Pragmatic Play · 2022 · measured RTP 97.7% · tested 2026-10-14
Sword of Ares
Meter multipliers made up 66.9% of Sword of Ares pay in a 10,000-spin run, natural free spins included; both demo runs, 20,000 rounds together, logged 97.7% RTP with 96.4% declared.
In numbers: the lab's RTP test on the official demo server measured 97.7% against 96.4% declared over 20,000 logged rounds in 2 runs; 26.1% of rounds paid; a natural bonus landed once per 183 rounds (109 in total) and a bonus round paid a median 41x the stake, mean 79.7x, trigger spin included; 100 bonus buys at 100x returned 1.25x of their price on average, 62% of them below the price; the biggest round paid 488.1x; the longest dry run was 27 spins.
In the lab’s research: Declared vs measured RTP · How often slots trigger the bonus · Bonus buy returns by provider — this test is part of their data
Sword of Ares demo
United States·available at Cafe Casino
Same reels, real payouts
Cafe Casino runs the same Sword of Ares with the same math and adds a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · the demo stays free
Test card
20,000 spins · USD 2.00 bet · every request logged
| Spins | 20,000 · 2 runs |
| Bet | USD 2.00 |
| RTP declared | 96.40% |
| RTP measured | 97.69% (approximate 95% CI 84.5–110.9) |
| Hit frequency | 26% · every 3.83 |
| Dead streak max / avg | 27 / 3.79 |
| Median hit | 0.80x |
| Max win (no bonus round) | 112.0x · run 1, round 7914 |
| Free spins, natural | 109 · 5.5 bHz · every 183.5 spins · mean bonus round payout 79.7x stake |
| Balance start → end | 100,000 → 99,078 |
- 012026-09-2010,000 rounds · 50 buysfiles & checksums ↓105.08%RTP5 files · SHA-256 ↓
- 022026-10-1410,000 rounds · 50 buysfiles & checksums ↓90.31%RTP5 files · SHA-256 ↓
each run keeps its own spin log, CSV and raw server journal with checksums; the figures on this card combine all runs
Bonus buy lab
100 buys × 100x · USD 200 each
mean 1.25x · median 0.671× price (USD 134.20) · 62 of 100 below price · best 10.60x · worst 0.08x
| Spins per bonus (avg / min–max) | 15 / 15–15 |
| Extended | 0.0% |
| Bonuses that paid nothing | 0% |
The rules allow no retrigger, and all 209 recorded features, 109 natural and 100 bought, ran exactly 15 spins; four, five or six Scatters on the triggering spin change the scatter pay, not the spin count.
- Spent
- USD 20,000100 × USD 200
- Returned
- USD 25,022125.11% · approximate 95% CI 92–158%
- Net
- +USD 5,022+25.1 buys
- Break-even or better
- 38 / 10038%
- Paid 2× price or more
- 16 / 10016%
- Price in base spins
- 100natural trigger every ~184 spins
One ticket equals 100 ordinary stakes. Natural bonuses occurred once per 184 ordinary rounds in this sample. Stakes multiplied by this interval measure gross wagering, not the net cost of obtaining a bonus. Purchase returns above include the complete purchased round and are divided by the ticket price.
Risk profile
how much bankroll the 2 runs in sequence needed
| 50 bets | bust at spin 370 |
| 100 bets | bust at spin 661 |
| 200 bets | bust at spin 1106 |
The runs are played back to back as one series, one bet size. A different session can bust earlier or never; treat this as a measured example, not a rule.
How it plays
7 rules screens from the game
Six reels of five symbols pay anywhere: eight or more of the same symbol left on the screen after a spin pay a fixed amount, whatever their positions. The golden Helmet is the top symbol, 20x the stake for twelve or more, and the Bracer, Shield, Sword and five gems follow it down to the purple Diamond at 1x for twelve; eight matching symbols pay from 0.25x to 4x. Paid symbols disappear, the survivors fall, and the tumble runs until nothing new lines up.
Above the reels sits a multiplier meter with three locked values in ordinary play. Every symbol removed during a spin and its tumbles is counted, the values unlock at 20, 50 and 100 symbols, drawn at random from 2x to 4x, 5x to 8x and 9x to 15x, and when the tumbles stop the whole win of that spin is multiplied by the highest value unlocked. Bomb symbols in four patterns, row, column, cross and X, wait until no combination is left, then blow their neighbours off the screen, and those symbols count toward the meter as well.
Ares Scatters, four or more anywhere, start 15 free spins, and the feature cannot be retriggered. The meter grows to six values in the feature, unlocking at 15, 30, 45, 60, 100 and 225 symbols, with the top three drawn from 16x to 32x, 35x to 100x and 150x to 500x. The Scatters themselves pay 3x, 15x and 100x the stake for four, five and six.
