Treasures of Aztec: review, 96.71% RTP and the 100000× ceiling

Treasures of Aztec arrived in 2020 and is probably the cheapest way into PG Soft’s ways slots. A 6×5 grid, a ways system, an Aztec/Mayan theme with the Chichén Itzá pyramid in the background and statues hidden across the reels — and, crucially, a minimum bet of 0.20.

Is Treasures of Aztec worth playing?

It’s the one we’d point newcomers to if they want to try the genre without committing. With a default RTP of 96.71% and medium volatility, the entry cost is low and the pace is steady enough to actually learn the game before your balance runs out.

What you shouldn’t expect is originality. Half the market has done the Aztec theme, and Treasures of Aztec invents nothing — it just executes the familiar well. Nor should you expect much from the base game: without free spins, the wins are mostly small.

Ways and cascades on the 6×5 grid

There are no paylines. Matching symbols on consecutive reels, left to right, form a win. When that happens the symbols involved disappear and the ones above drop into place — if the new arrangement pays again, the cascade continues within the same spin at no extra cost. That chaining is where the slot’s best moments come from.

Multiplier wilds

Wilds substitute for regular symbols and carry a multiplier. Across chained cascades those multipliers combine, and it’s the sum of these layers — not some magic symbol — that builds the big payouts. It’s also the only reason the 100000× figure appears on the spec sheet at all.

Free spins: the rest is warm-up

Scatters trigger the free spins. There, multipliers accumulate instead of resetting, which completely changes the payout profile. Looked at honestly, the base game exists to get you here.

Symbols and payouts

PG Soft doesn’t publish a stable official paytable outside the game, and we’re not going to invent per-symbol values. The structure is what matters:

Element	What it does
Grid	6×5
System	Ways — left to right, no fixed paylines
Cascades	Winning symbols vanish and are replaced within the same spin
Wild	Substitutes for regular symbols and carries a multiplier
Multiplier	Combines across chained cascades; accumulates in free spins
Scatter	Triggers the free spins round
Minimum bet	0.20
Win ceiling	100000× your bet (theoretical)

Note: 96.71% is the default RTP published by PG Soft. Casinos can run versions of the same game at a lower RTP — always check the number inside the game before betting. RTP is a very-long-run average; it tells you nothing about what the next hundred spins will do.

The 100,000× ceiling is shared, and that tells you what it is

The same “maximum” appears on PG Soft games built nothing alike:

PG Soft game	Year	Default RTP	Volatility	Listed maximum
Ganesha Gold	2019	96.08%	Medium	100,000×
Treasures of Aztec	2020	96.71%	Medium	100,000×
Ganesha Fortune	2020	96.72%	Medium	100,000×
Lucky Neko	2021	96.73%	Medium	100,000×

Four games, four grids, four feature sets, one identical figure. A number that repeats across unrelated titles is a ceiling the platform imposes, not a prize any of them was built to pay. It tells you what the software will not exceed and nothing about what the game does.

⚠️ The useful number is the simulated maximum, which almost nobody publishes. Where we have it we say so; where we do not, treat the headline figure as a limit rather than a target.

Treasures of Aztec vs the competition

Slot	Provider	RTP	Volatility	Max win
Treasures of Aztec	PG Soft	96.71%	Medium	100000×
Mahjong Ways 2	PG Soft	96.95%	Medium	100000×
Lucky Neko	PG Soft	96.73%	Medium	100000×
Ganesha Gold	PG Soft	96.08%	Medium	100000×
Fortune Tiger	PG Soft	96.81%	Medium	2500×
Gates of Olympus	Pragmatic Play	96.50%	High	5000×

The RTP gap to Lucky Neko and Mahjong Ways 2 is marginal — fractions of a percent. What actually separates these games is the price per spin: Treasures of Aztec starts at 0.20 against 0.60 for the other two. On the same balance, you get three times as many spins. Gates of Olympus is the non-PG Soft alternative: same 6×5 grid, but scatter pays instead of ways and high volatility — harsher sessions, faster peaks.

Bankroll tips

• Use the low stake to learn. 0.20 a spin is the right price to understand how the cascades behave before deciding whether to go higher.
• Don’t raise your bet during a dry run. It’s the most common mistake and the most expensive one. The odds don’t shift because you’ve lost twenty spins in a row.
• Don’t chase the 100000×. That number lives in the maths, not in your session plan.
• Set limits before you open the game: how much you can lose, at what win you stop, and how long you play. All three, not just the first.