Achilles

The Siege Of Troy in Full View

Load Achilles and you get the siege of Troy, the Achaean camp drawn up under the walls before you get anything else. Top of the paytable and top of the artwork, the same motif: Achilles in a crested helmet, shield and spear in hand. In Achilles that motif holds both together.

The rest of the high symbols in Achilles are the Trojan Horse, Helen, shield and sword and the city gates; card ranks handle the low end, as they do across most of the RTG catalogue. Colour does a lot of the work here: sandy gold, bronze and a deep blue sky, held consistently across symbols, background and bonus screens.

Audio is film-like: a background loop, a distinct reel-stop, and a separate cue for the feature so you hear it before you read it. On a phone held upright the grid keeps the same proportions and the sandy gold survives the shrink, which is not true of every title in the lobby — some lose their backgrounds entirely at that width.

That consistency is why the tile works at thumbnail size, and why Achilles does not get lost between the games either side of it.

Reading a Winning Spin in Achilles

Under the art, Achilles is a straightforward 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines machine. Wins are read left to right from the first reel, and only the highest combination on each line counts, so a second Achilles further along the same line adds nothing. Achilles is the top symbol, the Trojan Horse sits under it, and the card ranks below those are what most Achilles spins return.

Achilles Wild does the substituting (substitutes for everything except the Trojan Horse and doubles any line it completes), and it is worth learning what it does not substitute for, which is the scatter. Top end on Achilles is 7,500× the line bet, and nothing on the base grid gets close to it — the number assumes Achilles Wild lines up.

Everything else on the grid is ordinary; Free Games is not: the Horse on reels two and four opens fifteen free spins. Practically, that means a session on Achilles divides into two very different modes, and judging the game on the base spins alone gives you half the picture.

Bet Size, Volatility and the Top End

The stake on Achilles is 20 lines times whatever you set per line. Playing fewer than 20 is possible but rarely sensible on Achilles — it lowers the cost and the hit rate in the same step. The maximum of 7,500× the line bet is quoted as a multiple for exactly this reason: it scales with your stake instead of being a fixed sum, so it means the same thing at any bet size.

Volatility on Achilles is medium, which means it balances regular small returns against occasional larger ones, which is the middle of the RTG range. Return to player is not a fixed property of Achilles or of any other RTG title: the studio ships the game with a configurable return and the operator sets it, which is why an RTP quoted for Achilles on another site tells you nothing about the game as it runs here. The authoritative figure is the one in the info panel of Achilles itself, in the lobby.

Raising or lowering the stake mid-session leaves no memory behind in Achilles: it settles each spin independently, and a run of losses does not make the next one better priced. Achilles lets autoplay run until Achilles Wild lands, which is the sensible configuration — there is nothing on its base grid worth watching spin by spin.

Achilles Wild and the Rest of the Toolkit

There are three things worth waiting for in Achilles, starting with Achilles Wild. None of them fire often; all of them change the shape of a Achilles session when they do.

Achilles Wild. The paytable entry reads: substitutes for everything except the Trojan Horse and doubles any line it completes. Watch for the Achilles Wild trigger rather than the reels — on Achilles it is easier to miss than you would expect.

Free Games — the Horse on reels two and four opens fifteen free spins. Free Games does not fire often on Achilles, and the game is built on the assumption that you are waiting for it.

Expanded Wild — during free spins Achilles stretches to fill his whole reel. In a medium-volatility game like Achilles that matters more than it sounds: Expanded Wild is the round the quoted ceiling is calculated from.

The features are the game. Achilles Wild in particular is where the quoted ceiling of 7,500× the line bet comes from, and no amount of base-grid play approaches it.

Practical Notes Before You Spin

Size the stake on Achilles so the balance covers a few hundred spins — that is roughly the window in which the game shows you what it does. Decide the stop point before you open Achilles: our deposit and session limits sit in the account area and apply the moment you set them.

Achilles counts at the full 100% towards wagering, as every slot in our lobby does, and the conditions live on the bonus page. Achilles runs in practice mode as well, which is the honest way to learn where Achilles Wild sits before money is involved.

A dry stretch on Achilles is not a signal. Achilles Wild does not become more likely because it is overdue, and betting as though it does is the fastest way to shorten a session. If Achilles stops being comfortable, the responsible gaming page lists the limits, the cooling-off options and the outside organisations we work with.

Where Achilles Sits in Our Lobby

The player Achilles is for is the one who wants a game that pays often enough to stay interesting without flattening out. The natural companion in our lobby is Achilles Deluxe; the family of mechanics is close, the feel is not.

There is no cost to trying Achilles Deluxe first. Achilles is the better opening move when you want a game that keeps showing you something. Full specifications for Achilles — the 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines, volatility, the top end (7,500× the line bet), the feature list and the release year — are in the table at the top of this page.

Achilles Deluxe