The feature is for sale at 100 stakes, a USD 200 ticket at the USD 2 bet, and the buying spin lands four, five or six Scatters. The game is labelled high volatility with 96.40% RTP quoted for ordinary play and 96.39% for the purchase; wins cap at 10,000x the stake, and the bet runs from USD 0.20 to USD 240.
Scatter symbol
Cascading reels
Multiplier
Free spins
Bonus buy
Bet range USD 0.20 – 240 per spin · payouts read from the game's paytable at bet USD 2.00
Gallery
12 frames from the demo session
Verdict
Purchases beat the base game again
Sword of Ares went from 105.08% in run one to 90.31% in run two, both at USD 2 over 10,000 rounds; the 20,000-round pooled figure is 97.69% (approximate 95% CI 84.48%–110.91%, which bounds how precise this mean is), just above the 96.40% in its rules. Paying rounds were 26.06% and 26.15% of each run; 14,779 rounds returned nothing, with blank stretches topping out at 27 and 22 rounds.
The meter did the paying again: its awards were 63.0% of run two's payouts after 66.9% in run one. Natural features came 52 and 57 times, one per 183 rounds, each exactly 15 spins, with a pooled median of 41.0x; run one's round 7580 (488.1x) is still the biggest feature, and run two topped out at round 5525, 356.15x, when spin nine gathered 105 symbols for a 35x award. The sixth meter value, 150x to 500x, still has not opened: the most symbols any spin collected is now 155, on ticket 41 of run two, which unlocked 38x.
Buying the feature has paid better than waiting for it: 100 tickets at USD 200 returned USD 25,022, 125.11% of cost, with a USD 134.20 median, 62 tickets under price, 16 above double and five above fivefold; ticket 41 of run two leads at USD 2,119.70, ahead of run one's ticket 11 at USD 1,651.90. Run two's batch returned 115.34%.
- One free spin on ticket 41 of run two collected 155 symbols, 38x and USD 1,561.80
- Meter awards made up 63.0% of run two's payouts and 66.9% of run one's
- Purchases returned 125.11% of cost over 100 tickets, 16 of which doubled their price
- No blank stretch longer than 27 rounds in 20,000
- Median natural feature down to 31.15x in run two from 54.22x
- The 150x to 500x meter value needs 225 symbols and has not opened in 3,135 free spins
- USD 200 was not recovered by 62 of the 100 tickets
- Six points under the rules' figure in run two, 90.31%
Run 01·2026-09-20·105.08%
The demo returned 105.08% of stake against the 96.40% in its rules, and the approximate 95% band spans 83.1 to 127.0%, and the balance ended USD 1,016.60 up. That surplus is thinner than it looks: fifty, a hundred and two hundred stakes were all gone by spin 1,106, the deepest trough sat 632 stakes below the start, and eight dry runs went past 20 spins. Hits came every 3.84 spins at a 0.8x median.
The meter is the game. In ordinary play only 566 spins of 10,000 unlocked a multiplier, mostly x2 to x4, yet those awards were 48.9% of everything the base game paid; the base record, 112x on round 7914, needed 120 symbols and four bombs to reach the third step at x10. Inside the 52 natural features the meter paid 89.3% of the FS-only return, and the 35 free spins that reached x10 or more delivered 75.7% of it on their own.
Purchases at USD 200 averaged 1.34882x of price, 134.88% against the 96.39% quoted, with a 0.7275x median, USD 145.50, and 30 tickets below price. Four tickets passed 5x, and ticket 11 paid USD 1,651.90 when its twelfth spin gathered 129 symbols and multiplied a USD 32.20 tumble by 38; strip it out and the remaining 49 still returned 1.2078x.
No spin in the series reached the sixth value, the 150x to 500x step that needs 225 symbols: the most any spin collected was 152, on purchase 15, and the fifth step opened seven times in 1,530 free spins, never above x40. What the feature really sells is the fourth and fifth step: the sixth spin of round 7580 gathered 115 symbols, unlocked x40 and turned a USD 15.80 tumble into USD 632, 316x the stake and two thirds of the round.
Run 02·2026-10-14·90.31%
Ticket 41 gathered 155 symbols on its very first free spin, more than any spin in either run, unlocked the fifth meter value at 38x and turned a USD 41.10 tumble into USD 1,561.80; the ticket closed at USD 2,119.70, 10.6 times its price and the largest purchase of the series. The best natural feature, round 5525, did it on spin nine: 105 symbols, 35x, USD 700 of its USD 712.30.
