Gates of Olympus 1000

Gates of Olympus 1000 arrived in December 2023, nearly three years after the original, and the number in the title is the entire pitch: the multiplier orbs now reach 1,000x instead of 500x, and the win cap moves from 5,000x to 15,000x. Everything else is deliberately untouched – the same 6×5 grid, the same pay-anywhere scatter symbols, the same tumbling chains, the same Zeus.

The published return is also unchanged at 96.50%. That single fact is the most important thing on this page, and it is the part most reviews skip. If the ceiling triples and the return stays the same, the additional money at the top has to come from somewhere, and it comes from everywhere else: the ordinary outcomes get thinner so the rare ones can get larger. This is not a better version of Gates of Olympus. It is a more extreme one.

Stakes run from 0.20 to 100. Volatility is high in the original and higher here, in the specific sense that the gap between a typical session and a memorable one widens.

What Changed From the Original

Read that table as a description of shape, not of quality. Identical return with a triple ceiling means the distribution has been stretched, and stretching is what a player feels as “this one is colder” long before it shows up in any statistic.

How the Multipliers Work

Unchanged from the original and still the most misread mechanic in the game: orb values within a single tumble sequence are added together, not multiplied. Landing a 200x and an 800x in the same sequence gives 1,000x applied once to the win, not 160,000x. The 1,000x ceiling refers to the value a single orb can carry, not to a combined total, and combined totals in free spins can exceed it.

Free Spins

Four or more scatters award 15 spins, and inside the round the multiplier total persists across all of them rather than resetting. Three scatters during the feature add five more spins. This persistence is where a 15,000x result becomes arithmetically possible at all, and it also explains why the base game feels quieter than the original’s: more of the return has been moved into the bonus.

Ante Bet and Bonus Buy

The ante bet adds 25% to the stake and doubles scatter frequency, without changing the published return. The bonus buy costs 100x. Both do the same thing to a session – they raise the amount staked per hour – and neither changes what that money is expected to return. On a game with this distribution, the buy is particularly worth thinking about twice: the median bonus round pays back less than it costs.

What the Numbers Say

15,000x on a 0.20 stake is 3,000. On a 1.00 stake it is 15,000. Those figures are real and they are also close to irrelevant for planning a session, because reaching them requires a free spins round where large orbs land repeatedly while the running total is already high. The frequency of that sequence – not its size – is what decides your result.

The comparison that actually matters is against the original. Same return, triple ceiling, so more of the money sits in outcomes you will probably never see. If you enjoy the game for the ceiling, this is the version to play. If you enjoy it for the tumbling chains and the rhythm, the original delivers the same rhythm with less punishing gaps between features.

Mobile Play and Demo

Browser-based on any device, no app required, and identical in layout to the original. The demo is the sensible way to compare the two versions directly: play a hundred spins of each at the same stake and the difference in how often the base game pays anything is usually obvious well before any bonus arrives.

Summary

A competently made sequel that does exactly one thing and is honest about it. The question is not whether 1000 is better than the original – at identical published returns, neither is – but which distribution you would rather sit inside. Most players who try both settle on the original for regular play and the sequel for short, deliberate sessions aimed at the ceiling.

More from this studio on the Pragmatic Play page, and the full catalogue in Casino Games.

Related Slots

• Gates of Olympus – the 2021 original: 500x orbs, 5,000x cap, the same grid and the same rhythm with a shallower ceiling.
• Gates of Olympus Super Scatter – the 2025 entry that raises the cap again to 50,000x and adds a scatter symbol that pays and boosts the running multiplier.
• Sweet Bonanza 1000 – the same ceiling-raising exercise applied to Pragmatic’s other tumbling flagship.