Pragmatic Play · 2022 · tested 2026-09-20
Sword of Ares
Sword of Ares hangs a multiplier meter over every spin, and in this review that meter, not the symbol pays, produced 66.9% of what the demo returned at a measured 105.08% RTP.
Test card
10,000 spins · USD 2.00 bet · every request logged| Spins | 10,000 |
| Bet | USD 2.00 |
| RTP declared | 96.40% |
| RTP measured | 105.08% (approximate 95% CI 83.1–127.0) |
| Hit frequency | 26% · every 3.84 |
| Dead streak max / avg | 27 / 3.78 |
| Median hit | 0.80x |
| Max win (base game) | 112.0x · spin 7914 |
| Free spins, natural | 52 · every 192.3 spins · mean FS-only payout 90.4x stake |
| Balance start → end | 100,000 → 101,017 |
each run keeps its own spin log, CSV and raw server journal with checksums; the figures on this card combine all runs
Play Sword of Ares demo
same math as real play · demo balance
Bonus buy lab
50 buys × 100x · USD 200 eachmean 1.35x · median 0.7275× price (USD 145.50) · 30 of 50 below price · best 8.26x · worst 0.12x
| Spins per bonus (avg / min–max) | 15 / 15–15 |
| Retriggered | 0% |
| Bonuses that paid nothing | 0% |
The rules allow no retrigger, and all 102 recorded features, 52 natural and 50 bought, ran exactly 15 spins; four, five or six Scatters on the triggering spin change the scatter pay, not the spin count.
- Spent
- USD 10,00050 × USD 200
- Returned
- USD 13,488.20134.88% · approximate 95% CI 87–182%
- Net
- +USD 3,488.20+17.4 buys
- Break-even or better
- 20 / 5040%
- Paid 2× price or more
- 9 / 5018%
- Price in base spins
- 100natural trigger every ~192 spins
One ticket equals 100 ordinary stakes. Natural bonuses occurred once per 192 paid 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 this run needed| 50 bets | bust at spin 370 |
| 100 bets | bust at spin 661 |
| 200 bets | bust at spin 1106 |
One run, 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 purchase is priced 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, the rules print 96.40% RTP 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 test
Verdict
Two steps short of the topThe 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.
- The meter multiplied 566 ordinary spins and 209 of 780 natural free spins, and its awards were 66.9% of the whole return
- Round 7580 unlocked x40 with 115 symbols and paid USD 632 on one free spin, 316x the stake
- Fifty purchases returned 1.34882x of price, 134.88%, and four tickets passed 5x
- Bombs went off once per 11.3 ordinary spins and once per 3.0 free spins, blowing 5,962 base symbols into the meter
- Nothing came back on 7,394 of 10,000 spins, the longest empty run was 27 and a bankroll of two hundred stakes ran out on spin 1,106
- Four Scatters came once per 192 spins with a 723-spin gap at the longest, and there is no retrigger to extend the 15 spins
- The sixth meter value, 150x to 500x, never unlocked: 225 symbols are needed and no spin collected more than 152
- The median ticket returned 0.7275x, USD 145.50, and 30 of 50 purchases lost money
Test record
10,000 rounds · 50 buys · open data · closed rigOne test run so far: a single session of the base game plus a separate series of bonus purchases on the official demo server, every request and response logged. When the game is tested again, the new run is added here and the figures on this page combine all runs into one sample.
- 10,000rounds logged
- 26%rounds that paid
- 488xbiggest round
- 1 / 192natural bonus rate
- 1.35xmean of 50 buys
- 27longest dry streak
01run
Run 012026-09-20
10,000 rounds at USD 2.00 · 50 buys · rig 0.6.0 · RTP profile 96.40%
measured return105.08%+8.7 pts vs declared
Run 012026-09-20
10,000 rounds at USD 2.00 · 50 buys · rig 0.6.0 · RTP profile 96.40%
- 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 0.73x · 60% below price
- balance start → end
- 100,000 → 101,017
- deepest drawdown
- 1,041x
10000 ordinary paid rounds, including naturally triggered features, at a fixed USD 2.0 bet; 50 bonus buys at 200.0 each (100.0x) on the official Pragmatic Play demo server (jurisdiction 99, RTP profile 96.4%); every request and response logged; test run 2026-09-20.
The test rig recorded every round on the official demo server. Screenshots and video were captured in a separate browser session and are not part of the statistical samples. This release has completed automated data, content and page checks; human editorial review is pending. How we test →
FAQ
6 questions · answered from the logSword of Ares RTP: how did the demo compare with 96.40%?
The series returned 105.08% at USD 2 a spin, 8.68 points above the printed 96.40%, and the approximate 95% band runs 83.1 to 127.0%. Round 7580 alone paid 488.1x the stake; take it out and the remaining 9,999 rounds paid 100.21%, while 7,394 of the 10,000 spins paid nothing at all.
Multiplier meter: how does it work, and how often does it pay?
Every symbol removed in a spin fills the meter, and at 20, 50 and 100 symbols a locked value opens, 2x to 4x, 5x to 8x and 9x to 15x; the highest open value multiplies the whole spin when the tumbles end. In ordinary play 566 spins of 10,000 unlocked one, 5.7%: 206 at x2, 208 at x3, 115 at x4, 27 at x5, seven at x6, two at x7 and one at x10, and those awards made 48.9% of the base-game return.
Does the USD 200 ticket pay for itself?
The fifty USD 200 tickets returned 1.34882x of price on average, 134.88% against the 96.39% the rules quote, yet the middle ticket returned 0.7275x, USD 145.50, and 30 of 50 lost. Ticket 11 paid 8.2595x, USD 1,651.90, and with it removed the remaining 49 still returned 1.2078x; 217 of the 750 purchased free spins unlocked a multiplier and those awards were 91.6% of the purchased payout.
Four Scatters: how long a wait?
Fifty-two natural features in the series, an average of 192.3 spins between them and 723 spins between rounds 4753 and 5477 at the longest; at USD 2 that gap is USD 384.62 of turnover per trigger, not a net cost. Each feature ran exactly 15 spins, since the rules allow no retrigger, and paid 90.37x the stake on average FS-only with a 45.5x median; without round 7580 the other 51 averaged 82.66x at a 43.8x median.
Can the meter reach 500x?
Never in this series. The sixth value needs 225 collected symbols and the most any spin gathered was 152, on purchase 15; the fifth step, worth 35x to 100x, opened seven times in 1,530 free spins and drew x35, x38 and x40. The top value shown on the natural-feature ladders was 500x on 202 spins, 300x on 194, 200x on 196 and 150x on 188, so the number is on the meter about one spin in four and out of reach every time.
Bombs: what do they actually do?
They explode in a row, a column, a cross or an X once no combination is left, and every symbol they remove counts toward the meter. In ordinary play 1,088 bombs went off in 885 spins, one spin in 11.3, blowing away 5,962 symbols; in natural free spins 355 went off in 263 spins, one in 3.0, removing 2,077. Round 7914, the base record at 112x, needed four of them to reach 120 symbols and the x10 step.
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Field notes
0 notes