Slots Like Sword of Ares: Pragmatic Play’s 500x Multiplier Collection on a 6×5 Grid

Sword of Ares takes Pragmatic Play back to Ancient Greece for a warrior themed follow up to Gates of Olympus, built on an unusual 6×5 grid where wins land anywhere rather than along set lines, provided eight or more matching symbols show up on screen at once. The headline RTP sits at 96.40%, though a couple of reduced configurations also circulate at some operators, and the game runs firmly in the high volatility bracket with a maximum win of 10,000 times your stake. Every winning tumble strips symbols from the reels and refills the gaps, feeding a multiplier collection meter that can eventually reach 500x during the free spins round, while bomb symbols scattered through the base game add extra chaos to each sequence. Stakes run from 20p to £100 a spin. If Ares and his sword have caught your eye, there is a solid run of slots like Sword of Ares further down this page built around the same tumble and collect formula.

Where to Play

18+ only. T&Cs apply. Please gamble responsibly.

How the Game Works

Reviewed by Paul Stone
Published: July 2026

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Sword of Ares drops the idea of paylines altogether. The grid runs six reels deep and shows five symbols on each one, and a win forms whenever eight or more of the same symbol appear anywhere on the board, not just in a row. That pay anywhere structure means a scattered handful of matching gems across different reels and rows counts exactly the same as a tidy cluster, which keeps the reading of a win simple even on a grid this busy. There are no wild symbols anywhere in the game, an unusual choice for a modern Pragmatic Play title and one that shifts all the volatility onto the tumble sequence and the multiplier meter instead.

Ares himself stands guard on the right hand side of the reels throughout play, sword and shield in hand, with a sunlit Greek temple sitting in the background. It is a straightforward presentation next to some of the studio’s busier releases, and that restraint puts the focus on the mechanic rather than the artwork. A pay table toggle at the bottom of the screen lets you check current symbol values and multiplier progress without leaving the game, which matters here because the collection meter is doing most of the work behind the scenes.

Symbols and Paytable

The low value symbols are five coloured gems, in light blue, pink, green, dark blue and purple, paying out modestly for eight or nine in view and building to a better return once a cluster stretches past twenty symbols. The premium symbols carry Ares’s own war gear, a bronze helmet, a war chariot, a round shield and the title sword itself, each worth noticeably more than the gems at every symbol count. A bearded warrior head marked Scatter sits above both tiers and pays directly for landing four, five or six anywhere on the grid, on top of triggering the free spins round.

Bonus Features Explained

The Tumble Mechanic

Every winning combination triggers a tumble. The symbols involved in that win explode off the board, everything above drops down to fill the space, and new symbols fall in from the top to complete the grid. If the refreshed board produces another win, the whole process repeats, and Pragmatic Play places no cap on how many times a single spin can tumble. A quiet initial spin can occasionally spiral into a long chain once the right gems start lining up, which is where a lot of the game’s mid sized wins come from outside the bonus round.

Multiplier Collection

Sitting above the reels is a meter with three locked multiplier slots. Every symbol that forms part of a winning combination, across the whole tumble sequence on that spin, adds to a running collection count. Once the count passes 20 symbols the first slot unlocks with a value somewhere between 2x and 4x, the second unlocks around 50 symbols worth between 5x and 8x, and the third unlocks at 100 symbols for a multiplier between 9x and 15x. Any multiplier that has unlocked applies to the total win from that tumble sequence once it finally ends, so a long chain that clears the whole ladder can turn a modest set of wins into something far more substantial.

Bomb Symbols

Four different bomb symbols can also appear on the reels, each one detonating in its own pattern, a straight horizontal line, a vertical column, a cross shape, or a full X across the grid. When a bomb goes off it clears whatever symbols sit in its blast pattern, which both feeds the multiplier collection count and can open up fresh space for another tumble even on a spin that had not produced a natural win. They show up in both the base game and the free spins, and in the bonus round every bomb explodes regardless of whether the spin lands a win or not, which keeps the reels moving.

