Holy Heist

Holy Heist: Slot Overview

Before he became Hagrid, the world's favourite Keeper of Keys and Grounds in the Harry Potter movies, actor Robbie Coltrane starred in the comedic crime film 'Nuns on the Run'. In this film, two criminals who want out, hide from their old boss, the Triad, and the police, dressed up as nuns in a convent. A similar plot line forms the basis of Hacksaw Gaming partner Bullshark Games' online slot Holy Heist. However, Bullshark Games has flipped the script, so crims first dress up as nuns to rob a bank despite sporting obvious moustaches and beards; what could go wrong?

Holy Heist is held in a very pleasant, cartoonish town, where the base game grid is implanted on the side of a bank, set in a cute square, surrounded by cute buildings. With no litter and no other people in sight, Holy Heist has the sort of clean, sterile feel visitors might feel in one of those well-run, if slightly draconian countries, though let's not name names or point accusatory fingers. Holy Heist's artwork has been attractively done, and the same goes for the sounds to create a harmonious space in which to engage in a spot of bank robbing.

As for the grid, it is a 5x4 aligned matrix, with 14 paylines and a multiplier bar running along the top. It is possible to land winning combinations of 3 to 5-of-a-kind in length, and all regular wins begin on the leftmost reel. Getting all bold, Holy Heist is Bullshark Games' highest winning potential slot to date, though the studio has kept volatility down to a medium (3/5) level. Two RTP models have been created, the default return number is 96.24%, and the game accepts wagers of 10 c to ￡/€100 per paid spin.

Objects of heisting and card royals make up Holy Heist's pay symbols. Ten to Ace card ranks are the lower value group, while the highs are a grappling hook, banknotes, a bag of cash, gold bars, and a diamond. Hitting a line of 5 matching low pays gets you 2 times the bet, or 5 to 10 times the bet for hitting 5 matching high pays. Players encounter various wild symbols in the game, all of which can substitute for any regular pay symbol.

Holy Heist: Slot Features

Multiplying stuff is the name of the game in Holy Heist, added by wild symbols which may alternatively stick and trigger respins or expand. Five bonus buy options round off the features, and Holy Heist has both a base game as well as a bonus round.

Reel Multipliers

A multiplier bar sits above the grid, with one multiplier assigned to each reel. The initial values for these multipliers are x2, x2, x3, x3, and x5. When a wild symbol reveals a number, the corresponding multiplier on the reel's top position is added to the total win multiplier. The total multiplier then multiplies all wins. If more than one wild reveals a number, all multipliers from relevant reels are summed and added to the total win multiplier.

Wild Symbol

When a wild symbol lands, it obtains one of these:

• A number of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 - the multiplier on top of the wild's reel position is added to the total win multiplier, and all wins are multiplied by the total win multiplier.
• Sticky Wild - triggers one respin for which it is sticky. If a new wild lands during the respin and becomes a sticky wild again, another respin is awarded. During respins, all reel multiplier values progress.
• Expanding Wilds - the entire reel becomes wild for that spin.
• Regular Wild - substitutes for all symbols on the paytable. A 5 wild line pays 10x the bet.

Multiplier Adders

The purple multiplier adder symbol adds a random value to the multiplier on top of the reel it landed on. The red multiplier adder symbol adds a value to the multiplier of all reels. The possible adder values range from 2x to 100x.

Holy Heist Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 6, 8, or 10 free spins, respectively. At the start of the free spins feature, each scatter symbol produces a random multiplier which is added to the multiplier on top of the reel it landed on. The possible values are 2x to 100x. During the free spins round, reel multiplier values progressively increase till the end. Sticky wilds also persist till the round concludes. Each landed scatter awards +1 spin.

Bonus Buy

Holy Heist gives players 5 bonus buy options:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins. Highly volatile, RTP 96.33%.
• Holy FeatureSpins - 20x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 2 wild symbols. Highly volatile, RTP 96.32%.
• Holiest FeatureSpins - 50x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 4 wild symbols. Highly volatile, RTP 96.35%.
• Holy Heist Spins - 100x the bet for 6-8 free spins. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.26%.
• Extreme Holy Heist Spins - 200x the bet for 10 free spins. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.4%.

Holy Heist: Slot Verdict

That went pretty well, have to say. Holy Heist is a fun game which mixes humour and silliness with deadly serious stats and gameplay. One technicality to make clear is the total multiplier resets before each new spin, including free spins. In addition, reel multiplier values are only added to the total multiplier for the spin when a wild symbol reveals a number on the associated reel. It might seem like the total multiplier increases and persists for the free spins feature, but this is not the case. However, reel multipliers could be very effective during the review. Not saying they always will be, of course, yet test runs were often surprisingly fruitful. Holy Heist is surprisingly fruitful in general, potentially, and its 20,000x the bet win cap is a larger than usual figure for slots in the full Hacksaw Gaming family. Bullshark Games is apparently not content sitting in its partner studio's large, ominous shadow but is looking to push out and make a bigger name for itself.

After playing through Holy Heist, it would appear Bullshark Games is heading in a positive direction. Not that it wasn't before, but Holy Heist is a highly polished production which ticks just about all the right boxes - it looks good, plays well, and has a big chonk of winning potential on top as an enticement. Some diehards might scorn the medium volatility, yet apart from that, it's hard to think of much else to critique about Holy Heist. Some might say the heist theme is overdone, but the studio avoided ending up with a generic cookie cutter by using beardy robbers in nun suits instead of a black and white striped jersey-wearing villain. To sum up, in Holy Heist, Bullshark Games has crafted a slick, fun, and potentially highly rewarding heist slot.