Complete wild analysis – from the first wilds to multiplier wilds
The wild, the most familiar symbol in slots, started from the joker in card games and passed through Double Diamond in mechanical slots and the sticky, walking and expanding wilds of online slots to become what it is today, a symbol that often carries a multiplier. This guide covers the origins of the wild, how each type works and how it affects volatility, using official sources and actual game screens.
Key takeaways
- The wild’s prototype is the joker in card games. The International Playing-Card Society’s materials include an 1875 joker card from Dougherty of New York.
- In mechanical slots, IGT’s Double Diamond, released in 1989, put forward a wild that “substitutes and doubles.”
- Online, NetEnt’s Dead or Alive (2009, sticky), Jack and the Beanstalk (2011, walking) and Starburst (2012, expanding) set the standard for wild types.
- Recently, wilds have grown more important for carrying multipliers than for substituting. Of the 3,511 games on AI Slot, 194 have ‘Wild’ in the title.
A symbol that can become anything on the reels, the wild is the first feature even complete beginners learn. The principle is simple: it stands in for regular symbols and completes a payline that was about to break. But over the past 15 years, wilds have grown larger, held their place, walked around and started carrying multipliers. Completely different devices now gather under the same name.
This is an in-depth guide that traces where the wild came from, starting with card games, and sorts today’s wilds by how they work, with real game screens. The history of multipliers themselves is covered separately in the complete multiplier analysis, so here we focus on the wild as a symbol. For the basic symbol types, see the wiki’s slot symbols entry first.
Five questions for reading a wild
When you run into a wild in a new game, checking just the five points below will reveal most of its character.
- Where does it land?: On every reel, or only on some reels such as reels 2-4?
- How big is it?: A single position, stacked, or expanded across the whole reel?
- How long does it stay?: For just one spin, or locked in throughout respins or free spins?
- Does it move?: Does it stay put, walk one position at a time, or jump around at random?
- Does it carry a multiplier?: Does it only substitute, or does it also give a multiplier of 2x or more?
Timeline – How the wild became what it is today
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 1875 | A joker card from Andrew Dougherty of New York. In other card games, the joker was mostly used as a wild card |
| 1989 | IGT Double Diamond. A wild that substitutes and doubles the win at the same time |
| 2009.11 | NetEnt Dead or Alive. Sticky wilds that hold their place during free spins |
| 2011.12 | NetEnt Jack and the Beanstalk. Walking wilds that move one reel per respin |
| 2012.01 | NetEnt Starburst. Expanding wilds that cover the whole reel and award a respin |
| 2020.03 | Pragmatic Play’s Wild West Gold. 2x, 3x and 5x multiplier wilds stay fixed in free spins |
| 2021.07 | NetEnt Starburst XXXtreme. Expanding wilds with a random multiplier up to 150x |
| 2021.09 | Hacksaw’s Wanted Dead Or a Wild. Duel Reels, wild reels whose multipliers are set by a duel |
Origins – The joker from card games
The word “wild” comes from card games. A card that can stand in for any card you want, with no fixed suit or number, is called a wild card, and the best-known one is the joker. The International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) card history material explains that the joker first appeared in the United States when an extra card called the “Best Bower” was added to the game of Euchre, and was later “mostly used as a wild card” in other games. The same material includes a joker made by the New York card maker Andrew Dougherty in 1875. The society counts the joker as an invention that America, not Europe, added to the history of playing cards.
The wild in slots plays the same role. A single card that can be anything completes a broken combination. That’s why many slots still draw their wild symbol in the shape of a joker.
Mechanical slots – Substitute and double, Double Diamond
IGT’s Double Diamond is often cited as the game that made the wild a symbol of the slot machine. According to an IGT press release, Double Diamond came out in 1989, and the “Double Diamond” symbol substitutes for other symbols on the payline while doubling that win. Two on a line make 4x the base payout, and three give the top payout. In 2010, IGT announced that the game, still loved after more than 20 years, won first place for “Best Reel Game” in a Casino Player magazine reader poll.
The important point here is that the wild took on both roles, substituting and multiplying, from the very start. The roots of today’s multiplier wilds lie in this 3-reel machine.
Three online classics – Sticky, walking and expanding
Between 2009 and 2012, as online slots were growing, NetEnt released a string of games that changed the wild in three directions. Many of the wild names in use today were established by these three games.
