Slots Like Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising: 1,125 Bidirectional Ways and Five Must Hit By Pots
Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising is a Greek myth slot from Triple Edge Studios, the independent studio whose output reaches players through the Games Global network. It runs on an unusual 3-5-5-5-3 grid, so the outer reels show three symbols each while the three middle reels show five, and that shape produces 1,125 ways that pay from the left and from the right. The headline RTP is 96.20%, volatility is high, and stakes run from £0.10 to £25 a spin. Two systems sit on top of the base game: the Ultra Link and Win round, a hold and win variant that can grow the play area to eight rows, and Rising Rewards, a set of five must hit by pots that climb as trigger tokens land. The ceiling most trackers quote is 10,000x your stake. If you already enjoy Ancient Fortunes Zeus and want something noisier, this review explains how the two differ and points you at other slots like Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising.
Where to Play
18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.
How the Game Works
Reviewed by Paul StonePublished: July 2026
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The grid is the first thing to get your head around. Reels one and five are three symbols tall, reels two, three and four are five symbols tall, and the frame is labelled 1125 WAYS on both sides. Because wins count from the leftmost reel inwards and from the rightmost reel inwards, a matching pair on reels four and five is a paying combination in its own right. That doubles the number of ways a single spin can produce something, and it is the main reason the low value royals hit as often as they do.
Bets start at £0.10 and run to £25. There is no way to reduce the number of active ways, so the stake slider is the only lever you have. A Minotaur in armour stands to the left of the reels and reacts to what lands, and the Feature Buy plaque sits underneath him in markets where buys are permitted. Above the reels sit five pots, one per reel, each showing a current value and a must hit by ceiling. On the session captured for this review those read 30.00 by 50.00 on reel one, 600.00 by 1,000.00, 1,200.00 by 2,000.00 and 120.00 by 200.00 across the middle three, and 10.00 by 30.00 on reel five.
Spin to spin, the base game is deliberately quiet. Royals return small amounts, the stone head characters pay more, and the real business is landing either three Ultra Link and Win scatters or a cluster of Rising Rewards trigger tokens. Anyone expecting a steady drip of medium wins should be aware that this is not that sort of slot, and the studio has not tried to pretend otherwise.
Symbols and Paytable
Four royals carry the bottom of the table, J through to A, and each returns roughly 0.5x stake for a five of a kind across the full width. Above them sit the carved stone heads: a red Spartan style helmet, a golden lion, a green laurelled warrior and the blue Minotaur head itself. Those range from about 0.7x up to 4x stake for five, with the Minotaur head at the top. A golden axe acts as the wild, arrives stacked on reels two, three and four, and substitutes for the royals and the stone heads. It does not stand in for the Ultra Link and Win scatter, and it does not stand in for the Rising Rewards jackpot trigger tokens either, so a wild landing can never manufacture a bonus trigger or push a pot higher. Given that the wilds only appear on the tall middle reels, they tend to complete both left to right and right to left combinations at once, which is where most of the better base game hits come from.
The paytable is modest on purpose. A 4x top line pay would look thin on a fixed payline slot, but with 1,125 bidirectional ways the same symbol can land in dozens of paying arrangements, and the maths is balanced around the bonus rather than the base game.
Bonus Features Explained
The Ultra Link and Win Round
Three Ultra Link and Win symbols start the main event, branded on screen as Ultra Link&Win. The reels are replaced by a five by four play area that can grow to five by eight, and you begin with three respins plus the three cash symbols that triggered the round. Any new cash symbol resets the counter to three, so a busy start can keep the round alive for a long time.
Five symbol types matter inside it. Plain Cash symbols hold 0.5x to 10x stake. Unlock symbols open another row, and each one you open brings more landing positions into the mix. Collect symbols sweep every value currently on screen and add it to your total. Persistent Collect does the same but stays on the grid and repeats the sweep on every remaining respin, which is the single most valuable thing you can land. Countdown symbols hold a much larger value, between 4x and 195x stake, but only release it once their counter has ticked to zero, so they reward the rounds that keep resetting.
The screenshot further down shows how large this can get. A €2 spin in the euro demo build, played on a grid unlocked to eight rows, finished with the total win panel reading 16,230.00. A red framed 2,873x sits beside the Minotaur in the lower middle of that grid, and a second red framed value of 4,808x sits on a Minotaur symbol in the upper right.
