A Guide to Slot Game Features

Want to explore the most common slot game features in more detail? Click the links below to dive deeper!

Wild Symbols

Go Wild!

Scatter Symbols

Land & Launch

Bonus Rounds

Game On!

Multipliers

Boost Your Bucks!

Autoplay

Let it roll!

Respins

Keep It Rolling!

Stacked Symbols

Power Up the Reels!

Gamble Feature

Gamble for more!

Nudging Reels

Shift the reels!

Expanding Reels

Stretch your luck!

Cascading Reels

Trigger the cascade!

Pay Both Ways

Win coming and going!

Hold & Win Feature

Hold on for the prize!

Finding a trusted online casino that also harbors slots with the best features is no easy feat. But don't worry, I've got you. I've done the legwork investigating hundreds of iGaming platforms for their security, fairness and compliance with rules and regulations. Below is a list of the most reliable and trust-worthy websites where you can explore the latest and greatest slot features.

Let's begin with the basics, since most modern slot games tend to follow a familiar pattern. These key features might not surprise you, but they're worth a quick look before diving into the more exciting stuff.

• Wild symbols: A Wild symbol is like a Joker card. It replaces all symbols except for scatters to help form a winning combination.
• Scatters: Scatters are the unbounded spirits of video slot symbols. They don’t follow the standard payline rules and can pay out regardless of their position on the reel set. They also often lead to bonus rounds (e.g., three or more scatters unlock ten free spins).
• Free spins: These are just what they sound like, a set of spins you play through without risking your bankroll. Free spins are often a product of landing a specific number of scatters in the base game, and they commonly come with extra features, some of which I’ll cover later on.
• Bonus rounds: Bonus rounds are mini games within a slot game. They can be anything from spinning a prize wheel to playing with a special set of symbols in pursuit of a jackpot.
• Multipliers: These multiply your standard wins. They can be 2x, 3x, or a whole lot more if the slot feels generous. If landing three cherries in a winline pays $2, applying a 5x multiplier will increase the payout to $10.

Now we move on to some more complex features and gameplay controls that can elevate your video slot experience.

• Respins: Not to be confused with free spins, these give you an extra shot at landing a winning combination instead of offering a set number of plays. For example, a jackpot mini-game can have you chasing special coin symbols with three respins. Every time a new coin symbol appears, the respin counter resets, and the game goes on until you either hit the jackpot or the respins play out without new coin symbols in sight.
• Autoplay: A hands-free mode available in most slots. Instead of hitting the spin button every time, you can turn on the autoplay, kick back, and let the reels do the work without moving a finger.
• Bonus Buy: Bonus rounds can sometimes be tough to unlock, so some slots offer an alternative by letting you skip the spinning and dive straight into the bonus game for a price.
• Gamble: If you’re feeling lucky, the gamble feature will let you risk your most recent win for a chance to double or quadruple it. Gamble features typically come in the form of a mini-game where you need to guess the correct card color or suit.
• Jackpot: The jackpot is any slot’s top prize. To win it, you either need to form the most valuable combination or get the best possible outcome of a bonus round. They can be fixed or progressive, with the latter potentially featuring some mind-boggling sums.

As video slots have evolved, the traditional spinning reels have lost their charm. To keep things interesting, developers began experimenting with new reel mechanics and layouts that add variety, boost the excitement, and move beyond the usual format. Here are some of the more common innovations you’ll find in modern games.

• Stacked symbols: Stacked symbols pile up on a reel like a juicy XXXL cheeseburger. Consequently, this increases your chances of landing big combos across multiple paylines.
• Nudging reels: Everyone who plays video slots knows the heartbreak of missing a win by just one symbol. Well, nudging reels are there to ease that pain, literally nudging one of the reels up or down once the spin plays out to help line up winning symbols that were just out of reach.
• Expanding reels: In some video slots, the reels might expand by one or more positions, either mid-spin or during one of the bonus games. More symbol positions mean more possibilities to form winning combinations.
• Cascading reels: This mechanic is often tied to Megaways slots, where the winning symbols get dropped and are replaced with new ones falling from above, creating a chance for multiple wins within a single spin.

Traditional paylines had their time. While classic slots continue to exist, as some players still prefer to watch fruit symbols and lucky sevens line up across a limited number of lines, newer developers love shaking things up. 

That said, here are some systems that ditch the old left-to-right rule and open the doors for more winning ways, changing how you get paid, but also how the game feels as a whole.

• 243 Ways: This payout mechanic simplifies things by not concerning itself with any specific lines. Instead, the game pays out when several matching symbols appear on adjacent reels. A standard 5x3 layout, therefore, produces 243 total ways to win, but broader grids make for even more winning combinations.
• Pay Both Ways: Most slots pay out from left to right, with winning combinations having to start from the leftmost reel. But some, like NetEnt’s blockbuster title Starburst, are designed so you can also win the other way around.
• Infinity Reels: The concept of this mechanic is that the number of reels keeps growing with every consecutive win. Theoretically, there’s no limit to how many reels you can unlock, hence the name..
• Hold & Win: Hold & Win slots lock certain symbols in place while the rest of the reels spin as usual, giving you repeated chances to land more matching symbols or trigger special rewards.
• Cluster Pays: How about we forget the whole payline structure? That’s exactly what cluster pays slots are all about: rewarding you for matching a group of identical symbols clustered together on the grid.