Athena Ascending

Join Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War, after she has finally established her name on Mount Olympus. Standing as one of Olympus’ most powerful champions, Athena spreads her power, granting good fortune and faith only to the worthiest of all. Will you be one of them? Only one way to find out…

The Ins and Outs

If you, dear Reader, have dared join Athena in her glorious adventures, you’ll need a trusty guide to lead you through the trials and tribulations paving the road to eternal glory. Luckily for you, we’re here and at your disposal.

Starting with the game setup, Athena Ascending is a Video Slot, operating with a 5×3 scheme, meaning that, simply put, it has 5 reels and 3 rows. The game has 20 paylines which is quite usual for these types of slot games. While in truth it’s not much to play with, there’s still enough room to manoeuvre if, of course, you’re up to the challenge.

As we already said, this game is only for the bravest of players because it has high volatility. Obviously, the risks are huge and you potentially stand to lose a lot, but, at the same time, it might just be your personal opportunity to win – and win big.

Concerning the game mechanics, the minimum allowed bet is €0.05, allowing beginners to get comfortable and explore the game inside and out before making substantial bets and taking on a higher risk. For the boldest, the maximum bet is set at €100, which, of course, can grant you the biggest payout, but also cost you the greatest price. The choice is yours.

The max payout potential is 10000x the amount of your bet and the RTP is estimated to vary, depending on a number of factors. Accurate estimations predict an RTP of 84.20%, 87.20%, 91.20%, 94.20% and 96.20%. On the one hand, the fluctuations may dissuade a majority of the players, especially given that RTP equal to or below 95% is considered unprofitable. On the other hand, the fluctuations are quite common for Play’n GO’s games, and, after all, you’re playing under the rules of Athena herself. Risk is expected to be at an all-time high, but so is the potential profit.

Symbols

Diving deeper into the core features of Athena Ascending, we have to first explain the symbols you are most likely to encounter. Pay close attention to those, as they’ll be crucial for your winning.

Starting off, we have the Low-Value Symbols. In Athena Ascending, they are the A, K, J, Q and 10. Keep in mind that these will most likely be the ones you encounter the most so be sure they stay at the forefront of your mind. A win will be constituted when there are at least 3 symbols of a kind during one spin. Five Low-Value Symbols are equal to a win 1x the amount of your bet. Not bad, but could be a lot better.

Moving on, we have the High-Value Symbols. Now these, lovely Readers, are what could potentially make or break your game. Have enough of them and you’ll be enjoying a fortune, stumble upon a spell of bad luck and you will get mere scraps from the max payout. The High-Value symbols are the Scroll, the Urn, the Helmet, Pegasus and Athena herself. If you manage to land 5 High-Value symbols, the win will be anywhere from 2x to 50x the size of your bet. Moreover, if you happen to find Athena in a good mood and land 2 Athena symbols, it will be considered a win on its own.

Wilds Feature

We know them, and we love them, especially in groups of five – the Wild Symbols. In Athena Ascending, they can appear anywhere from reel 2 to reel 4 and they serve as multipliers. Athena Ascending guarantees that a Wild will appear in one of every three Spins, making sure that even during a streak of bad luck, you will be able to get back on your feet.

Wilds can act as a substitute for every other symbol in the game, with the exception of Scatters. As previously mentioned, each Wild provides a multiplier of up to 4. Wilds can also be ‘sticky’ until their multiplier reaches 4, meaning that they will remain in-game longer than other symbols, potentially allowing you to obtain a bigger win.

Multipliers increase by 1 each spin and re-spins will occur until there are no more Wilds remaining on the game board. The maximum multiplier value you can derive from Athena Ascending is x64, whereas in the game’s prequel, Rise of Athena, it was only x27. Draw whatever conclusions you wish, but for us, that’s quite an improvement.

Owl Scatters

It really won’t be a Video Slot classic without the Scatters, won’t it? They do seem to have established themselves as quite the staple in Slots games.

In Athena Ascending, however, they come with a twist. They’re Owl Scatters! We know, it’s mostly a graphic change, but still, we aren’t ones to complain about a little variety.

Free Spins Feature

We’ve already talked about the Free Spins in previous sections, but we’ll still give you a summary of the main idea. Five Free Spins will be triggered when 3 or more Owl Scatter symbols appear simultaneously on the reels. The Free Spins will continue until there are no longer Wild symbols in the reels. The payout from triggering a round of Free Spins can be anywhere from 1x to 20x and even 500x times the amount of your initial bet.

Bottom Line

All in all, we can’t really complain about this one. It has every distinguishing trait of a classic Video Slots game, and sometimes that’s all a person needs. It’s definitely better than its predecessor and Greek Mythology lovers will be thrilled to give Athena Ascending a try. We can assume, however, that players itching for a variety of features won’t be particularly satisfied, given that Athena Ascending only has Owl Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers and Free Spins. Nevertheless, if you are someone with an adept interest in classics, can handle a fluctuating RTP and are able to withstand high volatility, Athena Ascending is just for you.