Theme & Design

Gladiator Legends is a game that is positively dripping with the blood of ancient Roman soldiers – you can hear their cries in the background as the reels spin and ash, smoke and flames lick the horizon. There is no respite here – from start to finish you are immersed in conflict. Anyone with an interest in ancient Rome will love it – this game is big on atmosphere and genuinely invokes a feeling of warrior combat from that era. But it is also a slot with very little color – dark granite and black are most of what you see whether you are in the base game or bonus round. Don’t expect rainbows and sunshine!

Meanwhile, alongside those battle cries the gameplay is backed by a stirring, epic soundtrack interspersed with the sound of clanking metal and bloodshed every time a duel takes place.

If you enjoy dark, cinematic slots then this is for you.

RTP and Variance

Gladiator Legends has four possible RTP settings: 96.31%, 94.44%, 92.66% and 88.19%. Which you play at is at the discretion of your casino. We checked the settings at five of our favourite UK slot sites and this is what we found:

• MrQ (indpendent) – 96.31%
• Casumo (indepndent) – 94.44%
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net) – 94.44%
• PlayGrand (White Hat Gaming) – 94.44%
• Luckland (Aspire Global) – 92.66%

For the best return on your wagering we therefore recommend that you play this game at MrQ casino.

This is also one of Hacksaw’s most volatile slots, on a par with games like Rotten and Hand of Anubis. It will not break easily, though the potential for epic win sequences is there in the two bonus rounds where multiplier mayhem can kick in at any time.

Maximum Win

Gladiator Legends has a maximum win of 10,000x. This is standard for Hacksaw Gaming. You don’t find many games by this operator with higher potential. If you are looking for higher you could try RIP City, Wanted Dead or a Wild or Hop n Pop (all capped at 12,500x).

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Symbols and Paytable

The game plays out on a 5 reel and 4 row grid with just 10 active paylines in play at all times. To trigger wins you’ll need to land three more more identical symbols across the reels from left to right on a payline.

Symbol values are not particularly high until you hit the top end of the premiums. However, this game deliver when the multipliers kick in so these values can be considerably enhanced.

Low value symbols are the cards, 10 through to Ace. Three 10s will earn you a 0.1x win whilst five Aces gets you a 1x win. Everything else falls somewhere in between. The premiums are represented by the warrior weapons: hammer, two axes, a dagger and a sword and shield. The hammer is worth 0.5x for three on a line. The highest value sword and shield is worth 30x for five on a line.

There is also a Wild that completes paylines by substituting for other symbols AND pays out 30x for five on a line.

Special symbols include VS that activates Duel Reels,  and an Arena and Beast scatter, each of which triggers its respective bonus round.

Features and Gameplay

Gladiator Legends is not short of feature-action.

Throughout the game the Duel feature takes centre stage. The VS symbol required to trigger it is a Wild. When it lands, IF by expanding to full reel height it would form part of a win, then it does so, creating a DuelReel™. Then, a Gladiator Multiplier appears at each end of the reel and they duel to decide which multiplier prevails. The higher value one always wins.

The winning multiplier is then applied to every row on the reel before wins are evaluated and paid out.

In the base game the multiplier values for DuelReels™ are from 1x up to 100x.

Free Spins Bonus Rounds Come With Epic and Multiplier Coins

The bonus rounds here are epic, so be ready for them when they drop! You have two possibilities – the Champions of the Arena round unlocked by 3 Arena scatters and the Unleash the Beast round triggered by 3 Beast scatters.

Champions of the Arena With Epic Coin Multipliers

In Champions of the Arena, the round starts with 3 spins and re-sets every time a VS symbol lands. You can only land VS, non-winning skulls and multiplier coins in this round.

Each reel has its own multiplier value. When a VS lands on a reel a duel ensues and when its complete, the prevailing multiplier value replaces that at the top of the reel. But beware, because this means that your reel multiplier may go down as well as up after a duel!

Additionally, two types of Coin Multiplier appear on the reels. When a Normal one lands, then the reel multiplier value of the reels it lands on is multiplied by its own value of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x. But if an Epic Coin Multiplier lands, then it multiplies ALL reel multipliers.

The objective here is to keep building up your reel multiplier values as high as possible because at the end of the round the game will total them all up and apply them to the current stake level to calculate your win.

In Champions of the Arena the multiplier values for DuelReels™ are from 1x up to 1,000x.

Unleash the Beast With Special Beast Duel Reels

Things get heavier still in the second bonus round – land 3 Beast Scatters to Unleash the Beast!

Same rules apply here, but reel 3 is locked to start. It only comes to life when a VS has landed on each or reels 1, 2, 4 and 5. It can then become a Beast DuelReel whose multiplier is applied to ALL other reels multipliers before they are applied to the reel multipliers at the top of each reel.

In Unleash the Beast the multiplier values for DuelReels™ are from 1x up to 250x for reels 1, 2, 4 and 5 and 2x to 20x for reel 3.

The Final Verdict

Gladiator Legends and slots like it have helped cement Hacksaw’s place as a great developer of high variance slots. Alongside the stylish design and sounds of battle and warriors being slain, the action on the reels is compelling. For a high risks slot, in our tests at least, it was a pacey game with plenty of small wins, including VS symbols, to keep us interested whilst waiting for something bigger.

The bonus rounds are strong but the added jeopardy of duels bringing up multipliers that can drop your reel value as well as increase it is a touch that will frustrate many. Still, that’s all part of high-risk gaming and the just the flip side of the big win coin.