low-pay reveal produces wildly different settlements.
- The difference between base game and feature: many Hacksaw titles make xWays denser or stack multipliers in free spins. Watching that gap tells you which stage the game is saving its burst for.
xWays revealing to fill half the screen without connecting a big win is a very common sight. The 'just one more' feeling is intense in the moment, but every spin is an independent event — whether the last spin filled up or not has no bearing on the next one's odds.