Online slot machines have gone a long way from the days when three-reel classic fruit machines were common in bars, nightclubs, and casinos all over the world. These massively popular slot machines, which are run by software developers and function similarly to video games despite not having mechanical reels, are becoming increasingly common.
Over the past several years, video slots producers have pushed the envelope, creating games with HD video and 3D visuals, many bonus rounds and unique features, and dozens of paylines over multiple reels.
While bonus rounds and free spins certainly boost the entertainment value of slot machines, there’s a lot more to them than meets the eye. They have evolved to give what the majority of slot gamers seek: increased chances of winning.
From bonus symbols to bonus rounds and win multipliers, this guide will explain it all. At JeffBet, we have a wide selection of slot machines, many of which come with additional features.
How Do Slot Machines Work?
The characteristics of a slot machine are an integral part of the machine itself. These are meant to spice up players’ online slot playing experience and increase their chances of winning. Bonus features include things like scatter symbols, wild symbols, jackpot symbols, multiplier symbols, progressive jackpots, free spins, and more. These are some of the most typical slot machine bonus games of today.
If you’re new to slot machines, the wide variety of slot bonus features available in online slot games may seem overwhelming at first. However, if you’ve had some practice with them, you’ll find that they’re straightforward. If you play slots online frequently, you’ll get used to the layout of the games quickly.
It’s important to remember that the earliest slots had a 13 grid and a single payline. Mechanical slots using fruit symbols did not feature scatter pays or progressive jackpots. Five-by-three-reel slots featuring scatters and wilds have become the norm since the advent of digital slot games.
When that wasn’t enough, designers started incorporating novel gameplay modes and features into bonus games. Over the years, additional mechanisms and gameplay have been added to numerous slots at online casinos, such as expanded reel layouts, all-ways paylines, bonus icons, gamble features, and mini-games.
Slot Machine Options and Varieties
Playing more pay slots games increases your chances of discovering a machine with additional features. Here are some of the elements you may expect to see in most slot casino games:
Paylines
In slot machines, a winning combination is achieved when matching symbols fall along a payline. In three-reel slot machines, the single payline is the center column.
Modern slot machines allow gamblers to place bets on anywhere from 5 to 100 paylines at once. Paylines, often called winning lines, can be straight or zigzag. Each game has its own pay table where you can see if the odds are variable or fixed.
Five- and seven-reel video slots can have any number of paylines (often thousands). If a slot machine has twenty paylines and a player bets twenty coins per spin, their stake will be twenty units, or twenty dollars. The number of paylines active and the stake per line in the majority of slot machines are customizable.
Reels
Special symbols, paylines, and other “ways to win” features are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to slot games. Players’ odds of winning are improved by special reel features including locked reels and reel exchange. The “reel hold” function is one of a kind, allowing players to manually select which reel they wish to hold in place for the upcoming spin, while cascading reels are another famous element found in many slot games.
Players are given a better chance of producing winning combos thanks to wild reels, in which an entire reel is made up of wild symbols.
Volatility
Vulnerability is not a feature per se, but it has a major impact on how you play slots. Slot machines with high volatility have smaller payouts but bigger wins overall. However, low volatility slots have a higher frequency of payouts, but only the odd large win.
Slots with low volatility are better for players with smaller bankrolls because they pay out more frequently but in smaller sums.
Finally, a medium volatility level indicates a medium payout and hit rate.
Players that get a winning combination on an online slot machine are awarded a jackpot. Large bets are usually necessary for them. Payouts of this size are commonplace once random number generators select winning combinations.
Land-based casinos’ use of linked machines to share a large jackpot, known as a “progressive jackpot,” is nothing new. Any player at any machine has a good chance of winning a large sum. Network slot games online are another thing made easier by the internet.
Wilds
Slot games with wild symbols allow players to match high-paying symbols by substituting for them with other symbols (excluding scatters). Matching three or five wild symbols can result in the maximum payout in some slot games.
Some slots have special wilds that do more than just replace regular symbols. One of these features is a multiplier for any other symbols it pairs with.
In some video slots, the wild symbols can multiply, spread, or enlarge, giving players extra opportunities to form winning combos. Another type of wilds that stay put as the reels spin are sticky wilds.
No Risk Turns
Slot games are known for their frequent inclusion of a feature where players are awarded a certain number of free spins. When you initiate a round of free games, the number of active paylines and your wager for that round are both decided by the spin that triggered the bonus round.
Free spins can be triggered in a number of different ways, such as when three or more scatter symbols appear in a row on reel one. The game gives you a fixed number of spins, and your winnings accumulate as the reels spin.
Free spin rounds are the major attraction of the games provided by software developers. To set their games apart, they include extras like expanding scatter-triggered free spin cycles. Bet multipliers and progressive jackpots are two other ways in which slots can award players with money.
Features that are Only Found Here
Here are some of the more distinctive elements of slot machines:
It’s Worth It to Live in a Cluster
Slot machines with a cluster pay structure provide a new way to play because to their innovative mechanics. Groups of matching symbols in a cluster instead of paylines and neighboring opportunities to win.
