Paylines vs Ways Deep Dive - From 9 Lines to 117,649 Ways
Two games on the same 5×3 grid can judge wins in completely different ways: a 9-line game is not a 243-ways game. This guide walks through fixed paylines, 243 and 1,024 ways and the 117,649 ways of Megaways with real Pragmatic Play demo screens, then shows how to calculate ways yourself and how they relate to your bet.
Key Takeaways
- Paylines are pre-drawn paths; ways only need the same symbol on adjacent reels. Master Chen’s Fortune (9 lines) and 5 Lions (243 ways) are both 5×3, yet one has 27 times more winning paths.
- The number of ways is the product of the rows on each reel: 3x3x3x3x3=243, 4x4x4x4x4=1,024 and Megaways’ 7x7x7x7x7x7=117,649 all follow one formula.
- In line games the total bet is tied to the line count: the minimum bets in AI Slot data are 0.09 for 9 lines, 0.1 for 10, 0.2 for 20 and 0.25 for 25, exactly 0.01 per line. Ways games show no such link.
- More paths do not guarantee more frequent wins: 9-line, both-ways Master Chen’s Fortune hits once every 2.2 spins, while Starz Megaways with up to 117,649 ways hits once every 4.3 spins.
Slot specs always carry numbers like “25 lines”, “243 ways” or “up to 117,649 ways”. Each one says how many paths a single spin can win on. But there are two ways of counting them: paylines, which count pre-drawn lines, and ways, which count every combination linking adjacent reels.
This guide climbs from games with few paths to games with many, using real Pragmatic Play demo screens to show the difference. The story of how Megaways was born is covered in Megaways Deep Dive, so here we focus on how the numbers are built.
Comparison at a Glance
The table lists the games in this guide by number of paths. Minimum bet and base hit frequency come from AI Slot game data.
| Type | Example | Grid | Win paths | Min bet | Hit frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 lines (both ways) | Master Chen’s Fortune | 5×3 | 9 | 0.09 | 1/2.2 |
| 10 lines | Big Bass Bonanza | 5×3 | 10 | 0.1 | 1/7.69 |
| 20 lines | Great Rhino | 5×3 | 20 | 0.2 | 1/2.78 |
| 25 lines | Wolf Gold | 5×3 | 25 | 0.25 | 1/2.39 |
| 243 ways | 5 Lions | 5×3 | 243 | 0.5 | 1/3.34 |
| 1,024 ways | Queen of Atlantis | 5×4 | 1,024 | 0.5 | 1/2.03 |
| 4,096 ways | Buffalo King | 6×4 | 4,096 | 0.4 | 1/4.93 |
| Megaways | Starz Megaways | up to 7×6 | up to 117,649 | 0.2 | 1/4.3 |
| Pay Anywhere | Sweet Bonanza | 6×5 | no paths, 8+ anywhere | 0.2 | 1/2 |
| Cluster Pays | Sugar Rush | 7×7 | no paths, 5+ touching | 0.2 | 1/2.9 |
Two things stand out. In line games the minimum bet tracks the line count exactly, while ways games do not. And the number of paths does not scale with hit frequency. Both points are covered below.
9 Lines - Master Chen’s Fortune Makes Up for Few Lines with Both Ways
In a payline game a line is a path drawn on the reels in advance. On a 5×3 grid the lines are fixed shapes that pass through one cell on each reel, such as the middle row, top row, bottom row, a V or an inverted V, and the same symbol must line up along one of them. Most line games only count combinations that start on reel 1, the leftmost reel. A run that starts on reel 2 does not pay, however long it is.
Master Chen’s Fortune (September 2018) is a classic-style slot with only 9 lines on a 5×3 grid; Pragmatic Play’s own description calls it a “3×5, 9 lines videoslot”. To make up for the few lines, it pays both ways: as the start screen says, all symbols pay left to right and right to left. A run that starts on reel 5 also wins, so the 9 lines are checked in more ways than a one-direction 9-line game.
The effect shows in the data. In AI Slot data, Master Chen’s Fortune hits once every 2.2 spins in the base game, the most frequent of the line games here. Big Bass Bonanza, also 5×3 with one more line (10), hits once every 7.69 spins: it puts its weight on collecting money symbols in free spins, so small base-game wins are rarer. Even with similar line counts, both-ways pays and paytable design change the feel a lot.
20-25 Lines - Great Rhino and Wolf Gold
20 and 25 are the most common line counts on 5×3 video slots. Great Rhino (May 2018) has 20 lines and Wolf Gold (April 2017) has 25. Both are Pragmatic Play classics and both are ordinary one-direction line games. At these counts almost every cell on the screen belongs to several lines, so there is a stronger sense that something will connect somewhere than with 9 lines.
Games with many lines get their power from symbols stacking vertically. When one symbol fills whole reels, as on Wolf Gold’s start screen, all 25 lines connect with it at once. According to Pragmatic Play, in Wolf Gold’s free spins reels 2-4 combine into one giant symbol, and in Great Rhino’s free spins all rhino symbols become wild. Both are devices that cover many lines with the same picture at once. Big wins in line games usually come from many lines overlapping, not from a single line.
