Spear of Athena

Spear of Athena: Slot Overview

Since evolving from scratch card crew to online slot makers, software provider Hacksaw Gaming has dropped all sorts of goodies on gamblers, from innovative mechanics to charismatic characters. One of the studio's more fiendish systems appeared in the 2023 slot Le Bandit, which combined the loveable rogue raccoon Smokey with an explosive Coin reveal and collection feature. Since then, Smokey has starred in several reincarnations donning various personas from the gunslinging Le Cowboy to the Elvis-inspired Le King. Today, Smokey's taking the day off, but his Coin reveal mechanic remains as busy as ever, adding its unique brand of thrills to the ancient Greek-themed slot Spear of Athena.

Ancient Greece contributed much to Europe's cultural foundations, from philosophy, to history, drama, democracy, architecture and more. As such, it might be tempting to romanticise the era, whether done so realistically or not. Either way, Spear of Athena evokes passionate emotions, being a highly attractive game, full of visual drama. The goddess Athena stands defiant on one side of the base game screen, with a glowing-eyed owl on the other. Behind them, the background smoulders amidst broken columns, swaying trees, and various scenes of war. It's all very handsomely rendered to the point of being a virtual must-see for ancient Greekophile gamblers.

Spear of Athena is a medium volatile online slot played on a 6x5 gaming area, where 19 paylines evaluate winning combinations from the leftmost reel onwards. From $/€0.10 to $/€50 may be staked, and when betting this way, the greatest of the four RTP variants is 96.2%.

Half of Spear of Athena's pay symbols are 10-A card ranks, awarding 0.5x to 0.7x the bet for 5 OAK, while the other half are a snake, Trojan Horse, owl, Medusa and Athena symbols, worth 1.5x to 3x the bet for a 5 matching symbol win. Hitting on all reels is the wild, which substitutes all paying symbols and possesses the same value as Athena when landing a 5 wild symbol combination.

Spear of Athena: Slot Features

Spear of Athena's features are made up of Goddess Respins, Fortune Reveals, three bonus rounds, and a group of feature buys.

Goddess Respins

When a winning combination occurs, the winning symbol positions are highlighted with Flaming Frames and a Goddess Respin triggers. During respins, Flaming Frames and the symbols in them are sticky. If a Fortune symbol is part of a respin, the symbol is highlighted with a Blue Flaming Frame. FS scatters that land with a sticky winning combination also become sticky without a frame. New symbols that improve the win or create new wins also become sticky, and award another respin. Respins continue until the win is not improved and no new win appears, then payouts are made.

Fortune Reveals

If there is a Fortune symbol on the reels at the end of Goddess Respins, it activates any Flaming Frames after the win has been paid. Activated frames reveal special symbols - Bronze, Silver, or Gold Coins that possess values of 0.2x-4x, 5x-20x, or 25x-500x, respectively, Amphoras, Green Shields or Red Shields.

After frames have been revealed, Shields activate. The Green Shields multiply Coins or Amphoras on adjacent positions by x2 to x20, while Red Shields multiply all Coins or Amphoras by the same set of possible values. After Shields have finished, Amphoras activate (top to bottom, left to right) by collecting the values of all Coins and other Amphoras and storing their value. Following this, all other Flaming Frames activate again to reveal new special symbols, repeating the process. When the sequence ends, all values in view are awarded.

Omen of War Bonus Game

This bonus and 10 free spins are awarded by landing 3 FS scatters in the base game. The bonus keeps the base game mechanics, and in addition, all Flaming Frames stick to the reels till the round ends, even after being activated. The minimum Coin value is 1x. In all three bonus rounds, landing 2 or 3 FS scatters awards +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Siege of Troy Bonus Game

Landing 4 FS scatters in the main game triggers this bonus with 12 free spins. On top of Omen of War's mechanics, each time a Fortune symbol activates, at least 1 Shield will be revealed.

Athena Ascends Hidden Epic Bonus

This bonus' 12 free spins are awarded when 5 FS scatters hit in the base game. Athena Ascends builds on Omen of War by guaranteeing a Fortune symbol on each spin. When Coins are revealed, they are always Silver or Gold.

Feature Buys

Triggering a bonus game is 5 times more likely to occur when activating the BonusHunt FeatureSpins, which cost 3x the bet. For 60x, the Fortune FeatureSpins guarantee at least 1 win and 1 landed Fortune symbol. The two bonus rounds for sale are Omen of War and Siege of Troy, costing 100x and 250x the bet, respectively.

Spear of Athena: Slot Verdict

Spear of Athena is a successful release in several regards. On the theme side of things, it is a very good-looking ancient Greek slot, with a strong leading goddess driving the action in an atmosphere-rich game world. The environment gets more warlike as players progress deeper into its bonus rounds, injecting historical references such as the Trojan Horse as it moves along. The cartoon humour of Smokey with his irreverent disrespect is noticeably missing, but in its place is a satisfying recreation of the classical past, and given how often this theme is used in slots, managing to make one that instantly stands out of the pack is no mean feat.

If Spear of Athena had just been a pretty clone of a Le slot, the impact would have been lessened. However, Hacksaw Gaming has seen fit to add a twist to the already effective reveal system that makes the Le series so great. The twist is the Goddess Respin extra, and while win and respin features in and of themselves aren't exactly new, their inclusion in a Le-related game adds a different dimension. More specifically, they're an exciting way of framing positions on the grid, before frames spark into life, should a Fortune symbol also be present. If it is, then players are treated to the Fortune Reveals feature, which can produce anything from a few boring Bronze coins to the full Coins, Shields, and Amphoras cycle that this mechanic is famous for.

A respectable 15,000x the bet lies in wait for those lucky enough to crack Spear of Athena's full potential, achievable at any point in the game. And so ends the review of an unforeseen, yet highly entertaining use of Hacksaw Gaming's Le features in a completely non-Smokey game. The wacky humour might have gone, but in its place is a rich classical setting that complements the mechanics, making this a must-see curiosity for gamblers who have gotten a kick out of the studio's Le range.