Wisdom of Athena

Theme and Design

A Stunning Slot Game With Rich Graphics and Slick Animations

If you are going to draw on Ancient Greek mythology for your slot theme you better go big in my book. There is so much rich history there with heroes, heroines and empires rising and falling that it lends itself perfectly to great game visuals if you get it right. And Pragmatic Play have done just that, invoking this period beautifully in Wisdom of Athena as you can see in this screenshot.

This is an opulent game. The backdrop of ancient Greek temples, statues and buildings sits behind a reel set with gilded gold leaf frame and intricately drawn symbols. There is a model-type character of Athena stands to the right of the reels, carrying sword and staff. She bangs the staff and wields the shield as a new row is unlocked on each reel. It’s a glorious setting with plenty of exciting animations that kick in as tumble wins cause symbols to disappear in flashes of light and new rows unlock with consecutive wins.

In a nutshell, epic before you even start to spin!

RTP and Variance

Wisdom of Athena has three available RTP settings: 96.07%, 95.09% and 94.09%. Which you play at will depend on your casino. In the UK many operators choose below optimium settings. We verified the RTP of the game at five top UK slot sites. This is what we found:

• Casumo (independent): 94.09%
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net): 94.09%
• Barz (White Hat Gaming):  94.09%
• Pub Casino (L and L Europe): 94.09%
• MrQ (independent): 96.07%

MrQ was the only site to run Wisdom of Athena at its optimum RTP level in this test. If RTP is important to you then we recommend that you play the game there.

This is also a highly volatile slot, rated 5/5 by Pragmatic Play themselves. As I found in my test session, it can be a frustrating play with little returns in the base game. But as with any volatile slot, at any moment it can kick off with a dizzying combination of free spins and accumulating multipliers in the bonus round.

If you enjoy this king of volatile gameplay then I recommend your read our article on the best high variance slots.

Maximum Win

The top payout in Wisdom of Athena is just 5,000x. Pragmatic Play don’t always run with super high max wins and 5,000x is not unusual. However, if you want a slot with more potential we recommend that you try Spellbinding Mystery (10,000x) or Eye of the Storm (10,000x), or read our article on Pragmatic's highest paying slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Good Value At The Top of the Paytable For 15 or More Matches

Wisdom of Athena plays out on a 6 reel grid with 5 rows on each, with the chance to unlock an extra row on each reel as the game progresses.

This is a Scatter Pays game which means there are no paylines. To trigger wins you simply need to land 8 or more identical symbols ANYWHERE on the reels.

I found some good value in the paytable when landing 15 to 30 of the same symbol across the grid. That is not going to be easy but remember that you have the expanding reels to help you along the way, creating more spaces for symbols to land with each Tumble.

Low payers are the Greek symbols on green, purple, blue, pink and red, valued at from 0.25x for 8 or 9 green symbols up to 7.5x for between 15 and 30 red symbols. Premiums are the parchment, urn, helmet and shield, worth between 1x for 8 or 9 parchments and 50x for between 15 and 30 shields.

There is no wild in Wisdom of Athena. However, there is a scatter which pays out 2x for 4, 15x for 5 and 100x for 6. It also unlocks the free spins round when 4 or more land at once.

Features and Gameplay

Whilst I wouldn't give this game high marks for originality in the features, I found its simplicity quite compelling. It's just tumbles, expanding reels and random multipliers. If you enjoy simple slots play rather than the complex features knocked out by Nolimit City and the like then you will enjoy Wisdom of Athena.

This is how it works.

Tumble Feature – Unlock An Extra Row of Symbols on Every Reel

Central to the gameplay in Wisdom of Athena is the Tumble Feature – after any winning spin, all winning symbols are removed from the reels and new ones drop in to replace them. If more wins occur, the process repeats. This continues until no more wins are triggered.

Tumbles have been used in countless slots from Gonzo’s Quest to Bonanza Megaways. They are best when combined with an another feature like multipliers, or in this case, reel expansions. For every 3^rd tumble, an extra position is unlocked at the top of each reel as follows:

• 1 Tumble – top row on reel 1 unlocks
• 3 Tumbles – top row on reel 2 unlocks
• 6 Tumbles – top row on reel 3 unlocks
• 9 Tumbles – top row on reel 4 unlocks
• 12 Tumbles – top row on reel 5 unlocks
• 15 Tumbles – top row on reel 6 unlocks

Expanding the reel set in this way gives you more chance of landing wins and the rows remain unlocked until the Tumble sequence ends.

Multipliers of up to 500x Can Land At Any Time!

Another useful feature is the Multiplier. This are like diamond gems in red, pink, green and blue. When they land, they carry a value of between 2x and 500x. There values are added together and only applied to the TOTAL win at the end of your Tumble sequence.

Free Spins – Extra Rows Do NOT Re-Set Between Tumbles

The free spins round is where this game can really deliver. In classic high variance style, the features are the same, but enhanced! When the extra rows unlock from tumbles, they do NOT re-set between spins.

And, multipliers are now added to a Total Multiplier value displayed to the left of the reels which is applied to EVERY win that occurs during the round.

Free spins are triggered by landing 4 or more scatters. That gets you 10 spins. Landing 3 or more scatters during the round gets you 5 more free spins. So you can keep extending the round, increasing your multiplier and opening up more rows until each reel is 6 high.