Ze Zeus

Theme and Design

A Dramatic Setting For This Ancient Greek Slot Game

Invoking a very common slots theme, Ancient Greece, Hacksaw take us to the very home of the gods, Mount Olympus, in Ze Zeus. There are epic skies, thunderous clouds and lightning strikes to accompany your spins. Zeus himself floats to the right of the grid, carrying what looks like a lighting bolt (because he can!). It’s sharp, fun and quite dramatic. In short, top production as ever from Hacksaw.

RTP and Variance

Ze Zeus has 4 RTP rates – 96.34%, 94.23%, 92.17% and 88.36%. Your casino operator will choose which to run the game at. Obviously, you want to find a slot site where it’s set to 96.34% for the best chance of a positive return on your wagering. In the UK that is becoming increasingly difficult, as many choose low RTP rates to maximise their house edge. My recommendation would be to play at MrQ from Lindar Media who we have found to consistently run online slots at the maximum RTP settings.

Ze Zeus is one of Hackaw’s medium volatility games. They are better known for high variance slots, but they do produce some good ones with more forgiving maths models like this one too. It means a more even win distribution that doesn’t destroy your balance so fast!

Maximum Win

Despite its medium variance Ze Zeus still kicks out some decent sized payouts, maxing out at a very respectable 10,000x, a figure more often reserved for higher variance slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Zeus is a Cluster Pays slot that plays out on a 6 reel and 5 row grid. Wins are triggered by landing 5 or more identical symbols in horizontally or vertically adjacent positions. That means you can build out big clusters and therefore big payouts on each spin.

In the paytable there are 10 symbols. The low value ones are the spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts icons, and the star. These are valued at from 0.1x for 5 in a cluster up to 15x for 13 or more in a cluster. The higher value group are the temple, shield, grapes, helmet and Zeus himself. These are valued at from 0.3x for 5 temples up to 100x for 13 or more Zeus.

You might also spot a Wild, represented by the letter W, from time to time. These will substitute for any pay symbol to complete a cluster, though they don’t have any pay value of their own.

Features and Gameplay

You know Hacksaw, they like to get your braincells firing when playing their slots, so at first glance they are not that easy to follow. This one has a progressive format to it, with one feature triggering another, then another, and so on. Which of course can be thrilling when it goes your way.

Here is how it works.

Cascading Wins and Divine Squares

Everything starts with cascading wins, a regular feature in Cluster Pay slots. 

For every win, all winning symbols are removed from the grid and remaining symbols and new ones drop down to fill the spaces left behind. More clusters? Then that process repeats until no more wins are triggered.

But that’s not all. Because as winning symbols are removed from the grid as part of a cascade, the spot they vacate becomes a Divine Square. These are important because if a Hand of Zeus symbol is visible on the grid at the same time as a Divine Square then it will activate the Divine Square, revealing either bronze, silver or gold coins with cash value OR Vessel or Wealth of Zap of Zeus symbols.

Coins, Vessel of Wealth and Zap of Zeus Symbols

The next phase is a cash collect one. Your cash comes via those coins valued as follows:

• Bronze: 0.2x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x
• Silver: 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x
• Gold: 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x

Before they are collected, their value MAY be increased if a Zap of Zeus symbol is in an adjacent spot. If it is, it applies its multiplier value to those coins. It might be 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x.

That’s great and it can trigger some nice payouts as I found in testing. However, there is a more powerful element to the gameplay in the form of the Vessel of Wealth symbol. This is a special collector symbol. It will collect the value of ALL coins on the grid as well as the value of OTHER Vessel of Wealth symbols too. For this to happen, the collection has to happen in a specific order. Namely, top to bottom, reel by reel, left to right, starting at the far left.

Sounds good? It get’s better …

Once all Vessel of Wealth symbols have done their collections, remaining Divine Squares reveal symbols and the process continues. Only when all activations and reveals are finished is the final payout made. Then all coins and Vessels of Wealth are added together and multiplied by your bet value.

Free Spins Round – What If Zeus Was One Of Us?

What if, eh?!

To find out you need to land 3 or more FS scatters on a single spin. You get 8 plays where Divine Squares are persistent UNTIL they are activated by a Zap of Zeus.

Meanwhile, if you land 2 or 3 more FS symbols during the round you will pick up 2 or 4 more free spins.

OR you can progress into the Ze Zeus Takes The Wheel bonus round by landing 4 more FS symbols. That gets you another 4 spins as well.

Enhanced Free Spins Round - Ze Zeus Takes The Wheel

Landing 4 FS symbols in the base game, or the first free spins round triggers this enhanced free spins feature. You have a massive 12 free spins in which ALL Divine Square are persistent throughout, even after they have been activated by Hand of Zeus.

Again, if you land 2 or 3 more FS symbols during this round you will pick up 2 or 4 more free spins.

Super Enhanced Free Spins Round – Ze Zeus Might Superstar

Finally, if you land 5 FS symbols in the base game you’ll be jetted off to the Ze Zeus Might Superstar feature with 12 free spins. In this extraordinary (and probably very rare event) Divine Squares remain active throughout. And now, Hand of Zeus symbols are GUARANTEED on each spin.

And to seal the deal … there are no bronze coins in this feature, only silver and gold!