Wild Symbols
A Wild substitutes for any regular paying symbol to complete a winning combination — like a joker card.
Wild Variants
- Expanding Wild — expands to fill the entire reel.
- Sticky Wild — stays in place for one or more free spins.
- Walking Wild — shifts one position each spin until it falls off the reel.
- Multiplier Wild — applies a multiplier (2×, 3×) to wins it helps form.
Scatter Symbols
A Scatter pays regardless of position and typically triggers the bonus feature. Most games require 3+ Scatters anywhere on the reels to activate free spins.
Free Spins / Free Games
The most common bonus round — a set number of spins at no extra cost, often with enhanced features (sticky wilds, multipliers, extra scatters).
Megaways™
Licensed by Big Time Gaming (BTG), Megaways is a reel modifier that randomises the number of symbols on each reel per spin, creating up to 117,649 ways to win. Wins pay left-to-right on any adjacent reels regardless of specific row position.
Popular Megaways titles: Bonanza, White Rabbit, Extra Chilli.
Cluster Pays
Instead of paylines or ways, Cluster Pays slots award wins for groups of 5+ matching symbols touching horizontally or vertically. Often combined with cascading mechanics.
Example: Fruit Party, Reactoonz.
Cascading / Avalanche / Tumble
After a win, winning symbols are removed and new symbols fall into the gaps, allowing chain reactions in a single spin. Many high-volatility games combine cascades with accumulating multipliers.
Buy Bonus / Feature Buy
An option to purchase direct access to the bonus round at a fixed cost (typically 50×–100× stake). Regulated jurisdictions (UK, Netherlands) prohibit this feature.
Hold & Spin / Lock & Spin
Triggered when enough special symbols land, the reels "lock" those symbols and respin the remaining reels to collect more. Common in cash-collect style games.
Multiplier Trails
Displayed as a ladder or trail, consecutive wins advance a multiplier counter. Popular in BTG and Hacksaw games for building extreme multipliers during free spins.
Ante Bet
An optional side stake (typically +25% of base bet) that increases the chance of triggering the bonus round. The RTP displayed usually assumes the ante bet is active.
Ways to Win
Instead of fixed paylines, Ways slots pay for matching symbols on adjacent reels from left to right regardless of row. A 5-reel × 3-row grid = 243 ways to win. Megaways takes this to its extreme.
Mystery Symbol
A special symbol that reveals a random matching symbol on all positions simultaneously — guaranteeing large clusters of the same symbol. Common in Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus series.