Hexbreak3r or (Hexbreaker 3) by IGT came out a couple of years ago & I’ll admit that I didn’t quite understand it. I noticed that hustlers were fast tapping the spin button like crazy when chasing the center column which is the progressive. It didn’t make sense to me & I thought to myself “All this for $113?(reset at minimum bet)” I didn’t think it was worth it. But boy was I wrong. Turns out this highly volatile game was one of the best slot machines for advantage players in 2020.
Hexbreak3r, like its predecessors, is a game that pays both left to right & right to left. Reels start off at a low of 243 up to a maximum of 32768 ways to win. Reels grow when horseshoe symbols land. An orange horseshoe will move a reel up one spot while a blue one will move it up a minimum of 2 spots. When a reel makes it to the top aka the “luck zone” you are awarded the prize that corresponds to that reel.
The standard horseshoe moves a reel up one spot 
The blue horseshoe moves a reel up a minimum of 2 spots
What to look for & how to advantage play Hexbreaker 3
There are a few scenarios where Hexbreak3r can be in an advantageous state. The first & obvious one is seeing the reels stretched out to something that gives the player about, let’s say 8000+ ways to win. More ways to win means potentially more opportunities to get big wins with stacked symbols. Also columns 2, 3 & 4 are where both the wilds & bonus symbols reside. Landing three bonus in full on these columns is one of two ways to get the “unlimited free games.” Expanded reels mean a better chance to land full bonus symbols. The other way is to get it through reaching it at the top of the luck zone via the horseshoes.
Incredibly difficult to get three full bonus symbols which are 3 rows tall when columns 2, 3 & 4 are at their reset positions 
Much more room for bonus symbols to hit now that the reels 2, 3 & 4 have been stretched out
When chasing the bonus in the luck zone generally it’s your best bet that you take it at one away if it’s on column 1 or 5, two away in the rare event a bonus symbol is on top of column 2 or 4. The reason is that the horseshoes show up with greater regularity on columns 2 & 4. It’s also why the credit values on these columns are typically lower than those on 1 & 5.
The last & most significant advantage play situation you may find is the center column 3 or fewer steps away from the luck zone. You may be thinking that it’s not worth it like I did two years ago but here’s why it is. Column 3 is where the horseshoe shows up the least. But finding one in an elevated state means that it will stay high for a while. Combine the center with high columns 2 & 4 and you’ll be hitting more bonus rounds & stacked wilds. Hexbreak3r’s edge becomes even stronger when high columns 1 & 5 join the party giving the player the potential for massive base game pays. FYI, hitting the progressive in the bonus resets the progressive but does not reset the position of column 3 in the base game.
Progressive won in free games 
Reset after the bonus. Still a play.
The column 3 edge is so strong that it’s still a play even if the four other columns are at the bottom. It will likely cause short-term pain but don’t sweat it. Play Hexbreaker 3 until the center column reaches the top.
One thing that you’re going to need to chase the progressive is time. Unless you are extremely fortunate to hit a blue horseshoe that boosts you to the top, it’s usually going to take you at a minimum a few hours to reach the top & that’s with you fast tapping the entire way. I’m not a fan of fast tapping personally as I’m self-conscious by nature & don’t like that it draws unwanted looks but if you’re going for the progressive there’s no way around it unless you want to potentially sit on Hexbreak3r for 24 hours.
To put in perspective how profitable the column 3 advantage was, I knew someone in my region who took daily notes of every Hexbreak3r in the casinos. He’d travel to every location that was four away on column 3 from the previous day in hopes that it had moved up. This was before many hustlers picked up on the advantage & he did quite well for himself. Watching this YouTube video from RandomSlots posted in February 2020 shows this. There’s absolutely no way that in 2021 that you can leave column 3 two away & not expect an advantage player to instantly hop on it. Yet, at this time he was able to get off the machine & actually come back to play it again.
If you see someone speed playing to chase the column 3 progressive I believe it’s best that you move on to something else. There’s an extremely high probability this person is an advantage player or at the very least a knowledgeable customer. Don’t waste your time.
Hexbreaker 3 is an elite advantage play slot machine. I’ve heard some claim that the game has been nerfed by IGT. I strongly doubt this & believe it is just as potent today as it was when it first came out a few years ago. In addition to advantage plays, Hexbreaker 3 is a massive points generator if you use a casino player’s card. A great way to increase your status with a casino, higher free play & comps.
With that said, I believe casinos have misjudged the popularity of Hexbreaker 3. Casinos see a huge amount of coin-in, translate that to it being a hit & order more of them when in fact the vast majority of those dollars are coming from advantage players cleaning up the center column progressive. When the columns are in a depressed or non-advantageous state it is an absolutely brutal game with few redeeming qualities. In my opinion, regular slot players have picked up on this & I don’t see them getting nearly as much play as they did previously. For example, there’s a potential $3.20 play at one of my local casinos with the center column sitting 4 away from the top. It is a large casino with good traffic & the machine sits at the end of a row. But it has not moved in 10 days. So in conclusion, Hexbreaker 3 has a strong advantage but we need the average slot player to play them in order to get an advantage. If the average player is rejecting it, we’ll see Hexbreaker 3 gone sooner rather than later.
