Slot Machine Features

Slot machines are getting more and more complex with every passing month. When they started out, they had a simple, single payline, and just a couple of icons. You put your money in, spun the reels, and if the symbols lined up, you won.

Nowadays, there are many new and complicated features in slots that gamers need to know about. This makes slots hugely fun to play, and also increases your chances of winning.

But it is always best to know what those features are and what they do, before you play for serious money. Here is our quick guide to the many slot machine features you may come across when playing online slots.

The most common slot machine features

Like any technology, slots are constantly evolving. What started out as a simple game, with little chance of success, has become a global phenomenon, with plenty of different ways to win. You have so many options, so many little features to help you win now, that any gamer would do well to learn about them.

Despite the ever changing features of slots, some common features are shared by almost all of the major titles. This shared setup has seen wild icons, scatter symbols, and free spins become common place in the world online slots.

Winning wilds

Wilds are certainly an integral part in the story of successful slots, and one of the most popular slot machine features. Wild symbols act like jokers in a poker game. They are in fact, substitute icons, which can take the place of any symbol needed by the player.

The slot will automatically determine what symbol is best required, and the wild will become that symbol accordingly. Like most slot machine features, wild icons may have started out simple, but now they too have evolved into many shapes, sizes and formats.

Walking wilds are one of the most recent forms of wild icons to appear. Walking wilds are similar to spreading wilds and sticky wilds. The key to their function is in their name, walking. When a walking wild appears on the reels, it quite literally walks to another space on the reels on the next spin.

The wild will walk across the reels from right to left. When it has reached the first reel, it disappears from play. It is also possible for players to enjoy re-spins with walking wilds, meaning the remainder of the wilds “walk”, never costs the gamer a penny.

Spreading wilds are somewhat different. When a spreading wild appears on the reels, it duplicates itself, and spreads to another icon on the reels (or sometimes multiple icons). In this way, what is essentially a single wild, will transform itself into 2 or 3 wilds.

Sticky wilds are an older form of wild symbols, which can pop up during a spin, and then remain in the same space for a number of following spins. You end up with multiple spins with wilds, much like walking wilds. However, they don’t “walk”, but they “stick” to the reel. Eventually, like walking wilds, sticky wilds disappear too. Sticky wilds are most common during free spin bonus rounds.

Expanding wilds are the most popular wild icons. When these icons appear, they can expand to cover an entire reel. If they are present on three or four of the reels, you will essentially have almost an entire game board filled with wilds. As you can imagine, this results in a seriously large pay-out.

Lately, horizontally expanding wilds (across the reels) have been appearing, alongside the more traditional vertically expanding wilds.

The last major sort of wild is the stacked wild. Like expanding wilds, they can occupy whole reels at time. However, you have no guarantee of that with stacked wilds. A stacked wild is simply a wild icon, which sits above another wild on the same reel. So, you could end up with wilds filling two spaces on the same reel, etc.

Scatters

Scatter icons are another main-stay of the modern slot. Scatter icons take their name from their ability to count, no matter where they fall on the reels. They are in essence, scattered about the place. Landing two or more of these scatter icons, anywhere on the reels will reward the player with a scattered pay-out, which is usually a multiple of their original stake.

However, if a player lands 3 or more scatters, then they can trigger an event which gives video slots their name. These events are called bonus rounds, and they often take place on a second screen. There are many ways in which a bonus round can take place, although the most commonly offered slot machine features for bonus rounds, are free spin games.

Other slot machine features

Free spins rounds are a gamer’s favourite. Here, the player will be offered a number of free spins, which they can use to play for free, whilst at the same time winning money. A number of special wilds, symbols and multipliers may also be available in a free spins round.

Bonus icons are kind of like scatters, in that they too can offer bonus rounds, when a specific number of them appear on the reels. The number of bonus symbols you need, and whether or not they count anywhere on the reels, depends entirely on the slot game you are playing.

Jackpot Icons are also an important slot machine feature, although they aren’t present in every slot. Every slot will have its highest paying icons, but jackpot symbols are something different entirely. These icons can award progressive or non-progressive jackpots, and are notoriously hard to line up on a payline.

Another major slot machine feature is the multiplier. Multipliers can appear as icons or as bonuses. Their principle job is to offer the player a multiplier on their winnings or stake.

Are there any other kinds of special features?

There are many more slot machine features not mentioned here, such as special payline arrangements, rolling reels (which offer re-spins), re-spins themselves, slider wilds (allowing you to choose where you want special wild features to be) and there are even bonus features which the player can choose to turn on (by placing a side bet) or off!

Online slots are always coming up with new ways to be inventive. It is highly probable that by the time you have finished reading this, a dozen or so new features will have been thought up in the minds of the brilliant people who bring us online slots!