Line Bet and Total Bet
In a line game, total bet = bet per line x number of lines. AI Slot’s minimum bets show this directly: Master Chen’s Fortune 0.09 (9 lines), Big Bass Bonanza 0.1 (10 lines), Great Rhino 0.2 (20 lines) and Wolf Gold 0.25 (25 lines) all start from 0.01 per line. Paytable multipliers are usually applied to that line bet. So at the same total bet, each line pays less in a game with many lines and weighs more in a game with few: one line of a 9-line game carries 1/9 of the total bet, one line of a 25-line game only 1/25.
Some games let you play fewer lines, but fixed-payline games do not: only the stake changes. Even where lines can be reduced, combinations on switched-off lines are not paid, so cutting lines does not make the same game more favourable.
243 Ways - 5 Lions Erases the Lines
The ways format removes the lines altogether. Starting from reel 1, if each adjacent reel has at least one of the same symbol, it wins no matter which row the symbol sits in. 5 Lions (June 2018) is a classic 243-ways game. The grid is the same 5×3 as Master Chen’s Fortune, but any of the three cells on one reel can connect to any cell on the next, so there are 3x3x3x3x3 = 243 paths, 27 times more than 9 lines.
5 Lions also shows that the number of ways changes with the grid. According to Pragmatic Play, an extra row of three symbols is added to the top during free spins, raising the number of winning paths to 576. Three reels become 4 high and two stay at 3, so 3x4x4x4x3 = 576. Only three cells are added, yet the paths more than double, because the structure is multiplicative.
1,024 Ways - Queen of Atlantis Adds One Row
Make every reel of a 243-ways grid one cell taller and you get 1,024 ways. Queen of Atlantis (March 2017) is, in Pragmatic Play’s own words, a “5×4, 1024 ways to win videoslot”. Four cells per reel gives 4x4x4x4x4 = 1,024. With the same five reels, one extra row takes the paths from 243 to 1,024, more than four times as many.
In ways games, stacked symbols work even harder than in line games. According to Pragmatic Play, the queen symbol in Queen of Atlantis is stacked on all reels; if one reel shows the same symbol in all four cells, that reel alone multiplies the matching paths by four. Adding a reel works the same way: Buffalo King (January 2020) uses a 6×4 grid, so 4 multiplied six times gives 4,096 ways. As reels and rows grow, ways rise as a power.
117,649 Ways - Starz Megaways and Its Shifting Reel Heights
All the ways games so far had a fixed number of cells. Megaways changes the height of each reel on every spin, so the number of ways changes too, and the game info lists a maximum. Starz Megaways (June 2020) has up to 117,649 ways in AI Slot data. 117,649 is 7 multiplied six times: the maximum when all six reels reach 7 cells. On spins with shorter reels, far fewer paths are counted. The lead image at the top of this guide is the Starz Megaways start screen: “117649” is printed right under the logo, and the four middle reels are shown seven cells high, covered in wilds.
Megaways is a trademark of Big Time Gaming (BTG). Starz Megaways itself shows “MEGAWAYS is used under licence from BIG” at the bottom of its start screen, which means Pragmatic Play and other studios use the format under licence from BTG. The background and key titles are covered in Megaways Deep Dive and the Megaways wiki entry.
117,649 is not a fixed ceiling for Megaways. Pragmatic Play’s Great Rhino Megaways goes up to 200,704 ways in AI Slot data. As the screen below shows, it adds a horizontal reel above reels 2-5, which adds more cells. Reel layouts and maximum heights differ by game, so check the maximum ways for each Megaways title.
How to Calculate Ways
Ways follow one rule: multiply the number of visible cells on each reel. Every figure in this guide works out the same way:
- Fixed 5×3: 3x3x3x3x3 = 243 (5 Lions)
- 5 Lions free spins: 3x4x4x4x3 = 576
- Fixed 5×4: 4x4x4x4x4 = 1,024 (Queen of Atlantis)
- Fixed 6×4: 4x4x4x4x4x4 = 4,096 (Buffalo King)
- Megaways maximum: 7x7x7x7x7x7 = 117,649 (Starz Megaways)
- One Megaways spin: reel heights of 3, 5, 2, 7, 4 and 6 give 3x5x2x7x4x6 = 5,040 ways
Wins Are Multiplied Too
The same principle applies to wins. In a ways game, the number of winning paths for a symbol is the product of how many of that symbol sit on each reel. Say on a 243-ways grid a symbol appears twice on reel 1, once on reel 2 and twice on reel 3, but not on reel 4: that makes 2x1x2 = 4 three-of-a-kind combinations, so the 3-symbol pay is awarded four times. If reel 4 had one too, they would become four 4-of-a-kind combinations. That is why several of the same symbol on one reel, especially stacks, drives big wins in ways games.