Dead or Alive – Wilds that hold their place
Dead or Alive is a Western-themed slot released in November 2009. Landing 3 or more scatters starts 12 free spins, and all wins are doubled. Wilds that land during this time don’t disappear and stay in place until the round ends. These are sticky wilds. If a sticky wild settles on every reel, 5 extra free spins are added. The structure gets heavier in later spins as wilds pile up, which is how a simple 5-reel, 3-row, 9-payline game reaches a max win of up to 8,600x.
Jack and the Beanstalk – the walking wild
Jack and the Beanstalk, released in December 2011, is the signature game for walking wilds. When a wild lands, it triggers a respin, and after each respin the wild walks one reel to the left. It disappears once the final respin on reel 1 is finished. In other words, the farther right a wild lands, the longer its respins run. Wins that include a wild are calculated at 3x.
Starburst – Wilds that cover the reel
Starburst, released in January 2012, is the textbook example of an expanding wild. When the rainbow star wild lands, it covers the entire reel and awards one respin. If another wild lands during the respin, that reel is covered too and the respin continues. There are no separate free spins; this wild and its respins are the whole feature, yet this game with a max win of 800x remains a symbol of NetEnt to this day.
Wild type guide
After those three classics, wilds became far more varied. Grouped by how they work, they look like this. Many games mix several types.
| Type | How it works | AI Slot examples |
|---|---|---|
| Standard wild | Substitutes for regular symbols in one position | Most classic slots |
| Stacked wilds | Lands stacked across several positions | Wolf Gold |
| Expanding wilds | Expands across the whole reel it lands on | Starburst |
| Sticky wilds | Locked during respins and free spins | Dead or Alive |
| Walking wilds | Moves one position every spin | Jack and the Beanstalk, Wild Walker |
| Roaming wilds | Moves to a random position every spin | Wild Pixies |
| Random wilds | Added at random after a spin | Starburst XXXtreme |
| Multiplier wilds | Substitutes and applies a multiplier | Wild West Gold, Hot Fiesta |
| Wild reels + multipliers | The whole reel becomes wild and receives a multiplier | Wanted Dead Or a Wild |
| Bomb wild | Explodes, blasting away nearby symbols and raising the multiplier | Fire In The Hole |
The modern walking wild – Wild Walker
Pragmatic Play’s Wild Walker (2020) is a zombie-themed rewrite of Jack and the Beanstalk’s walking wild. The official description says the wild “changes position every spin to surprise you.” On a 3×8 grid, the zombie wild moves to a new spot each spin, and the start screen notes that Wild Walker is guaranteed every spin and awards more free spins.
Roaming wilds – Wild Pixies
If a walking wild walks in a set direction, a roaming wild moves around at random. Wild Pixies (2019) collects a pixie wild set in the free spins triggered by scatter diamonds, and the wilds in the completed set roam the reels on every spin.
Multiplier wilds – Wild West Gold and Hot Fiesta
Double Diamond’s “double wild” has returned online in a form with more multiplier options. In Wild West Gold (2020), a wild carries one of 2x, 3x or 5x in both the base game and free spins, and when several are used in one win, the multipliers are added. During the 8 free spins, these multiplier wilds are locked in place. Sticky and multiplier are combined in a single symbol. Hot Fiesta (2021) also attaches 2x, 3x or 5x multipliers to the piñata wilds in free spins.
The range of multipliers has kept growing. In Wild Booster (2021), wilds carry a random multiplier of up to 100x, and Starburst XXXtreme (2021) attached a random multiplier from 2x to 150x to the original’s expanding wild. If the original Starburst had a max win of 800x, XXXtreme’s is 16,800x. Just by adding one multiplier to the same wild, the character of the game changed completely.
Wild reels + multipliers – Wanted Dead Or a Wild
Wanted Dead Or a Wild by Hacksaw Gaming, released in September 2021, ties expanding wilds and multipliers together with a duel presentation. According to Hacksaw’s official description, when a VS symbol is part of a win, it expands across the whole reel into a wild reel, and the two gunslingers duel, with the winner’s multiplier applied to every win on that reel. If several wild reels are involved in the same win, the multipliers are added together and then multiplied. Hacksaw introduces this as the first game with its DuelReels mechanic, and in the “Great Train Robbery” free spins, every wild that lands is locked in place. The max win is 12,500x.
