Gates of Hades: Slot Overview
When a studio achieves a certain level of success with an online slot, there is a good chance either they or a competitor who wants to elbow in on the action will attempt to repeat the winning formula. Few attain more success than Pragmatic Play‘s 2021 mega hit Gate of Olympus, a scatter pays slot that has indeed provided big chunks of inspiration, and reskins. Whilst not a reskin, it would appear that Gates of Olympus is to thank, or blame, for the spawning of Gates of Hades, which not only sounds familiar but delivers a few familiar features as well. This is by no means a copy, though, as the game creates wins with a cluster pays mechanic instead of scatter pays, and wild symbols deliver the multiplier values.
As god of the dead and ruler of the underworld, Hades is often depicted in slots in a fiery, rocky domain, the polar opposite of the airy, cloudy realm of Olympus. In Gates of Hades, Hades stands to one side with his flaming shock of hair, staff in hand, chuckling menacingly, while lightning flashes above an eerie landscape. It’s a nice view, very atmospheric while looking like a bunch of other slots Pragmatic Play has used Hades in.
Wins are created in Gates of Hades when blocks of 5 or more matching symbols land connected in vertical or horizontal directions. The tumble feature removes the winning symbols, and symbols cascade down from above to replace them, producing another chance to win on the same spin. The RTP of the game when betting 20 c to $/€240 per spin is 96.52% at the highest configuration, while volatility is high.
Five gemstones, coloured blue, green, orange, purple, and red, are completed by a cup, a ring, and a crown as the regular paying symbols. They award 0.05x to 1.5x the bet for a cluster of 5 OAK, increasing when 15+ sized clusters hit to 5x to 150x the bet.
Gates of Hades: Slot Features
Gates of Hades’ features are wild multipliers which appear in the base game as well as in free spins, and players may buy the bonus round if they’re in the mood for leaping the line.
Wild Multiplier
Wild symbols can carry multipliers of x1 to x100. During spins and tumbles in the base game, any multiplier that hits is collected by a meter on top of the reel on which the wild landed. Every cluster is multiplied by the sum of all multipliers on top of the reels that had winning symbols on them, part of the cluster. At the end of a tumble sequence in the base game, multipliers are cleared from the top of the reels.
Free Spins
Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6+ scatters triggers the free spins feature, awarding 10, 12, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. If 6 or more scatters trigger the feature, players get the super free spins rule, where the minimum multiplier on wild symbols is x10. During the round, all collected multipliers remain in place and are not cleared until the feature completely ends. In addition, potential multipliers range from x1 to x500 during free spins. Finally, players win 5, 7, 10, or 12 additional free spins when 3, 4, 5, or 6+ scatters land.
Feature Buy
The free spins round can be triggered from the base game by buying it. Paying 100x the bet triggers regular free spins, whereas 500x buys super free spins. In both cases, the round will be triggered by 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters.
Gates of Hades: Slot Verdict
Well, colour this guy surprised; Gates of Hades was not a Gates of Olympus clone featuring the god of the underworld instead of the ruler of Olympus. It didn’t take long to figure that out either, from an initial glance at the larger gaming grid, the line of wolves running along the top of the reels, and, of course, a read-over of the rules. Surprising, because Gates of Olympus has been a massive hit for Pragmatic Play and has inspired a number of reskins and wannabes, not least of which is something like Hades Inferno 1000. As well as an interest in Zeus and Olympus, Pragmatic Play has also leaned towards Hades and the underworld before, very successfully too, as attested to by the mashing together of the two gods in Zeus vs Hades Gods of War, which scooped Game of the Year at the 2023 Bigwinboard Awards.
In saying all that, the two slots have some sort of relationship, and Gates of Hades is like a not-so-distant branch on the Gates of Olympus family tree. As mentioned, scatter wins are replaced with cluster wins, which may have been done in part to make space for the inclusion of wild symbols, altering the flow. Better, worse? Depends on personal preference, really. Gates of Hades is the clear-cut winner if potential is the deciding factor, though, as its 10,000x the bet win cap is double what Gates of Olympus has got. Other than that, they’re pretty comparable, as in chase cascading winning combinations that are boosted by multipliers which do not reset in the bonus game. If this sounds like what you’re after, but with a different Greek god and an alternate pay system, then Gates of Hades is one to try.
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