Slot Machine Guides - Slots Features

Back in the days of retro-one armed bandits slot had no features or key elements to make them more interesting or help players win more. There were just 3 reels with about 10 symbols on each to make combinations with.

Nowadays things have changed dramatically and even if old-school fruit slot machines that are light on features are still designed, most popular slots come packed with a great mix of extra options from the most basic Scatter to jaw-dropping progressive jackpots. 

The range of mechanics and extra options present in the modern slots is simply overwhelming and that’s why we have put together a brief guide to show you the most popular slot features and what do they do.

• Autoplay - This is one of the most common features today, present in most slots, even tho, in some countries it may have some restrictions regarding the number of automatic spins allowed. 

You can simply set different loss/win limits to automatically stop the feature, you select the desired number of automatic games (20, 50, 100, etc) and you let it go. The reels will spin themselves as you either sit back and relax or go by your business.

• Bonus Rounds - Bonus Rounds or bonus games are terms that determine a multitude of extra features and mini-games.

They can range from something as basic as an “instant cash win” click and collect mini-game to a multi-level arcade-like game. Just like the Free Spins, Bonus Rounds are usually triggered through a combination of Scatters or Bonus Symbols.

• Scatters - Scatter symbols count among the first-ever features to be introduced. They are special symbols that can pay in a combination anywhere on the reels, regarding the position of paylines. In most modern video slots, Scatters also trigger various Bonus Rounds or Free Spins when landed in a combination.

• Free Spins - This is one of the most popular and sought-after features in modern slots and just for the right reasons. It should not be confused with casino free spins bonuses because it’s a whole different thing. 

Free Spins in slots are triggered usually through a combination of Scatter or in some slots, instantly, through a “buy feature” option. The player will receive a certain number of spins that require no wager but still offer prizes.

• Fixed Paylines and Variable Paylines - The initial slot machines had only one payline on which you had to align a combination of identical symbols. Video slots nowadays go beyond single paylines and offer a wide range of straight and zig-zag paylines all across the matrix. 

There are two types of slots, fixed paylines slots, and variable paylines titles. The first ones require a bet on every line while the second one lets you decide how many paylines you wish to have active at a given time. 

Some titles go even one step beyond and offer paylines that increase during the play according to some additional features, without requiring any additional wager.

• Ways to Win - Ways to win slowly replaced the regular paylines nowadays in many modern slots. In essence, the slot has much more paylines than a regular one (243, 720, 1024).

Depending on the other mechanics present in the particular slot, the ways to win can be fixed or they can modify to increase or decrease according to other features.

• Win Both Ways - Most slots pay from left to right and it’s frustrating to see the first reels empty and not get a prize even where there is a matching combination on the screen. Win both ways is a payment mechanics that, just as the name suggests allows winning combinations to be formed from left to right and from right to left.

• Adjacent Pays - If regular slots make a payment for a combination of symbols landed on a determined payline, adjacent pays slots also connect to the symbols that land next to each other.

• Cluster Pays - Another type of slots payment, Cluster Pays replaces both the regular paylines and the adjacent pays and will offer a prize from a group of symbols (cluster). This mechanic usually appears in slots with colossal reels, requiring more room than the regular 5x3 grid can accommodate. 

• Gamble Feature - The gamble feature or the risk game is another “old-school” feature, however, just like autoplay, it is forbidden in some countries. 

The gamble feature appears after every successful spin and allows you to potentially double the prize through a 50-50 chances, double-or-nothing mini-game involving either choosing among two sides of a coin or between a red and a black card.

If you successfully guess, your prize will be doubled, however, you will lose the win entirely if you fail to make the right pick.

• Cascading Reels - An incredible gameplay mechanic that removes the winning combinations from the reels leaving the blank spaces to be filled with other symbols. This can lead to a potential chain reaction and multiple wins during the same spin.

The best part comes when this mechanic is combined with other features such as increasing multipliers or cluster pays.

• Colossal Reels - Very easy to spot due to the large matrix. If regular slots come with pretty standard grids of 5x3, 5x4, 3x3, etc, colossal reels slots come with absolutely huge grids 5x10, 6x12, etc, allowing more combinations, more wins, and more fun.

• Wild Symbols - Just like Scatters, Wild symbols were among the first features to ever be introduced. They are special symbols that can substitute for all or just some of the other symbols to complete or create winning combinations whenever possible. 

• Expanding Wild Symbols - These Wild symbols can not only replace other symbols but will also expand to cover additional spaces or even entire reels. What’s better than a Wild? A whole reel filled with wilds!

• Sticky Wild Symbols - Wild symbols that remain in their position for the next spin or the next couple of spins. In some slots, they can even remain in place for the entire duration of the Free Spins for example.

• Stacked Wild Symbols - These are just Wilds that appeared “stacked” on top of each other. As you can imagine, the potential of the prize goes up a lot when these symbols make their appearance on the reels.

• Shifting Wild Symbols - Similar to the Sticky Wilds, these symbols will stay in place for multiple spins but will not remain in the same space. Instead, they will move across the reels with each spin.

• Transferring Wild Symbols - A popular WMS feature where the Wild symbols can replicate themselves across the reels. For example, a Wild may appear on the first reel and it can replicate itself to appear on the next two also.

• Mystery Symbols - If you love surprises, you will love mystery symbols. These are a type of special symbols designed to resemble blank spaces, question marks, etc with no initial set value. 

They appear on the reels in this form and before a payment is made, they will flip and transfer in one or more of the other symbols of the slot. You can say that their functioning resembles the wild symbols’ mechanics.

• Split Symbols - A popular feature introduced initially in some IGT slots, Split Symbols are double or symbols that occupy the same space on the reels. When they appear in the combination, both symbols from the space are counted so the prize is bigger.

• Multipliers - Slots nowadays have multipliers in all shapes and sizes, ranging from multiplier symbols that increase the size of a win when present in a combination, feature multipliers that are applied to all wins during that bonus round, or, increasing multipliers that go up over time (commonly found in slots with cascading reels).

• Progressive Jackpots - This is truly the ultimate feature you can trigger in an online slot machine. Each time you make a wager, a portion of that wager goes into a separate fund which is common for all spinners that play that certain slot. 

Progressive Jackpots continue to grow until they are triggered, being able to reach tens of millions in value. When the jackpot is claimed by a lucky player, the counter resets and the process starts over.

The bottom line

The variety of slots feature is what makes this casino game so popular. We have an extensive collection of free slot games that you can use as a training playground and test a title’s feature before investing real money.

As always, remember to gamble responsibly, and remember to have fun while hitting the spin button!