Brainwashed Slot (Shady Lady)

The Brainwashed slot is played on 5 reels, 4 rows and 30 fixed paylines. As with most slot games, winning combinations are created when 3 or more matching or identical symbols appear from left to right across any of the paylines. Wins need to begin from the leftmost reel and must appear on successive or adjacent reels. Only the best payout per payline will be awarded.

Bets-wise, the minimum bet is 10p a spin with the maximum bet being £50. To change your bet, use the plus and/or minus arrows or click/press the Bet amount to see all options. Players outside the UK can opt for Autoplay (10 to 1,000 auto spins) as well as Quickspin (lightning bolt icon).

The Brainwashed RTP rate is 96.28% which is higher than the 96% slots average. 53.12% will come in the base game and 43.16% from the bonus features. You may encounter other RTP settings created by Shady Lady: 94.09% and 92.06%. For reference, the Brainwashed slot demo above has the top RTP rate.

In terms of volatility, it’s in the very high bracket (10/10) with a 22.23% hit frequency rate (a win every 4.49 spins). When it comes to triggering the main bonus feature, this will occur every 189 spins on average.

The Brainwashed slot game offers 20,000 times bet max wins. With the free spins being the most likely to award the max win, the average win is 81.28 times your total bet.

The Brainwashed slot is Shady Lady’s second release. Set in rural America in the late 60s/early 70s, the hippie movement is in full flow where free-spirited idealism thrives. However, beneath the surface, 3 infamous sects exist who leave behind legacies of horror.

Set in a place called Jonestown, you join devotees of Heaven’s Gate who are possessed by barbital and blind faith. Whilst this hippie paradise may seem idyllic and free, there is the Manson family who are on a murderous spree. The focus is on charismatic leaders who aim for absolute control of their followers.

Visually, the game has a hippie vibe. The soundtrack reminds me of the Forrest Gump film for some reason as well as Nolimit City’s xWays Hoarder 2. The visuals have a grey tone which reflects the darker nature of what’s going on.

On the reels, the lower-value symbols include ‘I’m in a Cult’ pin badges, pills, poison and bloody knives. Then you have 3 innocent but scared hippies and the psychotic cult leader. He is the highest-paying symbol awarding 20 times your total bet for 5 in combination.

Brainwashed also comes with several special symbols. There is a Skull Wild which substitutes for all paying symbols and pays up to 20 times your total bet. With more details in the Bonus Features section below, other symbols include Helter Skelter, Cyan-Aid, Space Heads, various Brains, Brain Collectors and a Scatter.

Brainwashed Mobile

As with all Shady Lady slots, Brainwashed was created with the latest HTML5 technology. Compatible with mobile, tablet and desktop devices, the focus is on mobile play which adapts perfectly to iOS and Android smartphones. For the full visual experience, in my opinion, a larger screen (laptop or PC) would be my recommendation.

The Brainwashed slot has 6 bonus features. With random base game features that add Skull Wilds and transform character symbols into the highest-value character symbol, Brain symbols are worth up to 666 x bet are are collected by 3 types of Brain Collectors: Red Collectors apply multipliers. In the Free Spins feature, more Brain Collectors can land and there are Golden Brains which double your win amount.

Random Base Game features

In the base game, there are 3 randomly-triggered bonus features. Below is a description of what they entail:

• Helter Skelter: The Helter Skelter symbol appears on the TV screen which sees between 3 and 15 random positions stabbed and transformed into Skull Wilds.
• Cyan-Aid: Triggered when the Cyan-Aid symbol appears on the TV screen, any brain symbols in view transform into Skull Wilds.
• Space Heads: Activated when the Space Heads symbol appears on the TV screen, all character symbols transform into the highest-value character symbol (psychotic cult leader).

Brain Stacks 

Look out for special Brain symbols which can appear on all reels in stacks of various lengths. They each carrying a bet multiplier value worth up to 666 x bet.

During the Free Spins feature, a Golden Brain symbol can appear in the stack. These are only collected once and double your win amount (number of followers) at the end of the free spin.

Brain Collectors 

During base game spins, 1 or more Brain Collectors can appear. With 3 types available, here is what each does:

• Green Collectors: These collect the values of brains that land on them.
• Blue Collectors: These collect the values of brains that land on them plus all brains above the first collected brain on the same reel.
• Red Collectors: They collect and multiply the values of any brains that land on them and all brains above, with their multiplier increasing by 1 for each collected brain.

Free Spins 

Brainwashed comes with a Free Spins feature. It’s triggered when 3 Scatter symbols land simultaneously during a base game spin. You will then begin with 6 free spins with the triggering Scatter symbols transforming into random Brain Collectors.

During the feature, extra Brain Collectors may appear randomly. All Brain Collectors and Red Collector multipliers persist until the end of the feature. Finally, an Extra Days symbol awards 1 additional free spin.

Bonus Boosters & Bonus Buys

The Brainwashed slot game offers several Bonus Booster and Bonus Buy options. Below, you’ll find all the details:

• Bonus Boost: for 1.5 x bet, you boost your chances of triggering the Free Spins feature. 
• Big Bonus Boost: for 5 x bet, the chances increase further.
• Bonus Buy: buy your way directly into the Free Spins feature for 84 x bet.
• Highlight Reels: With 3 options, you buy the best 3 of 100 spins for 70 x bet, the best 3 of 300 spins for 172 x bet or the top 3 of 500 spins for 257 x bet.
• Loot Boxes: With Rare, Epic and Legendary Loot Box options, you will be awarded 1 of 9 Enhanced Bonuses. There are Bronze, Silver and Gold Enhanced Bonuses which cost 186, 344 or 571 x bet respectively. There are 1, 2 or 3 star versions of each option with higher win potential the more stars.

Brainwashed Slot

Rating: 4.3/5

Brainwashed is a mesmerising hippie/cult-themed slot with random features, a unique Brain collect mechanic, free spins and 20,000 x bet max wins.

Chris Taylor

Following the release of Devil’s Finger, Shady Lady brings you the cult-themed Brainwashed slot. As you head to Heaven’s Temple, I must say the graphics are superb. Whilst it has a hippie appearance, free-spirited idealism isn’t what it seems as charismatic leaders aim for absolute control of body, mind and soul.

In terms of the gameplay, there are 3 random features in the base game where you’ll be awarded Skull Wilds or high-value character symbols. Pretty standard so far.

Then you have Brain symbols which contain bet multipliers up to 666 times your total bet. Look out for Brain Collectors as they collect the Brain symbol values. Red Collectors are the ones you want and they offer multipliers which increase by 1 for each collected Brain symbol.

In the Free Spins feature, Golden Brain symbols can land and double your win amount at the end of the free spin. With additional Brain Collectors randomly landing, I found the bigger wins to come from the free spins.

With 20,000 times bet max wins, Brainwashed is a well-produced slot game with a unique collect mechanic that can see you gain quite the following. What is for sure is that I’ve been impressed with Shady Lady’s first 2 slot games and cannot wait for future releases. If you like the theme, Nolimit City’s True Kult (23,237 x bet max wins) is the only game that offers similarities visually.

The Brainwashed slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. 

Chris Taylor

The king of slots

Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related.