Symbol groupings in cluster pays games often start with four or five symbols and can expand to fifteen or twenty symbols.
Since the payouts in these games are proportional to their size, the paytables are more comprehensive. A reward for four matching symbols, for instance, might equal 2x the wager, while a payout for ten matching symbols might reach 100x the stake.
Symbols Separated
The meaning of split symbols is much more nebulous than that of wilds. The primary goal of these is to increase the number of playable icons. If you’re playing a five-reel slot machine, for instance, and you split a symbol, you can win prizes based on six symbols instead of five.
Software companies like Yggdrasil and Playtech include extras like “Splitz” and “Expand & Split” in their games.
Most up-to-date slot machines have a respin option. Respins are similar to free spins, but they do not begin from scratch each time.
Let’s pretend you’re playing a slot machine where locking wilds activate a respin feature. During that time, only wilds stay on the reels while all other icons disappear and the round restarts. With re-spins, you have the chance to win multiple times throughout the same game round.
Mini-Games
Players have many paths to take in minigames, such as mystery boxes or event paths. Cash bonuses can be won at random in many of these modes. Symbols in these side games are commonly found in progressive slot games and can provide players with a portion of the game’s jackpot.
Free spins and minigames are paired in some slot machines. To claim your free spins, multiplier, or cash award after activating an interactive mini-game, read on. Once the bonus round is over, you’ll enter the free spins bonus round, which may or may not come with a multiplier if you’re lucky.
What are the best bonus features at online slots?
The exceptional qualities of certain slot machines make them stand out from the crowd. Some of the most noteworthy are included below in our opinion.
The casino game Reactoonz 2 by Play’n GO is a great illustration of how to implement bonuses properly. The innovative Reactoonz 2 features a 7×7 grid, multipliers, four wilds, many meter levels, giant symbols, and explosions of symbols, among other features.
Players win when they form clusters of five or more matching symbols, at which point those symbols are vanish and new ones take their place. While this may appear intimidating at first, the trick is in the cascading reels, which activate endless consecutive spins and, hopefully, large prizes.
Winning with Buffalo Stamina
Playson’s Buffalo Power: Hold and Win is a one-of-a-kind slot machine with a focus on bonus features. Eight bonus spins with active multipliers kick off the free spins bonus round.
However, if you get six bonus symbols in a row, you’ll trigger the game’s Hold and Win feature. Bonus symbols that land on the reels during this feature will remain there for three additional spins. If you get five power symbols, you’ll also win the slot machine’s Mega prize.
Elephants in Pink 2
The sequel to Thunderkick’s Pink Elephants slot machine, Pink Elephants 2 features 4,096 ways to win and is available for play. The slot machine game contains a free spins bonus round where you can retrigger and upgrade symbols and a mystery scatter feature. To win up to 10,000 times your wager, you must fill all four meters with “Elephant Orbs” (white fluorescent bulbs) and hope that the symbols you land turn into the highest-valued Pink Elephant symbols.
Makers of Exceptional Slot Games
If you want to play the finest slot games, you need to know which game creators make them. Here are a few of the most exciting game designers working today:
Games by Blueprint
The Megaways technology is a hallmark of Blueprint Gaming’s slot machines. With the Megaways feature, the quantity of symbols on a reel fluctuates with each spin, creating new combinations of winning symbols. This added volatility made Megaways slot machines more appealing to high-stakes players.
Feature buy, mystery symbols, multiplying wilds, and other bonus games may be found in many of Blueprint Gaming’s slot machine titles. It’s also worth noting that Blueprint Gaming is famous for its possibility to acquire extra features.
Tiger Gaming, Red
Red Tiger Gaming is a popular video game developer recognized for its one-of-a-kind cartoony games with stunning visuals and cutting-edge gameplay elements.
The developer distinguishes itself from competitors by including features such as Smart Spins and the Daily Drop Jackpots Network in its slot games in addition to the standard multipliers, wilds, and scatters. In fact, Red Tiger Gaming offers some of the most exciting bingo and slots hybrids in the iGaming business.
Yggdrasil
Since its inception in 2012, Yggdrasil has provided players with an exceptional gaming experience. The developer creates stunning visuals and innovative gameplay for their slot machines.
The developer’s “Splitz” mechanism, as described before, and the “PopWins” mechanism, in which a winning symbol is replaced by two when it “pops,” are two of the game’s most notable features.
Slot Machine Parts & FAQs
The following are some of the most frequently asked questions we get at JeffBet.com about the many features found in slot machines.
Do the Slot Machines Lack Features?
There is a bonus function on every slot machine. The number of characteristics may vary, though.
How Do Slot Machines Work?
Features of slot machines are any elements that can increase a player’s potential win. Bonus symbols can take many forms, from wilds to multipliers to scatters and beyond.
Are Slot Machine Bonus Games Random?
Slot machine bonus rounds and base game payouts are both determined by random number generators.