Ways of Athena Demo: Doubled Symbols and a Meter That Adds Ways

Every path from the first reel, counted on the plaque

A gold plaque above the reels shows a number before anything moves, and on a plain spin it reads 243. Thunderkick calls the game a 3×5 video slot: three rows, five reels. A pay way is any path that takes one symbol from each reel, left to right, starting on reel 1, and three choices on every reel give 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3.

The number counts paths, though, not wins. A win needs one symbol on consecutive reels from the first, with no gaps, and it pays its paytable value once for every path it can take. At our €1.00 stake the Symbols page lists Athena at 1.00, 2.00 and 5.00 for three, four and five, and the red-crested helmet at 0.50, 1.00 and 2.50; the rest lies below our capture.

Four ways at the 2.00 listed for four Athenas came to 8.00, 8x the stake, though the frame catches the counter at 7.91. A second copy of a symbol on any reel multiplies the paths through it, which is the point of the next feature.

Braziers on reels 2 to 5 that borrow a symbol from reel 1

That second copy comes from the Matching Mystery symbol, a tile with a burning brazier. On any spin it can land on reels 2 to 5, two at most per reel. Each one matches, at random, a symbol on the first reel and turns into a double of it, worth 2 pay ways instead of one.

So the plaque moves in fixed steps. A reel with one double counts 4 paths, a reel with two counts 5, and two doubles on each of reels 2 to 5 would read 3 × 5 × 5 × 5 × 5, or 1,875. On the rules' own terms, no base-game spin can show more.

Doubles turned up on 38 of our 750 paid spins, roughly one in 20. Those spins paid €308.80 of the €481.30 the base game returned, 64.2%, and all 7 base spins that reached 10x were among them. On spin 8, one double on reel 3 and two each on reels 4 and 5 put 900 on the plaque, one symbol ran all five reels on 80 of those paths, and at 1.00 a path it paid 80x. Spin 440 had the same 900 and paid nothing at all.

An orb meter that turns doubles into triples

A Bonus symbol is a dark statue with spear and shield under a temple roof, stamped BONUS, and three or more start the Bonus Game. Three are worth 8 free spins, every further one 2 more, with 44 as the limit. A Mystery symbol that copies a Bonus symbol from reel 1 becomes a double Bonus symbol and counts towards the trigger.

With four on the reels, the round began with 10 free spins. Inside it, the rules go on, orbs from Mystery symbols fill the meter below the reels, and "the first fill increases pay ways"; there our capture of the scrolling page stops. The strip shows the ladder anyway: a flame turning into a two-high stack, and, locked under a BONUS banner in the base game, a three-high stack and a five-high one.

The fill came on the tenth free spin, the last one left. The rings lit up, +2 FREE SPINS flashed, a tile marked 2 WAYS became 3 WAYS, and the spin was paid on the new terms.

A moment earlier the clip shows the path in full: one A on reel 1, a triple A tile on each of reels 2 and 3 and two on reel 4, so 1 × 3 × 3 × 6 = 54 ways of four, at 0.40 a way. The plaque's 1,575 is 3 × 5 × 5 × 7 × 3, every Mystery symbol now counted at three. We never saw a second fill, so this part is our reading, not a rule: the cap fits the five-high icon if it means 5 ways, since a reel with two such Mystery symbols and one ordinary symbol counts 11, and 3 × 11 × 11 × 11 × 11 is exactly 43,923. At three ways a symbol, the board stops at 7,203.

A base game carried by its doubles over 750 spins

Our log covers 750 paid spins at €1.00 on Thunderkick's demo server. They cost €750.00 and brought back €621.30, 82.8% against a listed 94.21%, which a sample this size can neither confirm nor refute.

• 750paid spins at €1.00 in the demo
• 82.8%of the stakes paid back
• 140.6xbest round, free spins included
• 1free spins round triggered

About 23.5% of spins paid something, the median win, 0.8x, was below the stake, and the worst run without a win lasted 21 spins.

Spin 8, the 80-path win, set the high point at €5,073.40; the line then drifts down, lifted once by the Bonus Game on spin 309, and ends at its lowest, €4,871.30. That round opened with 8 free spins, and the first alone paid €96.00: one symbol across all five reels on 96 of 675 paths. On the fifth, the meter filled, two spins were added and, in the server's answer, the count went from 675 to 1,323. The 10 free spins paid €140.00, 140.6x with the trigger, the only win in our log past 100x. Without it the rest returned 64.1%.

That footage is from a separate filming session at the same stake. Twelve free spins were played there, and only the one that filled the meter paid more than 10.00.

The buy button, the BET+ switch and the RTP version

Next to the bet field sits a BUY FEATURE button. The demo server prices the Bonus Game at 100x the stake, €100.00 at €1.00, with an RTP of 94.44% against 94.21% for spinning. Neither round on this page was bought; both came off the reels.

The demo runs the 94.21% version shown on Thunderkick's game page and in the rules. Casinos can choose another version, and where a regulator forbids feature buys the button will not be there. A BET+ switch above the spin button goes unmentioned in the rules pages we captured; it shows as off on our frames, and every spin in our log cost exactly €1.00.

Same cap as Carnival Queen 2, a much smaller board to start from

Closest to it on this site is Carnival Queen 2: a 25,000x cap, a Bonus Game for 100x the stake, 94.18% against 94.21%, and a ways count that grows. Its board starts at 5,040 ways and wilds stretch the reels; here the start is 243 and only Mystery symbols change it. Our two logs ended almost level, 82.7% there and 82.8% here.

Fixed boards are the other choice: Pink Elephants 2 plays 4,096 connecting pay ways on every spin, and Esqueleto Explosivo 2 keeps 99 pay ways. Both list a higher RTP, as do 12 more of the 23 other games we cover.

Who is it for, then? Ways of Athena spends long stretches at 243 ways paying less than the stake, and its good spins come when doubles stack up behind a symbol from reel 1. Players who enjoy watching that count, and accept a lower listed return for a 25,000x ceiling, will get on with it once the plaque reads as paths rather than prizes. For steadier play, most games here list a higher RTP.

• Midas Golden Touch demo review
• Pink Elephants 2 demo review
• The Gunman of Goldwood demo review

Odds and ends about ways, orbs and free spins

Each reply rests on the in-game rules, frames of our filming session or the server's replies to our 750 logged spins.