Rising Rewards Must Hit By Jackpots
Five local jackpots sit above the reels, one tied to each reel position. Jackpot trigger tokens can land over ordinary symbols during the base game, and each one nudges the corresponding pot upwards. Tokens on the outer reels add 0.4x bet to their pot, tokens on the three middle reels add a full 1x bet, which is why the middle three values climb so much faster and sit so much higher.
The must hit by part is what makes this worth paying attention to. Every pot carries a stated ceiling, and it is guaranteed to pay out before its displayed value passes that number. A pot showing 1,180.00 against a 2,000.00 ceiling is a long way from forced. One showing 1,940.00 against the same ceiling is very close. It does not change your edge, since the game funds those pots from the same return, but it does give you something concrete to read before you sit down at a table someone else has been feeding.
The Feature Buy Options
Three buy prices are offered where regulation allows. The Original Feature costs 100x stake and drops you into a standard Ultra Link and Win round. The Random Feature costs 150x and hands you a randomly weighted version, which can be better or worse than the standard round. The Unleashed Feature costs 500x and starts you with a taller grid and a stronger symbol set. UK licensed operators cannot offer any of these, so British players get the base game only, and the Feature Buy plaque is simply absent.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The bidirectional 1,125 ways structure genuinely changes how the base game feels, rather than being a marketing line.
- Persistent Collect symbols give the Ultra Link and Win round a proper top end instead of a flat cash total.
- Must hit by ceilings on all five pots are displayed openly, so you can judge where a jackpot sits before committing.
- 96.20% is a fair headline number for a game with this much feature machinery attached.
- Artwork and animation are a clear step up from the older Ancient Fortunes releases.
Cons
- Base game pays are genuinely small, and dry spells between features are long.
- Operators can and do run the 94.01% and 92.01% builds, and the difference is significant.
- Five jackpot pots plus a growing bonus grid makes the screen busy, especially on a phone.
- Sources disagree on the maximum win, which is not a great look for a headline figure.
- The Feature Buy is advertised in the artwork but unavailable to UK players, which reads as a tease.
Game Screenshot
The base game. Reels one and five show three symbols, the middle three show five, and the 1125 WAYS label sits on both sides of the frame. Five must hit by pots sit above the reels, one to each, reading 30.00 by 50.00, 600.00 by 1,000.00, 1,200.00 by 2,000.00, 120.00 by 200.00 and 10.00 by 30.00 from left to right. The armoured Minotaur stands on the left with the Feature Buy plaque beside him.
The Ultra Link and Win round on a grid unlocked to eight rows. Spins remaining reads zero, a red framed 2,873x sits beside the Minotaur in the lower middle, and the total win panel reads 16,230.00 from a €2 bet in the euro demo build.
Free Play Demo
You can try the game here without spending anything. The demo below runs the full build on play money, including the Ultra Link and Win round and the Rising Rewards pots, so it is a sensible way to see how long the dry spells actually run before you decide whether the volatility suits you. The one thing a demo cannot show you is a jackpot pot that a real casino has been building for weeks, since the play money version starts its meters from scratch.
Game Information
Expert Take
Triple Edge has taken the Ancient Fortunes name, which used to mean a fairly restrained rolling reels slot, and pointed it somewhere much louder. The bidirectional grid is the clever bit. Paying from both ends on a 3-5-5-5-3 shape produces a hit pattern that feels different from a standard ways game, and it stops the tall middle reels from being purely decorative. Stacking a hold and win round and a five pot jackpot system on top of that is a lot of machinery for one slot, and the screen does get crowded, but the two systems at least stay out of each other’s way rather than competing for attention.
Whether it lands depends on what you want from a session. The base game is thin and the studio has clearly funded the bonus at its expense, so anyone who likes ticking along on small wins will find it hard going. Players who are happy to grind toward a feature, and who enjoy watching five pots creep toward their ceilings while they do it, are getting a well built version of exactly that. It is a better game than Ancient Fortunes Zeus on ambition, and a harder one to sit with on a small bankroll.
