Hercules & Pegasus (Pragmatic Play): Overview

Slots inspired by Greek mythology are everywhere, yet not many actually feature the winged horse Pegasus. One that does come to mind is Pegasus Rising from Blueprint Gaming, where its toothy lead soars above the clouds. With Hercules & Pegasus, Pragmatic Play opts for a bright, cartoon style that brings to mind the classic Asterix and Obelix comic books. Alongside Pegasus, you naturally get Hercules, plus Zeus who occasionally drops in to help piece together a few wins. While the theme is mythological, it’s not a grim tale of merciless gods hurling lightning at mortals. Hercules & Pegasus plays things more playfully, and you’ll want a decent sense of humour to ride out the swings the game can deliver.

At first glance, it makes a strong impression. The backdrop feels suitably mythic, with dreamy clouds, stars, and a nature-like glow. The action unfolds on a 5×3 layout with 20 fixed paylines. Even though the visuals and theme are totally different, after a handful of spins the overall feel is similar to the earlier Pragmatic Play slot Aladdin and the Sorcerer. More on that shortly. The reels spin with a short jingle, and interestingly, if you switch on turbo spins, the soundtrack plays continuously without breaks. That can make turbo tempting, but be careful—they move incredibly fast. Betting options should suit almost any budget, ranging from 10 c/p up $/€100 a spin.

The lower-value symbols are wavy, Greco-styled 10 – A royals. The remaining paytable is made up of four higher-paying icons: a pot, a golden harp, a temple on a cloud, and the game’s logo. The logo is the top payer, awarding 20 times the stake for five of a kind. The default RTP is set to 96.5%, while volatility is shown as 3.5/5 on the load screen and 4.5/5 on the paytable. It’s a bit contradictory, but make no mistake—this is a volatile slot and it can be difficult to get going. Base game wins tend to be modest because of that volatility, though things pick up once the features start landing.

Hercules & Pegasus (Pragmatic Play): Features

Three different wilds can appear, depending on where you are in the game. The Hercules and Pegasus Wild may land on any reel and substitutes for the main game pay symbols. It also pays on its own, worth up to 25 times the stake for five of a kind.

At any point in the base game, three scrolls may randomly appear and hover above the reels. You pick one to uncover a random feature:

• Hercules Wild – a random number of Hercules Wild symbols are scattered across the reels for the next spin.
• Pegasus Wild – multiple Pegasus Wild symbols are placed onto the reels for the following spin. If winning combinations land, they can also receive a x2 multiplier.
• Bolts of Zeus – a random number of stacked Zeus reels are chosen. Once the reels stop, those reels are all converted into the same symbol.

The golden Bonus symbol is tied to both the Hercules Bonus symbol and the Pegasus Bonus symbol. It can sound a bit tangled and takes some careful reading of the paytable to fully follow, but here’s how it works.

Land the Golden Bonus symbols on reels 1 and 3, plus the Hercules Bonus on reel 5 to activate Hercules Free Spins. There’s no cap on the number of free spins in this mode. A new flask symbol can appear on the 5th reel; when it lands, it grants extra wilds, but once it appears for the fifth time, the free spins round ends.

Hit the Golden Bonus symbols on reels 1 and 3, together with the Pegasus Bonus symbol on reel 5 to start Pegasus Free Spins. Once again, free spins are unlimited and only stop when the fifth flask lands. Until that happens, each flask increases a win multiplier from x1 up to x5.

Lastly, if Golden Bonus symbols land on reels 1 and 3, and both a Hercules Bonus and a Pegasus Bonus land on reel 5, you trigger Hercules & Pegasus Free Spins. In this version, the two flask types can award Hercules wilds and win multipliers simultaneously. As with the other modes, when five of the same flask land, the feature finishes.

Hercules & Pegasus (Pragmatic Play): Verdict

On paper it may sound feature-heavy—and it is—but you should also expect plenty of quiet spins and stretches where little happens. Hercules & Pegasus is one of those slots that’s far less gentle than its artwork suggests. Behind the cheerful cartoon visuals and friendly faces sits a hard-edged mathematical model that can both punish and pay out in equal measure. It feels very similar to what we saw in Aladdin and the Sorcerer, which was just as demanding. It can definitely swing your way, but at times it can feel like Hercules’ final labour—wrestling Cerberus bare-handed.

Hercules had 12 labours; with its high volatility and underlying algorithm, Hercules & Pegasus might as well be number 13. If you want something challenging, this is it. There are meaningful rewards available if the gods deem you worthy, though. The route to a big hit is unlocking the Hercules & Pegasus Free Spins round—if you manage a screen full of wilds during the bonus with the x5 multiplier running, you could land 2,500 times the stake from a single spin. With theoretically unlimited free spins available, wins could stack up significantly, but since Pragmatic hasn’t stated a max win cap, nothing can be confirmed.

Hercules & Pegasus delivers some fun moments and is certainly entertaining, but it can also bite casual players who are drawn in by the cute presentation. Among Mythology themed slots it’s decent, though there are stronger choices available, such as Blueprint’s Gods of Olympus or Rise of Olympus from Play’n GO.