Gates of Olympus review
Released in February 2021, Gates of Olympus brings Zeus to a Pragmatic Play slot set at the gates of Olympus. The 6×5 grid has no paylines: Pay Anywhere pays for eight or more matching symbols in any positions. Winning symbols disappear to make room for new ones, while Zeus’s orbs can boost the tumble total.
Symbols and tumbles
Temple pillars frame the grid and Zeus stands next to it, hurling orbs onto the reels himself. The paytable splits cleanly in two. Five coloured gems fill the lower end, while a crown, an hourglass, a ring and a chalice, all in gold, sit above them. Each orb shows its value on its face, so you can read the multiplier before the tumbles finish. Zeus himself is the scatter,.
After every spin the game simply counts how many times each symbol appears. Eight or more of one kind pay, with three tiers: 8–9, 10–11 and 12 or more. A tumble follows each win: winning symbols vanish, the rest drop down, the empty spaces refill from above, and the process repeats while new wins appear. The whole chain counts as a single spin.
| Symbol | 8–9 | 10–11 | 12+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crown | 10x | 25x | 50x |
| Hourglass | 2.5x | 10x | 25x |
| Ring | 2x | 5x | 15x |
| Chalice | 1.5x | 2x | 12x |
| Red gem | 1x | 1.5x | 10x |
| Purple gem | 0.8x | 1.2x | 8x |
| Yellow gem | 0.5x | 1x | 5x |
| Green gem | 0.4x | 0.9x | 4x |
| Blue gem | 0.25x | 0.75x | 2x |
Payouts are multiples of the base bet. Each tumble is evaluated separately: symbols from different drops are not combined to reach the 12+ tier.
Zeus’s multiplier orbs
Orbs can land on any spin or tumble, base game included. Their value is drawn from a fixed list: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100, 250 and 500. Once the tumbling stops, every orb on screen is summed and the total multiplies the win for that sequence. Two things catch newcomers out. An orb on a losing spin does nothing at all. And orbs add rather than multiply, so a pair of x10 orbs gives x20, not x100.
Free spins and the accumulated multiplier
At least four scatters are needed for the 15 free spins, and landing four also pays 3x the bet, while five pay 5x and six pay 100x. Inside the round, things work step by step:
- Tumbles and orbs behave just as they do in the base game.
- Any orb that lands on a winning spin is added to a total multiplier for the round.
- That total never resets until the feature ends.
- It only applies to a win when a fresh orb lands on that same winning spin. A win with no new orb pays straight from the paytable.
- Three or more scatters extend the round by 5 spins, as many times as they land.
Orbs on a losing spin do not increase the total multiplier. Extensions preserve the accumulated total, but applying it still requires a fresh orb on a winning spin.
Ante Bet, the buy and the cap
Switching on Ante Bet costs 25% more per spin and makes free spins twice as likely. Where the bonus buy is allowed, 100x the bet takes you straight to the free spins. The studio’s server lists the return for each mode separately, and all three match: regular play, Ante Bet and the buy each return 96.50%. None of these buttons improves or worsens the maths. What changes is how fast money moves and how the risk is shaped.
One quirk with Ante Bet concerns the cap. It is calculated from the base bet, while you are actually paying a quarter more. Measured against the amount really deducted per spin, the ceiling with Ante Bet on works out at 4,000x.
The 5,000x limit applies to the whole round: the initial spin and any free spins it triggers, rather than an individual tumble. The studio-server figure in the source puts it at roughly one in 697,350 rounds, a statistical estimate rather than a waiting period. The bonus trigger frequency is not published.
Sequels and related mechanics
Starlight Princess — Released: Sep 2021; RTP: 96.50%; Top orb: x500; Cap: 5,000x.
Gates of Olympus 1000 — Released: Dec 2023; RTP: 96.50%; Top orb: x1,000; Cap: 15,000x.
Gates of Olympus Super Scatter — Released: Apr 2025; RTP: 96.50%; Top orb: x500; Cap: 50,000x.
Gates of Olympus 1000 barely changes the rules; the difference is pricier orbs and a ceiling three times higher. In the Super Scatter edition, a special scatter pays instant prizes and Ante Bet costs half the stake. There is also a festive Gates of Olympus Xmas 1000, released in December 2024 with a 15,000x cap.
If you like the maths but not the marble, Starlight Princess swaps Zeus for an anime princess and orbs for winged hearts while keeping the same running total in free spins.
Starburst has low volatility and a hit on roughly one spin in four. In the comparison with Sweet Bonanza, the central mechanical difference is that the candy slot’s multipliers do not carry over between spins.
