Almighty Sparta

Almighty Sparta Slot Review

A sunset burning orange over a Greek sea, red rock jutting over dark water, and a stone portico of gold columns framing the reels. Almighty Sparta’s best feature isn’t a feature at all, though – it’s the arithmetic: a total return of 98.09%, several points above what most slots will ever give back.

Built by Endorphina on a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines, the spine of the game is familiar – a stacked Spartan wild, a scatter-triggered free games round with an x4 multiplier, and the studio’s card-based gamble. It sits alongside earlier Endorphina releases like Almighty Sparta Dice and 100 Zombies on our shelves.

No volatility rating is listed either, so the return figure does most of the persuading on its own. Ten paylines is a narrow field, and the stacked wilds in the middle reels are what carry the base game between scatter triggers.

The Base Game and Its Symbols

Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, with only the highest combination per payline counting. Scatter wins and line wins are added together. The scatter – a shield – counts in any position on the reels.

The Spartan Warrior wild substitutes for everything except that scatter, and it appears stacked on reels two, three and four only. Depending on where the reel stops, it lands as the whole figure or just a part of it, which is why a single spin can feel full or empty depending on the middle three reels.

Symbol values are shown as multiples of the total bet. The bearded king leads the ladder, and the shield scatter pays from its own row:

• Bearded king with crown: 0.5x for two, 10x for three, 50x for four, 500x for five
• Blue-faced woman and hooded warrior: 2.5x for three, 20x for four, 100x for five
• Spear and sword: 1.5x for three, 10x for four, 50x for five
• A and K: 1x for three, 5x for four, 20x for five
• Q, J and 10: 0.5x for three, 2.5x for four, 10x for five
• 9: 0.2x for two, 0.5x for three, 2.5x for four, 10x for five
• Shield scatter: 2x for two, 5x for three, 20x for four, 500x for five

Five scatters at 500x the bet match the king for the richest prize on the board, and unlike the line pays, the scatter doesn’t care where it lands. Two of them still pay double your stake, which softens the wait between triggers.

The royals are filler and know it. Q, J, 10 and 9 barely clear the bet at three of a kind, so the meaningful wins all run through the character symbols, the wild, or the scatters. That’s the base game in full: ten lines, one stacked wild in the middle reels, and a paytable that tops out at a modest 500x. The real work is done by the features around the ladder.

Free Games with x4 Multiplier

Three or more scatters trigger 20 free games with the Spartan Warrior stacked on the reels. Every win during the round is multiplied by four, and the free games run at the same bet and line settings as the spin that set them off.

They can also be won again inside the feature, with no stated cap on retriggers. A round that keeps feeding itself is the difference between a decent feature and a great one, and the door is at least open here.

It’s a simple structure, and a generous one on paper. Stacked wilds across the middle reels plus a flat x4 on everything make for a potent combination. Scatters paying in any position makes the trigger itself less painful to chase than line-based equivalents.

Every retrigger adds another twenty games at the same x4, so a lucky streak of scatters inside the round compounds quickly. That’s the whole appeal: nothing about the feature is complicated, and everything about it is stacked in favour of the middle reels filling with Spartans.

The Risk Game

After a win, the game offers a card duel: four face-down cards on the table, and beating the Dealer’s card doubles the money. Win and you can go again, up to ten attempts in total. Lose once and the winnings and the Risk Game both end.

A draw against the Dealer’s value leaves the pot unchanged and costs an attempt, while TAKE WIN banks the lot and walks away. The Joker beats every other card, and the Dealer can never hold one. Cards can also reappear from round to round, and the probabilities aren’t equally distributed across the table.

Take the risk regardless of the Dealer’s card and the round’s average return sits at 84%. But the per-rank chances swing wildly depending on what the Dealer is showing:

• Against a 2: 162%
• Against a 3: 121%
• Against a 4: 113%
• Against a 5: 101%
• Against a 6, 7 or 8: 100%
• Against a 9: 92%
• Against a 10: 78%
• Against a J: 69%
• Against a Q: 66%
• Against a K: 64%
• Against an A: 42%

Those numbers make the decision an actual decision. Facing a two or a three, doubling up is mathematically the right move. Facing an ace, it’s a coin toss at best, and the option to TAKE WIN after each result means the choice is genuinely yours every round.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.1/10

Almighty Sparta is a quiet, steady spin. Ten lines, a stacked wild in the middle reels, and long stretches where the reels tick over between scatters – the one reason somebody sits down at this portico rather than the next one is the return. 98.09% is a number almost nothing on the shelf matches, and it’s the whole pitch.

The best thing beyond the number is the Risk Game. Facing a Dealer’s two or three, doubling up is mathematically the correct move – a rare gamble where the odds genuinely sit on your side – and TAKE WIN after every round keeps the decision in your hands each time.

The shortcoming is the menu itself: one bonus round, a flat x4, and a ladder that tops out at 500x, so long sessions can blur into one another. It’s built for return and clean decisions over theatre, and variety chasers will find it bare. Sparta pays its debts – it just doesn’t throw a banquet while doing so.

Almighty Sparta FAQs

• What is the RTP of Almighty Sparta?

  Almighty Sparta runs at a total return of 98.09%, which is several points above the industry average. The Risk Game round has its own average return of 84%.
• How many paylines does Almighty Sparta have?

  Almighty Sparta is a 5-reel, 3-row slot game with 10 paylines. Only the highest win on each enabled payline is paid.
• What is the grid size of Almighty Sparta?

  The game plays on a 5×3 grid – five reels and three rows – with symbols needing to land on adjacent reels from the leftmost to form a winning line.
• When is Almighty Sparta released?

  Almighty Sparta’s release date is 28 May 2019.
• Who makes Almighty Sparta?

  Almighty Sparta is made by Endorphina.
• How do you trigger the free games in Almighty Sparta?

  Three or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels trigger 20 free games with the Spartan Warrior stacked wild. All wins during the round are multiplied by four, and the feature can be won again while it’s running.
• How does the Risk Game gamble work?

  You pick one of four face-down cards and try to beat the Dealer’s card. A win doubles your money and you can try again, up to ten attempts. A loss ends the round and takes your winnings, while a draw leaves the pot unchanged. A Joker outranks every other card in the deck, but only your side of the table can ever receive one.
• What does the Spartan Warrior wild do?

  The Spartan Warrior is the wild symbol and substitutes for all symbols except the scatter. It appears stacked on reels 2, 3 and 4 only, sometimes showing as a full figure and sometimes as a partial one depending on where the reel stops.