Bomb wild – Fire In The Hole
Nolimit City’s Fire In The Hole (2021) turned the wild into dynamite. The xBomb wild substitutes for every symbol except bonus symbols, and when it explodes it blasts the surrounding symbols and raises the multiplier for the next cascade by 1. The full list of Nolimit City’s signature features is covered in Nolimit City xMechanics Explained.
What wilds can’t substitute for
Wilds look all-powerful, but in most games they don’t substitute for two things: the scatter that triggers free spins and bonus symbols. If a wild also replaced scatters, the odds of entering a bonus would differ from the design. Some games limit wilds to specific reels only. In Starburst XXXtreme, wilds appear only on reels 2, 3 and 4, and in Wild Wild Riches, wilds land only on reels 1 and 2. A wild’s “range” is almost always stated in the first line of the wild description in the game rules.
Wilds in AI Slot data
Of the 3,511 games registered on AI Slot, 194 have “Wild” in the title, about 5.5%. By provider, Pragmatic Play and Yggdrasil lead with 40 each, followed by Play’n GO with 29 and Red Tiger with 22. Since 2019, 14 or more have come out every year. Of course, almost every game without Wild in the title also uses wilds, so this number is best read as the scale of “games that put wilds front and center.”
How wilds change volatility
A wild is not a device that increases RTP. Within the same RTP, it decides when and how big the wins come. The direction differs by type.
- Frequent regular and stacked wilds: They create small wins often and smooth out the flow of play. In exchange, individual payouts are set lower.
- Sticky and walking wilds: Because a wild that has landed works across several spins, wins tend to cluster in free spins or respin stretches.
- Multiplier wilds: A single wild changes the size of a win by several times. The higher the multiplier cap, the more rarely big wins come, and the more they arrive all at once. The max wins of Starburst and Starburst XXXtreme splitting at 800x and 16,800x is an example.
The moment a multiplier is attached, the wild changes from a symbol that connects wins to a symbol that sets the size of a win. That’s also why recent new releases attach multipliers to wilds.
Five things to check in the demo
- Reels where wilds appear: all reels or only some
- The wild’s range: whether it also substitutes for scatter and bonus symbols
- Wild’s own payout: whether wilds alone can form a win
- Locking: whether it stays during respins or free spins, and when it disappears
- Multiplier math: whether overlapping wild multipliers are added or multiplied
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a wild substitute for every symbol?
Mostly no. In general, a wild only substitutes for regular pay symbols, not for the scatters or bonus symbols that trigger free spins. The rules for Nolimit City’s Fire In The Hole also state that the xBomb wild substitutes for every symbol except bonus symbols. Check the wild description in the game rules for the exact scope.
Can wilds alone form a win?
It depends on the game. In games where the paytable lists a payout for the wild itself, a wild-only line can win; in other games, it has to appear together with other symbols. Just check whether the wild row in the demo’s paytable shows a payout.
If two multiplier wilds land on the same line, are they multiplied?
Many games add them. In Wild West Gold, when 2x, 3x and 5x wilds are used in the same win, the multipliers are added. The wild reels in Wanted Dead Or a Wild are also added together and then multiplied when several are involved in the same win. By contrast, in IGT Double Diamond, 2 wilds make 4x, which means the multipliers are multiplied.
When do sticky wilds disappear?
Most disappear when the free spins end. In Dead or Alive and Wild West Gold, wilds stay in place during free spins, and the game returns to the base game when the round ends. Some games lock them only for a set number of respins.
Is a game with lots of wilds better?
No. How often wilds appear and how big they are is just a design choice about how to distribute wins within the RTP. Games where wilds appear often are set with lower payouts or weaker other features in return. You need to look at RTP and volatility together.
Related reads
For the history of multipliers attached to wilds, continue with the complete multiplier analysis, and for the chain structure that wilds join, see the complete tumble analysis. Free spins, which pair with wilds, are covered in the wiki’s free spins entry, and symbol types in general are in the slot symbols entry. All the games covered here can be opened as free demos with no sign-up at AI Slot, so you can see the wilds in action yourself.
Sources: International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) card history FAQ, IGT press release (Double Diamond, 2010), NetEnt official game information (Dead or Alive, Jack and the Beanstalk, Starburst, Starburst XXXtreme), Pragmatic Play official game pages and demo screens (Wild West Gold, Wild Walker, Wild Pixies, Hot Fiesta, Wild Booster), Hacksaw Gaming official game page (Wanted Dead or a Wild), Nolimit City official game information (Fire in the Hole)