What Is Gates of Olympus
Gates of Olympus is a Pragmatic Play slot built around one mechanic: Zeus drops multiplier orbs onto the reels on any spin, and those multipliers stack. In the free spins bonus, they keep stacking. That is the entire case for playing this game.
Released in 2021, it has stayed in the top five most-played slots across Asian online casinos every year since. The Greek mythology theme is familiar, but the multiplier mechanic is what drives the following.
Quick specs:
- Provider: Pragmatic Play
- Reels: 6x5, All Ways Pays
- Volatility: 5/5 — very high
- RTP: 96.5% (operator versions at 94.5% and 95.5% also exist — covered in the RTP section)
- Max win: 5,000x your bet
- Free spins: 15, retriggerable
- Buy Feature: Yes, at 100x stake
This is a high-volatility game. Long dry spells between wins are normal. The base game can run cold for extended periods before the bonus triggers. If you are looking for frequent small wins, this is not that game.
How the Game Works
Tumbling Reels
Gates of Olympus uses a 6x5 grid with no fixed paylines. A win triggers when 8 or more matching symbols land anywhere on the reels at the same time.
When a win lands, those symbols disappear. New symbols drop in from above to fill the gaps. If the new symbols form another winning combination, they disappear too and more drop in. This continues until no new wins form. One spin can produce a chain of consecutive wins.
Zeus Multiplier Orbs
On any spin, Zeus can randomly launch multiplier orbs onto the reels. Each orb carries a multiplier value between 2x and 500x.
When a win occurs on the same spin, all orb values on screen are added together and applied to the total win. If three orbs show 5x, 10x and 20x, the combined multiplier on that win is 35x.
In the base game, orbs reset after a tumble that produces no win. They do not carry over to the next chain. In free spins, the rules change. That is covered in the next section.
The orbs appear randomly. There is no way to predict when Zeus activates them. They are the reason a base game spin that looks unremarkable can suddenly produce a large payout.
The Free Spins Bonus
How to Trigger It
Land 4 or more Zeus scatter symbols anywhere on the reels to trigger the free spins round.
- 4 scatters: 3x your bet paid out immediately, plus 15 free spins
- 5 scatters: 5x your bet paid out immediately, plus 15 free spins
- 6 scatters: 100x your bet paid out immediately, plus 15 free spins
Landing 4 or more scatters during the free spins round adds 5 more spins to your total. There is no cap on how many times you can retrigger.
How Multipliers Stack
This is what separates Gates of Olympus from most other slots.
In the base game, orb multipliers reset after a tumble that produces no win. In free spins, they do not reset. Every multiplier orb that appears during the entire bonus round is added to a running total. That total applies to every win for the rest of the round.
A free spins round that starts quietly can turn large if orbs keep appearing across multiple tumbles. By the time a big win cluster lands, the accumulated multiplier behind it can be in the hundreds.
The 5,000x listed as the max win is the base game cap. Free spins carry no stated theoretical limit. The largest recorded wins from this game have come from free spins rounds where multipliers stacked across many consecutive tumbles before a high-value win landed.
The Buy Feature
The Buy Feature lets you skip the base game and jump straight to 15 free spins. It costs 100x your stake.
At first glance, 100x sounds expensive. The math tells a different story.
The free spins bonus in Gates of Olympus triggers naturally roughly once every 250 to 350 spins on average. At a 1 unit bet per spin, that is an expected cost of 250 to 350 units just to reach the bonus. The Buy Feature at 100x undercuts that. You pay less to get directly to the feature than the average cost of waiting for it to land.
The trade-off is the base game wins you give up by skipping. If a session would have produced several decent base game hits on the way to a natural trigger, those are gone when you buy in. For players who find the base game slow and want to go straight to the high-stakes part, the Buy Feature makes sense. For players on a tighter budget who need base game wins to extend their session, it does not.
Ante Bet: the middle option
Gates of Olympus also offers an Ante Bet. Activating it increases your total bet by 25% and doubles the chances of the bonus triggering on any given spin. It costs more per spin than the base bet but keeps you in the base game, collecting wins along the way. For players who want a better trigger rate without committing to the full 100x buy, it is a reasonable middle ground.
The Buy Feature is not available at casinos operating under a UK licence. At most Asian online casinos it is fully accessible.
RTP: What You Are Actually Playing At
Gates of Olympus has a stated RTP of 96.5%. That is the number most reviews quote and most players assume they are getting. It is not always what runs at the casino you are playing at.
Pragmatic Play builds three RTP settings into this game: 94.5%, 95.5% and 96.5%. Each casino operator picks which version to run. The player is not always told which one is active.
The difference matters. Over a long session, playing at 94.5% instead of 96.5% means the house keeps a significantly larger share of every bet. A 2% RTP gap is not trivial at high volatility where large amounts can cycle through the game quickly.
How to check which version you are playing
Open the game and go to the information or help section. Look for the paytable or game rules. Some operators display the actual RTP of the version running on their platform. If the number shown is 94.5% or 95.5%, the casino is running the lower-paying version.
Not every casino displays this. If the RTP is not listed in the game info, check the casino's game information page or contact support and ask directly which RTP setting is active.
Mobile Performance
Gates of Olympus runs on HTML5, works on any browser and requires no download. Available on Android and iOS.
The game supports both portrait and landscape mode. In portrait, the 6x5 grid fills most of the screen with betting controls below. No need to rotate your phone.
Performance is good on most mid-range devices. The base game is light and loads fast. The free spins bonus runs heavier animations during orb drops and tumble chains. On older phones this can cause slight lag. It does not affect the outcome. The game records the result before displaying it.
Auto-spin and turbo spin are available on mobile.
Gates of Olympus 1000
Gates of Olympus 1000 is Pragmatic Play's upgraded version of the original. The core mechanic is identical: 6x5 grid, tumbling reels, Zeus multiplier orbs, same free spins trigger. Two numbers changed significantly.
Orb multipliers go up to 1,000x instead of 500x. In free spins, those orbs still stack and do not reset between tumbles. The ceiling on accumulated multipliers is now twice as high.
Max win is 15,000x your bet, compared to 5,000x on the original. For high-volatility players chasing the biggest possible payout, the 1000 variant is the better version to be playing.
RTP settings are the same three tiers: 94.5%, 95.5% and 96.5%. The same operator RTP issue applies. Check the game info panel at your casino before playing.
Not every Asian online casino has added Gates of Olympus 1000 to their library yet. If it is available alongside the original, the 1000 variant gives you the same gameplay with a significantly higher win ceiling. If your casino only has the original, the base game experience is the same. You are just capped lower on the top end.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the RTP of Gates of Olympus? ▾
What is the max win on Gates of Olympus? ▾
How does the buy feature work? ▾
How do I trigger the free spins? ▾
What is the difference between Gates of Olympus and Gates of Olympus 1000? ▾
Is Gates of Olympus high volatility? ▾
What is the Ante Bet in Gates of Olympus? ▾
