When you start out playing slots, it can be hard to get to grips with all of the new terminologies. You may find yourself asking, what is a scatter? What does a wild mean? Progressive slots? Bonus offers!? And you might want to give up there and then. Even for the more seasoned slot player, slots terminology can be something that you need to get your head around, as more and more updates and new software threatens the normal standard of play. For example, it took a while for people to get their heads around progressive slots, and these are a fairly new concept.
Although it's not a brand new concept, it is still new enough to leave some of us scratching our heads trying to understand what it actually means and what is behind it. In other words, slots terminology often needs explaining whether you have played for a long time or a short time. This is because things are always changing, and sometimes it is simply because you have just started to play with slots and this is the first time seeing the terminology. Other times it can even be because the game has been optimised for an app online or through your smartphone and certain words have been changed to conform to that.
Wild - Online Slots
Probably your best friend when it comes to online slot games, the wild symbol is usually that which the game itself is based on. So with White Wizard slot, for example, the wild is the Wizard. No matter what though, all wilds across all online slot games serve the same purpose and have the same function, broadly speaking. That is, the wild will normally substitute for any other symbol across the reels to help form a winning combination, except for the scatter symbol, in most circumstances. So the wild is probably one of the most important symbols when it comes to online slots.
Symbol - Video Slots
A symbol is simply the icons you will see in the game which form winning combinations along the reels, and some of them are better than others. There are some symbols for example that you will really want to get a lot for various reasons. One being that if you get a certain amount of a certain symbol, you will be awarded with free bonus games and this gives you more chances to win without having to put down any more money.
Progressive slots
A progressive slot is a great way to play online slots and get more value out of your bet placed. With an online slot, the total keeps building until some lucky players win and take it home. With progressive slots, you can play with whatever amount you like to play with, and then whatever the amount that you have put in, you will get that back and more should you win. This is because of the way progressive slots work. Each player has to bet with an amount, and this amount is then added to the previous player’s bet. This then forms the jackpot. The jackpot amount tallies up in this way when people are playing with the slot, until somebody wins the slot game and takes that amount home with them, after which the amount starts again.
Autoplay
This is a great feature for when you do not want to bother with manual spins. It is a helpful tool that most online slots offer to players. Autoplay can also be a good way to play online slots with strategies, as you can play for a longer period of time and multi-task while you are doing so. Gaming with autoplay can also get you bigger and better wins, although this does vary from game to game, it still holds a little promise as online slots algorithms pick winners at random no matter what.
Sticky bonus
The way a sticky bonus feature works is by when you play a slot which offers the sticky win type of re-spin feature, you get a base or bonus feature awarded to you whenever you spin a game with a set of matching reels in a certain way which will be prescribed by the game you are playing. Then, the bonus feature will make each of the reel symbols that you have spun come into view and these will then form a winning combo which stays attached to the reels in the positions these reels have been spun on. Overall, the aim of these re-spin bonus features is for you to get additional matching reel symbols, and then by doing so you then get these symbols sticking to the reels - hence the sticky bonus title - and then another re-spin will be awarded to you.
The more symbols that are matched up on the reels, the more you have increased your chances of the value being upped when you get a winning payout from the game. The reels will then only stop spinning when one has been played off and no more will match as they can no longer spin.
Free spins bonus
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but it is still worth understanding them and knowing how they occur. A free spins bonus is basically a free game, or free multiple games, where you can get more chances to win the slot game. To get a free spins bonus, you are normally required to match up a certain symbol or symbols and a certain amount. The amount of free spins which are then awarded to you is dependant on the number of symbols you have gained. For example, when you are playing with some slot games and get five of the symbol you need to get the free spins bonus game you can get 15 free spins. This varies greatly from slot game to slot game, but generally speaking that is how it works - 10 of the right symbols lined up will get you 25 free spins and so on.
*Any Free Spins/Welcome Bonuses References are subject to the following: NEW PLAYERS ONLY, MIN DEPOSIT £10, £8 MAX WIN PER 10 SPINS, MAX BONUS EQUAL TO LIFETIME DEPOSITS (UP TO £250), 65X WAGERING REQUIREMENTS AND FULL T&CS APPLY