Play Demo
A skeleton plays a lute while a king sleeps it off and a wizard watches from across the table. Artifacts makes no effort to explain its cast of characters, and that commitment to visual absurdity is the first sign that Peter & Sons prioritised the system over the story. This slot runs on a 5×3 grid with 243 ways, cascading wins, and three reel multiplier shields that sit above the grid waiting to be powered up. Feature boxes beneath the reels feed those shields between cascades, golden symbols convert to Wilds after winning, and during free spins the multipliers never reset. Panpipes and drums build the atmosphere while you work out what everything does.
Three multiplier shields hang above the grid, each covering a reel. When a winning combination covers the reel beneath a shield, that multiplier is applied to the win. If the winning combination spans all three multiplier reels, the shields are added together and the total is applied. In standard play, all three shields reset to x1 after each completed round. During free spins they persist across every spin, compounding as feature boxes push them higher.
Three boxes sit beneath the grid and activate randomly during cascades. Each box contains a power-up that directly affects the reel multipliers. Four types exist. Regular adding increases one shield by up to +10. Special adding increases all three shields by up to +10. Regular multiplying doubles one shield’s value (up to x2). Special multiplying doubles all three shields (up to x2). The distinction between adding and multiplying matters — a +10 on a x1 shield moves it to x11, but a x2 on a x11 shield moves it to x22.
Regular paying symbols can appear with a golden outline on the initial spin. If a golden symbol is part of a winning combination, it converts to a Wild for the next cascade. This creates an expanding Wild presence across cascade chains without a dedicated Wild symbol on the base reels. Scatter symbols cannot receive golden outlines.
Three or more scatter symbols (flaming blue tokens) trigger 6 free spins, with each additional scatter adding 2. Additional scatters landing during free spins also add 2 spins each, though a full retrigger is not possible. The critical change from the base game is that reel multipliers persist across the entire round without resetting, so every feature box activation builds on the previous total.
Golden Bet costs 1.5x extra per spin (2.5x total) and increases the trigger rate of triggering free spins. Three buy options split the feature access into tiers. Standard free spins cost 90x for 6 guaranteed spins. Random free spins cost 180x for 6 to 10 spins. Power Free Spins cost 270x for 6 to 10 spins with enhanced multiplier power-ups, where both adding and multiplying values can reach up to x20 instead of the standard caps. Power Free Spins are only available through the buy option.
The three shields above the grid are the system to learn. Each one starts at x1 and grows through feature box activations during cascades. In standard play they reset after every round, but during free spins they carry forward, and the feature boxes keep feeding them. That persistent growth is where the 20,000x cap lives. Bets run from 20 to 10,000 units per spin across 243 ways. High volatility with a 20,000x ceiling. RTP defaults to 96.26%.
Four artifact items and five playing card symbols. At a 200-unit bet, values for 3 to 5 of a kind across 243 ways. Wilds appear only through golden symbol conversion and substitute for all regular symbols except scatters.
| Symbol | 5x | 4x | 3x |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart Organ | 200 | 160 | 100 |
| Purple Potion | 160 | 100 | 60 |
| Gem Telescope | 160 | 100 | 60 |
| Stone Die (D12) | 100 | 60 | 40 |
| Gold Star Card | 60 | 30 | 20 |
| Pink Heart Card | 60 | 30 | 20 |
| Orange Diamond Card | 50 | 20 | 10 |
| Blue Spade Card | 50 | 20 | 10 |
| Cross Card | 50 | 20 | 10 |
The Heart Organ leads at 200 units for five of a kind on a 200-unit spin, a 1x return before any reel multiplier touches it. Two mid-tier artifacts share values at 160/100/60. The five card symbols form the floor, with the bottom three returning just 50 units for five of a kind. These base values are deliberately modest because the reel multipliers are designed to amplify them. A 1x base win under a x22 shield becomes a 22x return, and if the winning combination covers multiple multiplier reels, the shields add together before applying.
At 3.6 out of 5, Artifacts pursues a format that asks more of the player upfront than most Peter & Sons titles but rewards the investment once the system clicks. The 96.26% RTP and high volatility pair with a 20,000x ceiling accessed through persistent reel multipliers during free spins. The three-tier buy system at 90x, 180x, and 270x gives more flexibility than the standard two-option format used across the rest of the catalogue. The tavern setting and absurd character lineup give it personality, even if the theme serves the art more than the narrative.
Panpipes and drums opened the session with a building rhythm that set the medieval tone before the grid settled. The characters surrounding the reels resist easy categorisation — a crowned king sleeping against a barrel, a wizard with a pointed hat, a redheaded warrior, a bearded Viking, and a skeleton strumming a lute in the corner. The art direction feels like a fantasy tavern captured the morning after a long campaign, and Peter & Sons leaned into the absurdity with full illustrative commitment.
The reel multipliers and feature boxes took a few rounds to read. Three shields above the grid, three boxes below it, and the connection between them only became clear after watching the boxes activate during cascades and seeing the shield values tick upward. Once the system clicked, the cascade system made sense. The shields are the engine, the feature boxes are the fuel, and the cascades are the ignition. Non-bonus rounds produced infrequent connections — long gaps between wins, but when a cascade chain arrived, the feature boxes pushed the shields from x1 to x3 or x4 before the chain ended and everything reset.
The 5x hits that landed during regular spins showed what the base values look like under modest multiplier pressure. A Heart Organ at five of a kind under a x3 shield returned 600 units on a 200-unit bet, which is a 3x return. Respectable, but the format clearly points toward the free spins round where those shields can reach x22 or x30 and a single five-of-a-kind win transforms into a session-defining payout.
The three-tier buy system is the most flexible in the Peter & Sons catalogue. The 90x standard buy delivers 6 guaranteed spins with normal power-up ranges. The 180x random buy opens the allocation to 10 spins. The 270x Power Free Spins buy increases both adding and multiplying power-up caps to x20, which changes the ceiling dramatically. At $0.20 minimum bet, the 90x buy costs $18 for a demo review of how persistent shields behave.
After several rounds with the feature boxes, the demo offered sufficient playtime to experience the cascade chain, the reel shield interactions, and the golden symbol conversions. The format asks for patience, both in learning how the pieces connect and in waiting for the free spins to demonstrate what the reel multiplier system can produce when the shields stop resetting.
