Rise of Athena Slot Review
A marble temple stands open to the sky, gold-trimmed columns framing the reels and the faint, translucent figure of Athena watching from behind them, shield on arm. Rise of Athena argues that a ten-line game doesn’t need a stack of features to hold attention: one Wild multiplier rule does the work of three. It runs on a 5×3 grid with 10 fixed paylines, a 96.2% RTP, mid-to-high volatility and a top prize of 5,000x the bet, all from Play’n GO. The studio covers similar mythological ground in Rise of Merlin and Athena Ascending, and the 100-ways energy of Rise of Olympus 100 sits nearby too.
Base Game and Symbols
Wins pay left to right across the 10 fixed paylines, starting from the leftmost reel, and only the highest combination counts on each line. Multiple line wins in a single round are added together, as are Scatter pays and anything won in the feature. Symbol wins need to run without gaps; a combination broken by a dead reel pays nothing.
The Wild is a coin medallion that appears only on reels two, three and four, substituting for every symbol except the Scatter. Each Wild carries a multiplier of x1, x2 or x3. When more than one Wild sits on the same payline, those multipliers stack, up to a ceiling of x27 on a single line.
That x27 ceiling is what gives the base game its bite. Three reels can hold Wilds, so a payline crossing all three can carry three of them at once, and three x3 coins on the same line multiply the win 27 times over. A single spin with the coins aligned in the right places turns a modest line win into something much bigger.
All symbol values are multiples of the total bet, and the Woman symbol leads the paytable, paying from just two of a kind. The full ladder looks like this:
- Woman – 1x for two, 10x for three, 25x for four, 150x for five
- Pegasus – 4x, 7.5x and 30x for three, four and five
- Helmet – 3x, 5x and 20x for three, four and five
- Urn – 2x, 4x and 15x for three, four and five
- Scroll – 1x, 3x and 10x for three, four and five
- A / K – 0.8x, 2x and 6x for three, four and five
- Q / J – 0.6x, 1.5x and 4x for three, four and five
- 10 – 0.4x, 1x and 2x for three, four and five
- Owl Scatter – 1x, 20x and 500x for three, four and five
The Scatter is a white owl emblem, and unlike the line symbols it pays in any position, gaps included, with its winnings added on top of any payline wins from the same round. Scatter pays don’t need to run left to right, which is why the owl is worth watching wherever it lands.
Bets are set in the menu before the round starts and can’t be changed while the reels are in motion. Auto Play runs consecutive rounds at the current settings and switches itself off if the balance gets too low. Tapping anywhere while the reels spin stops them early, if you’d rather not wait out the animation.
Two speed options sit alongside it. Holding the spin button for a second and a half engages Hyper Spin mode, which speeds the reels up dramatically and slows back down whenever a feature hits. Fast Play, toggled separately, simply cuts the spin animation for a quicker session.
One further setting quietly manages the stake. Auto adjust bet reduces the total bet at the start of a new spin if the balance can no longer cover the chosen level, dropping to the highest bet the balance can still fund.
That reduction is one-way. The bet may only decrease, and it doesn’t climb back to its original amount after a win that would have restored it, so anyone using Auto Play at a set stake should keep an eye on where the level has drifted to.
Free Spins
Three or more Scatter owls award 12 free spins, played at the same bet and the same number of lines as the round that triggered them. What changes is the behaviour of the Wilds: they turn sticky, holding their position on reels two, three and four until their multiplier runs dry.
Each sticky Wild’s multiplier reduces by one between spins. A Wild carrying x3 pays at x3 on its first spin, x2 on the next and x1 on the one after that, and is removed from the reels once no multiplier remains. New Wilds that land during the round follow the same rule.
The stacking rule still applies while the Wilds decay. A payline carrying two sticky Wilds at x3 and x2 multiplies its win six times over on that spin, and the same x27 ceiling holds if three of them share a line.
Because every Wild fades at the same pace of one step per spin, the round compounds early and thins out late. A Wild that lands on the first spin at x3 works through three different multiplier values before disappearing, while one that arrives on spin ten has a single spin at x1 and is gone.
There is no retrigger. The Scatter doesn’t appear during free spins at all, so the 12 spins you start with are the 12 spins you get. That makes the opening spins of the round matter more than usual: Wilds landed in the first two or three spins have the longest working life, and the round’s shape is largely set by then.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Playing Rise of Athena is mostly a waiting game on ten lines, spiced up whenever a multiplier coin drops in and pays a line at several times its face value. The reason to choose it is that one idea: a Wild rule so central it shapes the base game, the bonus and the top prize all at once. Athena’s temple, rendered with real care, is a pleasant place to wait.
The sticky, decaying Wilds are the strength. A free spins round that’s strongest in its opening three spins and visibly fades afterwards has a shape most bonuses lack, and it makes the early spins genuinely tense. The weakness is everything around that idea: a modest symbol set and no second feature, so the stretches between Wilds land flat.
For players who enjoy classical, mechanics-led slots where one sharp rule does the heavy lifting, it rewards the patience. Anyone wanting varied features and constant action won’t find it here. Wisdom, as the goddess would tell you, is knowing which of those you came for.
Rise of Athena FAQs
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What is the RTP of Rise of Athena?
Rise of Athena runs at an RTP of 96.2%. -
Is Rise of Athena high volatility?
Rise of Athena sits in the mid-to-high volatility range, so wins can be spaced out but carry more weight when they land. -
How many paylines does Rise of Athena have?
The game has 10 fixed paylines, all active on every spin. -
What is the grid size of Rise of Athena?
Rise of Athena uses a classic 5×3 grid with five reels and three rows. -
How do you trigger free spins in Rise of Athena?
Landing three or more Scatter owl symbols anywhere on the reels awards 12 free spins. The Scatters don’t appear during the round, so it can’t retrigger. -
How do the Wild multipliers work in Rise of Athena?
Each Wild lands with an x1, x2 or x3 multiplier, and Wilds only appear on reels two, three and four. Line up several on one payline and their values multiply together, topping out at x27. -
What happens to Wilds during free spins?
Wilds become sticky and stay in place, but their multiplier drops by one between each spin. Once a Wild’s multiplier runs out, it’s removed from the reels. -
Who makes Rise of Athena?
Rise of Athena is made by Play’n GO.