Bets in ways games behave differently. In the table above, 243-ways 5 Lions and 1,024-ways Queen of Atlantis both start at 0.5, 4,096-ways Buffalo King at 0.4 and Starz Megaways, with up to 117,649 ways, at 0.2. You do not stake each path; one total bet buys all paths together, so the number of paths and the bet amount are unrelated. Paytable amounts follow the total bet, which you can check in a demo by changing the bet and reopening the paytable.
The Boundary - Pay Anywhere and Cluster Pays Are Not Ways
Even at 117,649 ways, the rule “starting from reel 1, connected through adjacent reels” still holds. Pay Anywhere and Cluster Pays drop even that rule. There are no paths to count, so they have no “ways” figure.
- Pay Anywhere: Sweet Bonanza pays for 8 or more of the same symbol anywhere on its 6×5 grid. Position and adjacency do not matter, only the count. See Scatter Pays Deep Dive for details.
- Cluster Pays: Sugar Rush pays when 5 or more of the same symbol touch horizontally or vertically on its 7×7 board. There is no direction; the size of the cluster sets the pay. See Cluster Pays Deep Dive and the Cluster Pays wiki entry.
In short, paylines, ways and Megaways are branches of the same root, connecting left to right, each widening the paths; Pay Anywhere and Cluster Pays are a different branch that changes the root itself. If a game’s info says “8 or more” or “5 or more touching” instead of a ways count, it belongs to the latter.
How It Relates to Volatility
More paths sounds like more frequent wins, but hit frequencies in the table do not move that way. 9-line Master Chen’s Fortune hits once every 2.2 spins and 1,024-ways Queen of Atlantis once every 2.03, while 4,096-ways Buffalo King needs 4.93 spins and Starz Megaways, with up to 117,649 ways, 4.3. The path count is only the number of roads a win could take; actual frequency is set by how symbols are placed on the reels and by the paytable.
Volatility is the same story. In AI Slot data, Master Chen’s Fortune, Great Rhino, Wolf Gold and 5 Lions are rated low, while Queen of Atlantis, Buffalo King and Starz Megaways are medium. The games with more paths cluster around medium, but Great Rhino Megaways is rated low, so it is not a rule. What more paths do allow is room for a bigger top win: Starz Megaways caps at 10,000x, 25-line Wolf Gold at 2,500x. See the Volatility and Hit Rate wiki entries for the concepts.
How to Check in a Demo
Rather than stopping at the number in the game info, open the free demo and the judging method becomes clear quickly. Check in this order:
- On the start screen and in the game info, see whether it says lines or ways, and for Megaways, the maximum number of ways.
- For line games, open the payline diagram in the paytable to see the shapes and count.
- Check for both-ways pays. It may be on the start screen, as with Master Chen’s Fortune, or only in the rules.
- Change the bet and watch how paytable amounts move: line games follow the bet per line, ways games the total bet.
- Spin a few times and look at how wins are highlighted: lines in line games, linked groups of symbols in ways games.
Every game in this guide opens as a free slot demo on AI Slot with no sign-up. Play Master Chen’s Fortune and 5 Lions back to back on the same 5×3 grid and you will feel at once how differently 9 lines and 243 ways read the same screen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, paylines or ways?
Neither is better in itself. Long-term return is set by RTP; the judging method only changes how wins look. In this guide, 9-line Master Chen’s Fortune (96.48%) and 243-ways 5 Lions (96.50%) have nearly the same headline RTP.
Is 243 ways the same as 243 lines?
In path count, yes: drawing every combination of one cell per reel on a 5×3 grid gives 243 lines. The difference is that the bet is not split per line; one total bet covers every path.
Why does the number of Megaways ways change every spin?
Because the number of symbol cells on each reel changes every spin. Ways are the product of each reel’s cells, so when heights change the product changes. Starz Megaways’ maximum of 117,649 ways is the value when all six reels show 7 cells (7x7x7x7x7x7).
Does a both-ways game pay the same win twice?
Both-ways pays means combinations starting from the left end and from the right end are both accepted; Master Chen’s Fortune’s start screen says it pays “left to right and right to left”. How a line filled by five matching symbols is handled should be checked in each game’s rules.
How many ways do Sugar Rush or Sweet Bonanza have?
They have none. Sweet Bonanza pays 8 or more of a symbol anywhere (Pay Anywhere) and Sugar Rush pays groups of 5 or more touching symbols (Cluster Pays), so there are no reel-to-reel paths to count.
Further Reading
How Megaways was born and became an industry standard is in Megaways Deep Dive, and the two formats that drop paths altogether are in Scatter Pays Deep Dive and Cluster Pays Deep Dive. Basic terms such as lines, ways and RTP are collected in the Slot Basics wiki entry.
Sources: Pragmatic Play official game pages (Master Chen’s Fortune, Wolf Gold, Great Rhino, 5 Lions, Queen of Atlantis, Starz Megaways) and official demo screens; AI Slot game data (grid, bet range, hit frequency, volatility)