The Free Spins Feature

Landing four, five or six of the Ares Scatter symbol anywhere on the grid awards 15 free spins. The round runs on its own multiplier collection meter with six tiers instead of three, climbing in steady steps before jumping sharply at the final stage, where the top multiplier reaches 500x once the collection count passes roughly 235 symbols. There is no retrigger on offer, so those 15 spins are the whole round, but the deeper ladder and that 500x ceiling are where the bulk of the game’s 10,000x maximum win comes from. Where UK rules allow it, players can also pay 100 times their stake to buy straight into the free spins rather than trigger it naturally.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The pay anywhere grid and unlimited tumbles keep the reels feeling busy even outside the bonus round, since a scattered handful of matching gems is enough to trigger a win
• A six tier free spins multiplier meter reaching 500x gives the bonus round genuine depth, rather than a single flat multiplier applied at the end
• Bomb symbols add a layer of unpredictability to the base game that most straightforward tumble slots do not have
• An RTP of 96.40% sits in a respectable band, and stakes starting at 20p make the game accessible on a modest bankroll
• The lack of wilds and paylines makes the core rules genuinely easy to explain in a couple of sentences, despite the busy six reel grid

Cons

• With no wild symbol at all, the base game can feel flat during quiet stretches between scatters
• High volatility and a three tier base game multiplier that rarely reaches its top value mean most base spins pay far less than the headline max win suggests
• Some trackers list a slightly different RTP for the Feature Buy configuration than others, so it is worth checking the in game paytable before spending on it
• Reduced RTP configurations of Sword of Ares circulate at some operators, so the 96.40% figure is not guaranteed everywhere
• The visual presentation is fairly restrained next to some of Pragmatic Play’s more elaborate mythology releases, which may disappoint players expecting a lot of extra animation

Game Screenshot

Games with Free Play Demo

You can try Sword of Ares below using free play credits before staking anything real. It runs on the same 96.40% build as the real money version, so treat it as a way to learn the tumble and multiplier rhythm rather than a guarantee of how often the bonus triggers for you. 18+.

Play for Free

Expert Take

Sword of Ares tends to get discussed as the tougher, higher ceiling sibling to Gates of Olympus rather than a straight reskin. Reviewers who cover Pragmatic Play’s mythology output generally note that dropping wilds entirely is a deliberate design choice, pushing all the excitement into the tumble chain and the multiplier ladder instead. The 500x free spins ceiling and the pay anywhere grid put it firmly alongside Sweet Bonanza and Gates of Olympus in the studio’s own collect and multiply family, and it is usually recommended to players who already enjoy that group of games rather than as a first stop for newcomers to high volatility slots.

Similar Slots to Try

If the Greek setting and the tumble and multiply engine are what draw you in, these four sit closest to Sword of Ares for feel and mechanic.

• Release the Kraken
  
  Another Pragmatic Play myth themed release, this one built around Poseidon rather than Ares, running a rolling reel mechanic with its own building multiplier rather than a symbol collection meter.
• Zeus
  
  A much older WMS classic that shares the Greek pantheon setting but plays on a traditional payline grid with expanding wilds, a calmer choice for anyone who wants the theme without the tumble volatility.
• Sweet Bonanza 1000
  
  Pragmatic Play’s own pay anywhere and tumble engine wrapped in a candy theme instead of Greek armour, with an even higher published ceiling for players chasing the biggest possible multiplier.
• Fruit Party
  
  One of Pragmatic Play’s earlier cluster pay and tumble titles, gentler in presentation than Sword of Ares but built on the same fundamental idea of exploding wins refilling the grid.

About the Developer

Pragmatic Play is a Gibraltar headquartered supplier that has become one of the most prolific slot studios in the regulated online market, releasing new titles at a pace few competitors can match. The company builds its own multiplayer engine across slots, live casino and bingo, and it owns Reel Kingdom as a sister studio for its fishing and money collect output. Sword of Ares sits inside Pragmatic Play’s core mythology and multiplier collect family alongside Gates of Olympus and Sweet Bonanza, sharing the same underlying tumble and multiplier logic that has become something of a house style for the studio’s higher volatility releases.

