Gates of Olympus features: a full breakdown

Feature map

Pays by count

This mechanic is sometimes called “pays anywhere”. Every symbol on the grid behaves like a scatter: its position means nothing, only the total number matters. As a result the slot has no notion of lines, direction or adjacency, which are what complicate classic games.

The mechanic has a consequence that is not obvious. The grid has thirty positions and nine regular symbols, so eight of a kind turn up fairly often. The slot shows wins regularly, but most of them come from the cheap gems and do not cover the bet. The frequency of wins here is high, while the frequency of profitable spins is far lower, and the two should not be confused.

Tumbles

A tumble starts after every payout, automatically and at no extra cost. The symbols that paid disappear, the others drop, and new ones arrive from above. If eight of a kind have formed again after the refresh, another payout is awarded and the process repeats.

There is no limit on the number of tumbles. In theory a chain can go on indefinitely; in practice it is rarely longer than three or four steps. Tumbles matter to the player for two reasons. They give several payouts for one bet, and they prolong the spin, during which extra multipliers can land.

Multipliers

A multiplier orb is a separate symbol that takes up a cell on the grid. It can appear when the reels first stop or arrive with new symbols during a tumble. Unlike ordinary symbols, an orb does not disappear and stays until the spin ends.

The range of values is wide: from 2× to 500×. The provider does not publish on the game page how often each value lands, but by the very nature of high-volatility slots small numbers appear many times more often than large ones. A 500× orb remains an event that many players never see.

The counting rule is simple: the values of all the orbs on the grid are added together and the total win of the spin is multiplied by the sum. Adding makes the mechanic gentler than multiplying would, but it allows orbs to build up in the bonus round, as described below.

Free spins and the running total

The round of 15 free spins begins with four or more scatters. Before it starts the player receives the scatter payout: 3, 5 or 100 bets for four, five or six symbols.

What sets the bonus apart from the base game is a single line on the screen, the total multiplier counter. At the start of the round it is empty. Each time a spin brings a win while orbs are on the grid, their values are added to the counter and the win is multiplied by the counter's new value. The counter is not reset between spins.

Let us follow an example. The first three spins are empty. On the fourth a win of 2 bets lands with a 5× orb: the counter is 5 and the payout is 10 bets. The fifth spin is empty, although a 10× orb landed; it does not go into the counter because there was no win. On the sixth there is a win of 3 bets and a 3× orb: the counter is 8 and the payout 24 bets. On the ninth there is a win of 4 bets with orbs of 2× and 15×: the counter is 25 and the payout exactly 100 bets. Nine spins have produced 134 bets, and most of it came from one hit at a late stage.

The example shows the key property of the round. Its result is not decided by all fifteen spins equally but by two or three lucky coincidences, and the later they come, the larger the counter and the heavier the payout.

Retrigger

If three or more scatters land during the bonus, five spins are added to those remaining. The multiplier counter is kept, so the extra spins are played with the value already accumulated. The number of extensions is unlimited.

Starting the bonus takes four scatters, while extending it takes only three. That makes a retrigger more likely than the bonus itself, but you cannot count on one in every round.

Ante Bet: the arithmetic

With Ante Bet on, a spin costs 25% more. The game treats this as 25 coins instead of 20, but payouts are still calculated from the base twenty. In return Scatter symbols are added to the reels, and the chance of getting free spins, according to the option's description, doubles.

Work it out at a bet of 5,000 soums. A hundred spins without Ante Bet cost 500,000; with it, 625,000. The difference of 125,000 soums is the price of a more frequent bonus. The option does not change the nature of the game: it shifts your spending towards bonus rounds. The bonus buy is unavailable while Ante Bet is on.

Bonus buy: the arithmetic

The buy button starts free spins for 100 base bets. At a bet of 5,000 soums that is 500,000 for one press. A bought round guarantees four or more scatters and then proceeds under the usual rules.

For the purchase to pay off, the round has to return more than a hundred bets. In the example above the round gave 134 bets, which is a good result. Far more often the outcome is below a hundred, while rare rounds worth thousands of bets pull the average up for everyone. A buyer gets not the average but one particular round, and more often than not it loses money. In some countries regulators have banned the feature, and some operators switch it off themselves.

The win cap

The slot limits the win from one spin or bonus round to 5,000 bets. When the amount reaches the limit, the round ends at once and the remaining free spins are forfeited. Most modern slots have such a cap; the provider needs it to calculate the maths.

For the player the cap remains a specification, not a target. The probability of reaching it is so small that building expectations on it is pointless. The sequels have different caps, and they are compared on the all versions page.