Similar Slots to Try
The original Ancient Fortunes title and the obvious first stop. Same studio, same Greek setting, but a far calmer 3,125 ways game built around rolling reels and a wild multiplier rather than jackpot pots.
If the Ultra Link and Win round is the part you want more of, Athena runs a very similar collect and respin engine under Greek myth artwork, with a jackpot ladder attached to the grid.
A Megaways take on the same pantheon. The reel counts change every spin instead of staying fixed, which gives it a jumpier rhythm than the steady 1,125 ways here.
Lower stakes and a much gentler maths model. Worth a look if the high volatility of the Minotaur is more than you fancy but you still want the marble and myth backdrop.
About the Developer
Triple Edge Studios is an independent development house whose entire catalogue reaches players through Games Global, the distributor that took over the old Microgaming content network. The studio describes the split plainly on its own site: Triple Edge builds the games, Games Global supplies them to operators. That is why the same title can appear in one lobby filed under Triple Edge and in another filed under Games Global or Microgaming. The catalogue is a mix of licensed work, including Lara Croft Temples And Tombs, and original series such as Ancient Fortunes and the Fire And Roses line. Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising is one of the more feature dense things the studio has released, and it shares a jackpot philosophy with the more recent Rising Rewards.
The studio’s Vegas cabinet release, and the closest relative on jackpot design. It uses a five tier Jackpot Wheel where this one uses five must hit by pots.
A stripped back fruit machine with a joker twist, and useful proof that the studio still builds simple games alongside the feature heavy ones.
Triple Edge’s expanding symbol book slot, still one of the studio’s most widely stocked titles across UK operators.
A licensed adventure slot with rolling reels and a growing multiplier trail, and an early example of the studio handling a big brand.
Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising Key Stats
Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising slot information last reviewed: July 2026
| Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising Slot Info | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising |
| Provider: | Triple Edge Studios (distributed by Games Global) |
| Developer Rank: | 11 out of 12 Triple Edge Studios games |
| RTP: | 96.20% default (94.01% and 92.01% configurations also ship; the studio’s own page prints 96.02%, which we treat as a typo) |
| RTP Category: | Medium-High (96.00% to 96.49% band, sitting a little under halfway up it) |
| RTP Rank: | Slightly above the UK average, configuration dependent |
| Feature Description: | Stacked axe wilds on reels 2 to 4, Ultra Link and Win hold and win round with Unlock, Collect, Persistent Collect and Countdown symbols, five Rising Rewards must hit by jackpots, three Feature Buy tiers at 100x, 150x and 500x. |
| Feature Categories: | Hold and Win, Must Hit By Jackpots, Win Both Ways, Bonus Buy |
| Reels: | 5 (non-standard 3-5-5-5-3 row layout) |
| Rows: | 3 on reels 1 and 5, 5 on reels 2, 3 and 4 |
| Paylines: | 1,125 bidirectional ways |
| Volatility: | High |
| Volatility Rank: | High, toward the upper end of the Triple Edge range |
| Min Bet: | £0.10 |
| Max Bet: | £25 |
| Max Win: | 10,000x stake (most trackers); Bigwinboard lists 5,000x instead |
| Release Date: | August 2024 (5 August exclusive launch, 27 August wide release) |
| Slotslike Rank: | New addition, rank pending (View Top 100) |
Slots with the Same Features
This game sits in four of our feature categories: Hold and Win, jackpot, win both ways and bonus buy.
Slots with a Hold and Win Feature
Three more games where locking cash symbols and resetting a respin counter is the whole point of the round.
The money bag respin round here works on the same principle as the Ultra Link and Win: land cash symbols, lock them, chase the reset.
Norse rather than Greek, with a hold and win round that fills a fixed grid instead of unlocking extra rows as you go.
A lighter, cheaper hold and win with a much shorter session length. Good practice for the mechanic before you take on a high volatility version.
Slots with a Jackpot Layer Above the Reels
Three games that bolt a jackpot system onto the base reels. Huff N More Puff is the closest match, since it runs local pots with a stated must hit by ceiling exactly as the Rising Rewards pots do. The other two use different jackpot models, which is worth knowing before you compare them.
Runs must hit by pots in the same way, with the displayed value climbing until it is forced to drop.
A jackpot layer bolted onto a familiar base game, which is broadly what Rising Rewards does to the Minotaur reels.