Because the whole catalogue is distributed through Pragmatic Play’s own aggregator, its other big hitters are worth a look for anyone who enjoys Sword of Ares.

• Wild West Gold
  
  A frontier themed money respin slot with stacked wilds and a jackpot bonus, showing a completely different bonus structure to the tumble and collect approach used in Sword of Ares.
• Wolf Gold
  
  One of the studio’s most enduring releases, running full reel stacks and a Money symbol jackpot respin rather than a multiplier collection meter.
• Chilli Heat
  
  A Mexican themed money respin title from the same studio, sharing Pragmatic Play’s bright visual house style but built around sticky Money symbols instead of tumbles.
• The Dog House
  
  One of Pragmatic Play’s biggest hits, using sticky wilds with their own individual multipliers rather than the collection meter found in Sword of Ares.

Sword of Ares Key Stats

Sword of Ares slot information last reviewed: July 2026

Slots with the Same Features

Sword of Ares falls into three bonus categories: Tumble and Cascade Wins, Increasing Multipliers and Free Spins. Here are strong examples of each already reviewed on SlotsLike.

Slots with Tumble and Cascade Wins

Games where every win clears the board and refills it, just like Sword of Ares.

Slots with Increasing Multipliers

Titles where the multiplier climbs as the feature runs, echoing the collection ladder in Sword of Ares.

Slots with Free Spins

Games with their own dedicated free spins round, the same way Sword of Ares saves its biggest multipliers for the bonus.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the multiplier collection feature work in Sword of Ares?

Every symbol involved in a win is added to a running collection count on that spin. In the base game, three multiplier slots unlock at 20, 50 and 100 symbols collected, worth between 2x and 15x, and any unlocked multiplier applies to the tumble sequence’s total win. The free spins round runs a deeper six tier version of the same meter, topping out at 500x.

What is the RTP of Sword of Ares?

The standard build carries a 96.40% RTP, which sits in the Medium-High band. Reduced configurations of 95.40% and 94.44% also circulate at some operators, so it is worth checking the game information screen before you play.

What is the maximum win on Sword of Ares?

The top win is 10,000 times your total stake, reached most reliably during the free spins round once the six tier multiplier meter climbs toward its 500x ceiling.

Is Sword of Ares high volatility?

Yes. It is a high volatility slot with no wild symbol to soften the base game, so wins can be spaced out between the multiplier meter building up and the free spins round paying out.

What are the best slots like Sword of Ares?

Release the Kraken and Zeus are the closest matches for the Greek mythology setting, while Sweet Bonanza 1000 and Fruit Party share the same pay anywhere tumble engine without the toga and armour.

Can I play Sword of Ares for free?

Yes, the free demo on this page runs the same 96.40% build as the real money version, so it is a fair way to see how the tumble sequence and multiplier collection feel before staking anything.

Who makes Sword of Ares?

It is made by Pragmatic Play, released on 27 October 2022 as part of the studio’s wider mythology and multiplier collect family that also includes Gates of Olympus and Sweet Bonanza.

Our Verdict on Sword of Ares

Sword of Ares is a confident, if slightly understated, entry in Pragmatic Play’s tumble and multiplier collect family. Dropping wilds entirely was a bold call, and it means the base game leans hard on the collection meter and the occasional bomb symbol to keep things interesting between bigger moments. Where it earns its keep is the free spins round, where a six tier multiplier ladder reaching 500x gives the 10,000x max win a genuine, traceable path rather than a token headline figure. It is not the flashiest game in the studio’s Greek mythology run, but for anyone who already rates Gates of Olympus or Sweet Bonanza, the higher multiplier ceiling here is worth the look. If the base game’s quiet patches put you off, Release the Kraken or Zeus offer a gentler way into the same setting.

SlotsLike rating: 8/10