The Witch acts as the game's Wild Symbol, substituting for ordinary paying symbols but not the Scatter or special Bonus Symbols.

There's no enormous Wild feature attached to her during ordinary play, so she's primarily there to improve payline combinations.

Given that she's apparently responsible for whatever is happening in this forest, you'd think she could have made herself slightly more useful.

The Skull is the game's Scatter Symbol and provides access to Free Games.

Landing three Skull Scatters triggers 10 Free Spins.

Additional Scatters can also affect the starting position of Nudging Symbols when the bonus begins, which makes them more useful than simply acting as a ticket into Free Spins.

Tendris is the game's headline Nudging Symbol mechanic.

Tendris can appear stacked across the reels. While one remains visible within the upper three rows, the reel containing it nudges down one position on the following spin. Eventually the hidden symbol is revealed.

The clever part is that all active Tendris symbols reveal the same symbol. That means having them active across several reels becomes considerably more interesting than finding one on its own because a matching reveal across multiple reels has a much better chance of forming a winning combination.

It's a mechanic that gives you something to watch beyond the current spin. You know something is coming. You just don't know whether the forest has hidden treasure or another frog underneath it.

When Tendris completes its Nudge sequence, it performs a Mystery Reveal.

All active Tendris positions reveal the same underlying symbol, which can be an ordinary low or premium symbol or the more interesting Incantation Circle.

Mystery Symbols themselves aren't unusual. The Nudging process makes this implementation more engaging because the reveal isn't necessarily instantaneous. You're watching the symbols move towards their eventual transformation.

That adds anticipation to what could otherwise have been a very ordinary Mystery Symbol mechanic.

The Incantation Circle acts as a Bonus Modifier within the Mystery Reveal.

Rather than simply revealing an ordinary paying symbol, finding the Circle activates the Golden Bonus and provides access to special Golden Bonus Symbols.

This gives the Tendris mechanic two potential outcomes. It can help create normal line wins or uncover something considerably more valuable.

The forest apparently has several layers of witchcraft to get through before it actually hands over the money.

Triggering the Golden Bonus allows special Golden Bonus Symbols to be revealed.

These carry Coin Values expressed as multiples of the total stake, which are awarded alongside any ordinary line wins generated on the same spin.

I like the fact that the Golden Bonus grows naturally out of the Mystery Reveal mechanic rather than being an entirely unrelated feature. Tendris nudges. Tendris reveals. The reveal can uncover the Incantation Circle. The Circle produces the Golden Bonus.

There's a clear mechanical chain connecting everything.

Three Skull Scatters award 10 Free Games.

This is where Hexwood's mechanics become much stronger because the bonus doesn't necessarily end after those initial ten spins. The feature can continue for as long as at least one Nudging Symbol remains visible on the reels.

That's a much more interesting structure than a straightforward retrigger. Instead of hoping three more Scatters happen to appear, you're watching the position of the active Tendris symbols and hoping they remain alive.

It effectively turns the Nudging Symbols into a life support system for the bonus.

During Free Games, a Progressive Multiplier increases by +1 with every spin, with qualifying wins immediately multiplied by the current value.

This works particularly well with the open ended Free Games structure. The longer you keep Tendris alive, the longer the bonus continues. The longer the bonus continues, the higher the multiplier climbs.

So extending the feature isn't simply giving you additional spins. Those later spins can also become progressively more valuable.

That's good feature interaction.

The Blazing Skull provides another way of influencing the Nudging mechanic during Free Games.

When activated, reels containing active Nudging Symbols can be nudged upwards, effectively helping keep those symbols in play for longer.

That matters because keeping Tendris visible keeps the feature running and allows the Progressive Multiplier to continue climbing.

It's another example of Hexwood building most of its mechanics around one central idea rather than throwing unrelated bonuses at the player.

Hexwood doesn't appear to offer a conventional Bonus Buy.

Free Games must therefore be reached through normal reel play rather than purchased directly.

That doesn't affect our rating either way, but it's useful information for the feature database.

There is no evidence that Hexwood contains a networked Progressive Jackpot.

The Golden Bonus uses fixed stake multiplier prizes rather than a progressive jackpot pool.

Therefore no Jackpot Modifier applies.