A progressive of a very different scale. The pots are network wide rather than local, so they build far higher and drop far less often.
Slots That Pay Both Ways
Games where combinations count from the right hand reel as well as the left.
An older both ways design on a small grid, which makes it easy to see how paying from the right actually changes hit frequency.
Another both ways title with stacked wilds, and a much lower variance profile than the Minotaur.
Pays in both directions across a wider grid, so wins arrive from unexpected angles in the same way they do here.
Slots with a Bonus Buy
Titles that sell direct entry to the feature in markets outside the UK.
Offers a direct route into the bonus at a set multiple of stake in markets that permit it, exactly as the three Feature Buy tiers do here.
Another buy priced against the value of the round rather than a flat fee, which is the same logic behind the 100x, 150x and 500x options.
Sells entry to its free spins round at a premium, and like this game it is unavailable to players on UK licensed sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Ultra Link and Win feature work?
Three Ultra Link and Win symbols start the round. The screen switches to a five reel, four row play area and you get three respins along with the three cash symbols that triggered it. Every new cash symbol that lands resets the respin counter back to three. Unlock symbols push the grid taller, up to a maximum of eight rows, which brings more positions into play. Cash symbols carry values from 0.5x to 10x stake, Collect symbols sweep up everything currently showing, Persistent Collect stays put and keeps collecting on later respins, and Countdown symbols hold a value between 4x and 195x that only pays once their counter has run down.
What is the RTP of Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising?
The default configuration is 96.20%, which places it in the Medium-High band on our RTP scale. Triple Edge also ships 94.01% and 92.01% builds, and operators choose which one they stock, so check the in game information panel before you play. There is one loose end worth flagging: the studio’s own game page prints 96.02% rather than 96.20%. Every third party tracker we checked lists 96.20%, so we have treated the official figure as a typo, but it is the reason you may see both numbers quoted.
What is the maximum win?
Most sources put the ceiling at 10,000x your stake, which is £250,000 at the £25 maximum bet. Bigwinboard lists 5,000x instead. We have gone with 10,000x because it is the figure carried by the majority of trackers, but the disagreement is real and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
How volatile is the game?
High. The base game leans on small royal wins while you wait for either three scatters or a run of jackpot tokens, and long stretches without a feature are normal. The Countdown symbols in the bonus are where the top end of the maths lives, so the swings are wide by design.
What are the best slots like Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising?
Ancient Fortunes Zeus is the natural pair for the theme and the studio, Amazing Link Athena for the collect and respin round, and Zeus Lightning Megaways if you want the same mythology with a variable reel structure. For the jackpot side of things, Huff N More Puff runs must hit by pots in a very similar way.
Can I play Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising for free?
Yes. A play money demo runs directly on this page, and it behaves the same as the real money build apart from the balance being fake. Most licensed sites that stock Triple Edge Studios titles also offer a demo mode once you have registered.
Who makes Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising?
Triple Edge Studios developed it. The studio works as an exclusive content partner to Games Global, which handles distribution to operators, so you will sometimes see the game filed under Games Global or under the older Microgaming banner in casino lobbies.
Can I buy the bonus round?
In some markets, yes, and there are three prices. The Original Feature costs 100x stake, the Random Feature costs 150x, and the Unleashed Feature costs 500x. UK licensed operators are not permitted to offer feature buys, so British players will not see the button even though it appears in the artwork.
Our Verdict on Ancient Fortunes Minotaur Rising
This is a confident, well produced slot that knows exactly who it is for. The 3-5-5-5-3 grid and bidirectional ways give it a genuine identity rather than a reskinned template, the Ultra Link and Win round has enough moving parts to stay interesting across a long session, and the five must hit by pots add a second thing to track without cluttering the maths. Set against that, the base game is thin, the volatility is unforgiving, and the fact that reputable sources cannot agree whether the ceiling is 5,000x or 10,000x is an irritation. UK players also lose the Feature Buy entirely. If you like high variance hold and win slots and you have the bankroll to ride out the quiet spells, it earns its place. If you want a Greek myth slot you can play for an hour on a small budget, Ancient Fortunes Zeus or Legends Of Greece will treat you better.
SlotsLike rating: 7.8/10