Across 10,000 USD 2 rounds the run returned USD 18,061, a 90.31% RTP; 7,385 rounds paid nothing and no empty stretch ran past 22 rounds. Fifty-seven natural features arrived, one per 175 rounds, all of exactly 15 spins, and paid USD 7,207.40 as whole rounds, 39.9% of the run's money; meter awards alone made up 63.0% of everything paid, and 22 free spins at 10x or more carried 65.6% of the free-spin total. The batch of 50 purchases, USD 10,000 in all, returned USD 11,533.80, 115.34%, with a USD 132.75 median and 32 tickets under price.
Test record
2 runs · 20,000 rounds · 100 buys · open data · closed rig
This game has been through 2 separate test runs on the official demo server, each a fresh session of 10,000 rounds at a fixed bet. Every figure on this page combines the runs into one sample, as if they were one long session; the record below keeps each run apart, with its own numbers and its own downloadable log.
- 20,000rounds, all runs
- 26%rounds that paid
- 488xbiggest round
- 1 / 183natural bonus rate
- 1.25xmean of 100 buys
- 27longest dry streak
01run Run 012026-09-20 measured return105.08%+8.7 pts vs declared
- 95% band
- 83.1–127.0%
- rounds that paid
- 26%
- biggest round
- 488x · round 7,580
- longest dry streak
- 27
- natural bonuses
- 52 · one per 192 rounds
- bonus buys
- mean 1.35x · median 0.728x · 60% below price
- balance start → end
- 100,000 → 101,017
- deepest drawdown
- 1,041x
02run Run 022026-10-14 lab note measured return90.31%-6.1 pts vs declared
- 95% band
- 75.6–105.0%
- rounds that paid
- 26%
- biggest round
- 356x · round 5,525
- longest dry streak
- 22
- natural bonuses
- 57 · one per 175 rounds
- bonus buys
- mean 1.15x · median 0.664x · 64% below price
- balance start → end
- 100,000 → 98,061
- deepest drawdown
- 1,611x
Ordinary-play RTP fell from 105.08% in run one to 90.31% in run two despite more natural features, 57 against 52, as the median feature dropped from 54.22x to 31.15x. Purchases returned 115.34% against 134.88%, and ticket 41's USD 2,119.70 replaced USD 1,651.90 as the best ticket.
2 test runs combined into one sample (2026-09-20, 2026-10-14): 20,000 ordinary rounds, including naturally triggered features, at a fixed USD 2 bet; 100 bonus buys at USD 200 each (100x); recorded on the official Pragmatic Play demo server (jurisdiction 99, RTP profile 96.4%); every request and response logged.
The test rig plays the official demo build over the network and records every server round: bet, win, intermediate steps (cascades, respins), free spins, collect. Screenshots and video were captured in a separate browser session and are not part of the statistical samples. The text was read against the log by an editor before publication. How we test → One test, step by step →
FAQ
6 questions · answered from the log
Has Sword of Ares stayed above 96.40% after two runs?
Yes, barely: 97.69% over 20,000 USD 2 rounds after 105.08% and 90.31%. Run two paid USD 18,061 on USD 20,000, and its meter awards were USD 11,384.60 of that.
What produced 155 symbols on ticket 41?
Its first free spin: the tumbles removed 155 symbols, enough for the fifth meter value, and the ladder stood at 38x, multiplying a USD 41.10 sequence into USD 1,561.80. The remaining 14 spins added USD 551.90, and with the USD 6 entry screen the ticket closed at USD 2,119.70.
Could run two reach the 500x meter value?
No. The sixth value needs 225 collected symbols; ticket 41's 155 is the series' maximum. The fifth value opened on three free spins in run two, at 35x and 38x, after seven in run one.
Did the natural features weaken in run two?
Yes. Fifty-seven features paid a median 31.15x against 54.22x for run one's 52, and their share of the run's payouts slipped from 48.3% to 39.9%; the best, round 5525, reached 356.15x against 488.1x. Features still came one per 175 rounds.
After 100 purchases, does the USD 200 ticket still pay?
Yes, by the totals: 125.11% of cost, USD 25,022 on USD 20,000, with 16 tickets at twice their price or better. The median ticket paid USD 134.20, though, and most tickets, 62 in all, paid under USD 200; run two's batch returned 115.34%.
How many bombs exploded during run two?
1,049 in ordinary play, one spin in 11.9; 359 in natural free spins (one spin in 3.0) and 350 in purchased ones. Round 1857, the base-game best at 63x, used one bomb and 93 symbols for a 7x award.
Comments and reviews
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- spins20,000
- bet2.00
- result-461x
- RTP measured97.7%
- bonuses109
- max win, no bonus112.0x
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