The Shadow Order

Provider

Push Gaming

Default RTP

See in-game info screen

Volatility

High

Maximum win

25,000x

Core mechanic

Respins

What The Shadow Order is

The Shadow Order is a Push Gaming release built on a respin mechanic, with a published maximum win of nearly 25,000x your stake and high volatility.

It is one of the studio's earlier titles — trademarked alongside Fat Rabbit, Wild Swarm, Razor Shark and Jammin' Jars in the same 2020 filing batch — which places it in the group of games that established Push Gaming's identity.

We could not verify its return percentage to the standard applied elsewhere on this site, and this page says so rather than filling the gap.

A 25,000x ceiling

25,000x places this in the upper-middle of Push Gaming's range: above Jammin' Jars at 20,000x and Retro Tapes at 10,000x, below Jammin' Jars 2 and Big Bamboo at 50,000x, and well below Razor Returns at 100,000x.

At a $0.20 stake that is $5,000; at $1, $25,000. As always, the ceiling describes the far edge of the distribution rather than an outcome to plan around, and no studio outside Nolimit City publishes how often it is actually reached.

Why we don't publish an RTP

Our stat panel shows "check in-game" for the return on this title.

We could not source a figure attributable confidently to this specific game. Push Gaming's catalogue runs to around 68 titles with overlapping naming conventions, and third-party databases cross-attribute figures between them routinely — a problem documented directly on our Fat Rabbit page, where three incompatible maximum wins are published for one game.

Publishing a plausible-looking number would stop you doing the check that actually protects you, which is the opposite of useful. So the honest version: we know the ceiling, we do not know the return, and the paytable in your build does.

What the studio's range tells you

What can be said with confidence comes from the catalogue as a whole:

• Push Gaming's top-setting builds generally land between 96.30% and 97.03%.
• Industry commentary notes that all but one of the studio's roughly 68 games exceed 96% on their best setting.
• The studio supplies three configurations per title, with the middle tier commonly deployed in the UK at around 95%.

So the top build is very likely somewhere in the mid-96s. That is a reasonable expectation and not a verified figure, and the distinction matters — a game you assume returns 96.5% and actually returns 95% costs you an extra $15 per $1,000 staked.

The respin mechanic

The game is built around respins rather than a cascade or cluster system. Symbols lock in place and the remaining positions spin again, giving additional chances to build a combination around what is already held.

Exact lock conditions, respin counts and any multiplier behaviour vary between builds and regional versions, so read the paytable in your version rather than relying on any review — including this one — for the specifics.

What holds structurally: respin games resolve within a spin rather than across a gated bonus round, which changes the shape of a session significantly.

How respin games differ from bonus games

This is worth understanding properly, because it determines how much of a game you experience in a short session.

On a gated bonus game — Book slots, most Megaways titles, Razor Shark — the majority of the return sits behind a rare trigger. A hundred spins that never trigger the bonus have experienced almost none of the game's maths. The base game is a toll you pay to reach the content.

On a respin game, the mechanic fires on ordinary spins. The return reaches you spin by spin rather than sitting behind an event, which means a hundred spins is a fair sample of what the game does.

Structure	Examples	Short session experience
Base-game respins	The Shadow Order, Jack Hammer, Space Wars	Representative — the mechanic fires regularly
Gated bonus round	Book of Dead, Razor Shark	Unrepresentative — you may see none of the maths
Hold-and-win collect	Thunderstruck Wild Lightning	Unrepresentative — value sits in the locked round

That distinction matters more than most feature descriptions. A high-volatility respin game and a high-volatility bonus game feel completely different across two hundred spins, even at identical returns.

What is and isn't verified

Figure	Status
Studio	Push Gaming — confirmed via trademark filings
Maximum win	Nearly 25,000x — published
Volatility	High, consistent with the studio's catalogue
Core mechanic	Respins — confirmed
Return to player	Not verified — read the paytable
Studio top-build range	96.30% to 97.03% across the catalogue

Three builds, and how to check

1. Open the game in real-money mode — demo builds do not reliably reflect the live configuration.
2. Open the Paytable from the game menu.
3. Find the question mark "Help" section inside the paytable. Push places the return figure a level deeper than most studios, so keep looking if it is not on the first page.
4. Read the theoretical return. Anything in the mid-96s is a top build; anything around 95% is the middle tier.
5. Note the maximum win while you are there, and the total bet field.

Stake sizing in practice

• Read the return figure before your first spin. On this title we cannot supply it, so the in-game panel is the only source.
• Budget 250 spins. A respin game gives a fairer sample per spin than a bonus-gated one, so you need less cushion than on Razor Shark.
• If the figure reads materially below 96%, the studio's better-documented titles are a better use of the session.
• Do not raise stakes chasing a lock sequence — respin triggers are random and unaffected by bet size.
• Take a large result off the table.

Where it sits in the catalogue

Title	Headline return	Ceiling	Structure
Wild Swarm	97.03%	3,100x	Meter plus bonus routes
Jammin' Jars	96.83%	20,000x	Cluster cascade
Razor Shark	96.70%	Disputed	Gated bonus
The Shadow Order	Not sourced	~25,000x	Base-game respins
Big Bamboo	96.13%	50,000x	Mystery stacks

Its structural advantage over most of that list is the respin format — the return reaches you during ordinary play rather than sitting behind a trigger. Its disadvantage is that we cannot tell you what that return is.

Where this fits in a session

The Shadow Order suits a player who has opened it, checked the paytable, and likes what they found. That is a real recommendation rather than a hedge — Push Gaming's design quality is consistent, and a respin structure at a mid-96s return would be a decent proposition.

It suits poorly anyone deciding from a review, because on this title no review — including this one — can tell you the number that matters. If you want the studio's best-documented value, Wild Swarm at a 97.03% headline is the clearer choice.

Common misconceptions

The first is that a missing figure means a bad game. It means our sourcing came up short.

The second is that respins are free spins. They are base-game events, not a gated bonus round, which is structurally better for short sessions.

The third is that the studio's catalogue-wide range tells you this game's figure. It narrows the likely band; it does not verify anything.

Who this suits

This suits a player who prefers respin mechanics to gated bonus rounds and is willing to do the paytable check before committing. The format means a modest bankroll sees a fair share of the game.

It suits poorly anyone who wants published figures before opening a game, and anyone chasing the studio's biggest ceilings — 25,000x is upper-middle here.

FAQ

How cascading reels change a session

Every game in Push Gaming's cluster collection uses cascades, and they alter how a session reads in a way worth naming.

On a conventional slot, one press of the button produces one outcome. On a cascading game, one press can produce a chain of five or six resolutions, each with its own win, animation and sound.

Two consequences follow. First, a spin feels like several spins, which makes it easy to lose count of how many you have actually played — and the spin count is what your budget is denominated in. Second, the chain creates a sense of momentum during a losing sequence: symbols keep clearing, the grid keeps moving, and it reads as progress even while the balance falls.

Part of the Cluster Pays Collection

Push groups several titles into what its coverage calls a Cluster Pays Collection — games sharing the same payment mechanism and house features. The Shadow Order sits in it alongside Booty Bay, Retro Tapes, Retro Sweets, Crystal Catcher and the Hopper series.

Every game in the group shares cascading reels and roaming wilds. So while we cannot confirm this title's return figure, we can describe with confidence how it plays, because the house mechanics are documented across the collection.

That transfer is useful generally. Studios build families on shared engines, and if you have played one game in a family you already understand the payment structure and wild behaviour of the others — which means you can predict roughly how an unfamiliar title will feel before staking anything on it.