Gates Of Olympus at Ripper: RTP and Multiplier Orbs Explained

Before there was a 1000 edition chasing bigger multipliers, there was just Gates of Olympus — Pragmatic Play's February 2021 release that introduced scatter pays and Zeus multiplier orbs to a huge audience and became one of the defining pokies of its era. It's since been overtaken by its own sequel in global play numbers, but the original still holds up on its own terms, and for some players it's genuinely the better fit.

Here's what the mechanics actually do, how the RTP compares to the sequel that stole its spotlight, and why "older" doesn't automatically mean "worse" in this specific case.

How Gates of Olympus works

The grid runs 6 columns by 5 rows — 30 symbol positions — with a scatter-pays structure rather than traditional paylines. Land 8 or more matching symbols anywhere on the grid and you win; there's no need for them to line up in any particular pattern. Winning symbols are removed and new ones tumble down to fill the gaps, potentially chaining multiple wins from a single spin.

Zeus multiplier orbs are the mechanic that made this title distinctive: they appear randomly during spins and during tumbles, carrying values from 2x to 500x, and multiply the total win for that spin. There are no wild symbols in this game at all — a genuine departure from the format AU pokies players are typically used to, where wilds usually do a lot of the heavy lifting on win frequency.

Free spins trigger from 4 or more scatter symbols, awarding 15 spins, with an additional 5 spins available for every 3 extra scatters landed during the feature itself. The standout mechanic is what happens to multiplier orbs during free spins: every orb that appears gets added to a running global total for the entire bonus round, and that combined multiplier applies to wins as they land — a snowball effect where a bonus round that starts slow can escalate rapidly if enough orbs stack up.

Where Gates of Olympus's RTP sits against other Ripper titles

At 96.5% default, the original matches its own sequel's published RTP exactly, and sits at the top of the reel-pokie tier in the Ripper library alongside Big Bass Splash 1000's near-identical 96.52%, well clear of Book of Ra's older configuration.

The identical RTP between original and sequel is the key fact here — you're not sacrificing expected return by choosing the original over the 1000 version. What you're getting instead is a max win probability that's roughly four times more attainable: 1 in 697,350 spins here, against 1 in 2.7 million on the sequel.

Author's tip from Jack Thompson, Casino Analyst & Responsible Gambling Researcher: "Don't assume the '1000' sequel is a strict upgrade just because the number is bigger. Same RTP, same core mechanics — the original's 5,000x ceiling is genuinely more reachable, which matters more than a headline max win you'll likely never see."

Why the original still matters despite being overtaken

Gates of Olympus was the title that established scatter pays plus randomly-placed multiplier orbs as a format worth building an entire pokie around — before this release, that combination wasn't the industry standard it's since become. Its 2024 handover of the "most-played globally" title to its own sequel says more about how aggressively Pragmatic marketed the 1000 version's higher ceiling than it does about any deficiency in the original's underlying game.

For a player deciding between the two, the practical difference comes down to two things: slightly lower volatility here, and a meaningfully more attainable max win. If chasing a five-figure multiplier isn't the point and you'd rather play a marginally steadier version of the same core mechanic, the original remains a genuinely sound choice — not a compromise.

• Identical 96.5% RTP to Gates of Olympus 1000 — no return sacrificed by choosing the original.
• Max win probability roughly 4x more attainable than the sequel's.
• Slightly lower volatility rating (Very High vs the sequel's Very High-plus profile).
• No wild symbols in either version — win frequency comes entirely from scatter pays and orb multipliers.

The absence of wilds — and why that's not a flaw

Players coming to this from more traditional AU pokies often expect wild symbols to be doing some of the work, and their absence here can initially read as the game feeling incomplete. It isn't. The entire win-generation mechanism runs through the tumble sequence and the scatter-pays structure: every winning cluster of 8 or more matching symbols clears, new symbols drop in, and the process repeats until no further wins land on a given spin. Zeus orbs are the only multiplier source, and because they appear independently of whether a spin wins or loses, they add a layer of anticipation to every single spin rather than being tied to a specific bonus trigger.

Ante Bet works the same way here as on the 1000 version — a 125% stake increase in exchange for doubled scatter probability during the base game, aimed at reaching free spins more often. Given the original's marginally lower volatility and more attainable max win, some players find Ante Bet a more comfortable addition here than on the 1000 version, since the overall variance profile is already a notch gentler.

18+ only. Very High volatility applies to both versions of this title — expect real variance in session outcomes regardless of which one you choose. Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858 for anyone in Australia who wants support around their play.

If you do want the higher ceiling despite the rarer max win, Gates of Olympus 1000 sits right alongside this one in the Ripper library. Big Bass Splash 1000 and Frozen Fruit offer different takes on the high-volatility format if scatter pays specifically isn't what you're after.

• Back to the homepage for the current welcome offer and licensing details.
• Browse the full pokies library for more titles.
• Gates of Olympus 1000 for the higher max-win sequel.
• Big Bass Splash 1000 for a fishing-theme title with a similar RTP.
• Frozen Fruit for a Very High volatility title with a customisable bonus round.
• Deal or No Deal for a completely different, decision-driven format.
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