Chaos Crew 3 review
The crew is back, and with a newcomer: the glitchiest of Glitch Dogs. Hacksaw Gaming continues the Chaos Crew line on a 5×5 grid and keeps two familiar tools: Cranky Cat multiplies wins, and the word CHAOS, spelled from low symbols, triggers a special spin. The bonuses are built on lives and multipliers that pile up above the reels.
A 5×5 grid and the return of the crew
The game runs on five reels of five rows with payline wins, and the number of lines is not named in the rules. The studio presents it as a sequel: Cranky Cat has grown twitchier, Sketchy Skull sketchier, and a new member joins the company, the Glitch Dog. That is the description from the game itself, and it conveys the mood well: all the mechanics are about chaos and glitches.
The ordinary play, the Epic Drop reward and the three bonuses are all built from the same parts: a multiplier above a reel, a Crazy Multiplier and a Glitch Dog. Grasp these parts once and the rest reads easily.
Cranky Cat: a wild multiplier
Cranky Cat substitutes for the other paying symbols and multiplies the win by its value when it takes part in a combination. The possible values are x2, x3, x4, x5, x10 and x20. In the base game only one such cat can sit on a reel. If several cats are in one combination, their values are first multiplied together and only then applied to the win.
The multiplication between cats changes the scale. Two cats give up to 400x (20 × 20), three up to 8,000x, four up to 160,000x, five up to 3,200,000x, and even the weakest cluster of five cats gives x32, more than the best single cat. None of these numbers is a payout: it is a multiplier applied to a line win. The condition for the game’s maximum win is described exactly so: one cat on each reel in one winning combination.
The word CHAOS and the Epic Drop reward
If five low symbols line up in one row to spell CHAOS, an Epic Drop triggers. The reward lasts one spin: a multiplier starting at 1x appears above each reel, all symbols on the grid turn into non-paying dead symbols, and the five CHAOS letters become Glitch Dogs. The dogs jump to new positions, and when the grid settles each glitches into one of four kinds of Crazy Multiplier.
The reel multipliers are then added together and the sum is multiplied by the stake. Dead symbols pay nothing and do nothing, so the result of an Epic Drop depends only on which five multipliers the dogs turn into. Each dog adds at least one, so the sum is never below 10 bets (5 + 5). If all five became Epic Sketchy Skull +100, the result would be 2,505 bets even without an Epic Cranky Cat, which could multiply further; the studio does not say how likely that is.
The four kinds of Crazy Multiplier
| Symbol | What it does | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Sketchy Skull | adds its value to the multiplier of its own reel | 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x |
| Epic Sketchy Skull | adds its value to all reel multipliers | the same |
| Cranky Cat | multiplies the multiplier of its own reel | x2, x3, x4, x5, x10, x20 |
| Epic Cranky Cat | multiplies all reel multipliers | the same |
The Skull adds, the cat multiplies, and both roles exist in an “epic” version that acts on all five reels at once. In the base game Cranky Cat multiplies a line win, while in the Epic Drop and the bonuses it multiplies the multiplier of its own reel, and the reel multipliers are then added up.
Symbols reveal from top to bottom and left to right, so the grid sets the reveal order and the player does not control it. The order does affect the result: the same set of symbols revealed in a different order gives a different sum, and a cat brings more when it is revealed after Skulls. For instance, a cat x5 beats a Skull +10 once the reel multiplier is above 2.5.
CTRL + ALT + CHAOS: three lives
Three FS scatters start the classic Chaos Crew bonus. Lives are shown on a meter beside the grid, and three lives equal three free spins. Every time any Crazy Multiplier lands, the lives and free spins refill to three. A Glitch Dog tops up the meter to the maximum only the first time it appears on the grid; after that it glitches into a Crazy Multiplier and adds its value like any other multiplier. When the lives run out, the bonus ends.
The reel multiplier in the bonus starts at 1x and stays active throughout. Only dead symbols, Glitch Dogs and Crazy Multipliers can land; FS scatters do not land in the bonuses. At the end all reel multipliers are added together and multiplied by the stake. The length of the bonus is set not by a preset number of spins but by how often multipliers land: three empty spins in a row end the round, and any multiplier resets the count.
The Korrupted K9: a guaranteed start and the Chaos Upgrade
Four scatters start The Korrupted K9. It keeps the rules of the first bonus and guarantees at least four Crazy Multipliers and one Glitch Dog at the start. In addition a Chaos Upgrade symbol may land. It activates if a Crazy Multiplier or Glitch Dog is nearby, in the 3×3 square, and adds its multiplier, from 1x to 100x, to each of them.
The order is this: first the symbols in the square reveal their values, then the Chaos Upgrade adds its value to each, and finally the updated values are added to the reel multiplier. The Chaos Upgrade’s own value is not added to the reel. The symbol disappears on the next spin, does not refill the life meter, and only one such symbol may be on the grid.
The worth of an Upgrade is set by how many symbols it covers: an empty square gives nothing. A 3×3 square holds nine cells, but the Upgrade itself takes one, so no more than eight symbols can surround it. The values from 1x to 100x are chosen by the game, and the open files say nothing about their probabilities.
An Epic Glitch: a fully occupied grid
Five scatters start the hidden epic bonus An Epic Glitch. It keeps the K9 mechanics and guarantees from the very start a grid full of Crazy Multipliers, one Chaos Upgrade and at least one Glitch Dog. In other words you begin with a layout in which all twenty-five cells work for multipliers. The rules add that buying K9 may also trigger this hidden bonus. The bonuses rise in strength of start: the more scatters, the denser the opening layout, but how often four and five scatters land the studio does not report.
FeatureSpins: BonusHunt and Byte Me
Two FeatureSpins modes are named in the rules. BonusHunt makes a bonus trigger ten times more likely on each spin. Byte Me Epic Drop guarantees at least five Crazy Multipliers on every spin. Neither the prices of these modes nor the price of buying K9 appear in the open files. A separate line of the rules says that the RTP when buying a bonus differs from ordinary play and is shown in the game itself, but the number is absent, so it can be learned only in the help at a particular operator.
Ceiling, RTP and the earlier parts
The game page and the rules file from the game bundle describe the mechanics in detail but give no RTP, bet range, volatility or frequencies. In the game description the studio speaks of a jaw-dropping maximum win and inserts a number from its settings, while in the open rules file a template placeholder stays in that spot. Check the maximum in the rules at the operator.
Chaos Crew — Release: 24 Sep 2020; RTP: 96.30%; Max win: 10,000x; Volatility: very high.
Chaos Crew 2 — Release: 23 Mar 2023; RTP: 96.29%; Max win: 10,000x; Volatility: very high.
The first two parts stand at the same maximum and a close RTP, but their figures cannot be carried over to the third because the rules differ. A Glitch Dog appears, the Epic versions of the Skull and the Cat act on all reels, and the bonuses are arranged in three steps by scatter count. Start the line with Chaos Crew, then open Chaos Crew 2.
