Slot Symbol Types Slot Symbols

Symbols that pay less but show up often. Many slots use card letters like A, K, Q, J, and 10 as low-paying symbols, which is why they’re also called “royal symbols.” In tumble games, pictures that fit the game’s theme, like candies or gems, play this role.

Symbols that pay more but show up rarely. Usually the game’s main character or an iconic picture becomes a high-paying symbol. In many games, a screen completely filled with the top-paying symbol is the max win of the base game.

An empty spot with no picture. You often see it in classic slots with fruit, 7s, and BAR, and blanks between symbols make wins harder to land.

A versatile symbol that substitutes for other regular symbols to complete winning combinations. For example, if a wild sits between 2 lions, it counts as 3 lions. It usually can’t substitute for scatters and bonus symbols, and in some games wilds can combine with each other to pay their own prize.

A wild that sticks in place and stays through several spins. It’s mostly used during free spins or respins, and as spins continue the wilds pile up and can lead to big wins. Pragmatic Play’s The Dog House is the classic example.

A wild that expands across its entire reel (all positions above and below) the moment it lands. Since a whole reel becomes wild, it creates wins on multiple lines at once. Some games, like NetEnt’s Starburst, award a respin after expanding.

Wilds drop not as a single position but as a stack covering several positions vertically. It has an effect similar to an expanding wild, but the difference is that it arrives as a stack from the start.

A wild that moves one position sideways with each spin and stays on the screen. It creates a winning chance on every spin until it moves off the screen.

A wild that multiplies the win it takes part in, such as 2x or 3x. When several multiplier wilds land on one line, their multipliers are added or multiplied together, and the method differs from game to game.

A feature where wilds drop randomly onto several spots on the screen during a spin. It often triggers without warning in the base game.

A wild that spreads outward, turning symbols in neighboring positions into wilds as well. A large area of the screen can turn wild at once.

A symbol that triggers a bonus such as free spins when a certain number (usually 3 to 4) or more land anywhere on the screen, regardless of paylines. The scatter itself sometimes pays a multiple of your bet. In Gates of Olympus and Sweet Bonanza, 4 scatters start the free spins.

Dedicated symbols that trigger a bonus, like scatters. They’re sometimes used to mean the same thing as scatters, but depending on the game, free spins may be triggered by scatters and a separate bonus game by bonus symbols. They usually appear only on certain reels.

A symbol with a multiple of your bet written right on it. It isn’t a win on its own; you receive that amount when collect symbols land alongside it or when a Hold & Spin bonus ends. The fish in the Big Bass series and the moon symbols in Wolf Gold are typical examples.

A symbol that, when it lands, collects and pays out the amounts on all the money symbols on screen. In the Big Bass series the fisherman plays this role, and in Blueprint’s Fishin’ Frenzy it is also the fisherman. This mechanic is called “Money Collection.”

A symbol labeled with a jackpot name such as “MINI,” “MAJOR,” or “GRAND.” If it lands in a Hold & Spin bonus, you receive that jackpot amount when the bonus ends.

A symbol that drops in as a question mark or a box, and when the spin stops, they all turn into the same symbol at once. If several of them change into the same high-paying symbol, you can land a big win.

A symbol marked with a multiplier such as 2x, 10x, or 100x. If there is a win on that spin, all the multipliers on screen are added together and applied to the win. Zeus’s orbs in Gates of Olympus and the bombs in Sweet Bonanza are the best-known examples.

A large symbol that occupies several positions at once, such as 2×2 or 3×3. It fills multiple positions across multiple reels in one go to create big wins. Yggdrasil’s Gigablox is a developed version of this concept.

A symbol that contains 2 or more of the same picture in a single position and is counted as 2 or 3 symbols. There are also methods like Nolimit City’s xSplit, where symbols split later to increase the number of ways.

A feature symbol that changes certain symbols on the screen into other symbols, usually higher-paying ones. Some games, like Pirots from ELK Studios, have separate upgrade and transform symbols.