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From humble beginnings, slot machines have developed and evolved significantly over the course of the last century. Without the restrictions of mechanical inner workings, modern designs have added new features and gameplay mechanics on top of the core Slots concept.
Slots games are now more than just a set of three reels and a single payline, so let’s take a look at some of the most common features that you’ll find in modern, digital games like Pirots 3 slot.
Wild symbols
Classic slot games only featured a small selection of symbols, all of which worked in the same way. That’s not the case with online slot games, which utilise special symbols such as wilds.
Wilds are a common feature in many online Slots, there to act as a substitute for other symbols in creating matching combinations. This means that players have an extra chance to land a combination, increasing the odds of a payout when wilds are in play.
There are a couple of different types of wilds, which are:
• Expanding wilds – which grow to cover an entire reel, increasing the potential for matching combinations across multiple paylines
• Sticky wilds – which stay in place on the reel
Scatter symbols
Another special symbol, scatters, have become a staple in plenty of modern slot game designs. Unlike other symbols, these don’t need to line up on a specific payline to come into play. Instead, a certain number of scatters need to show up on the reels to initiate their effects.
The exact effect of scatter symbols varies from game to game, although many offer additional spins or act as multipliers to any potential payouts.
Cascading reels
The shift to digital reels instead of physical ones allowed developers to put a new spin on this central feature of the slot game’s design. Cascading reels are a feature where any symbols that form part of a matching combination clear off the screen once counted.
This allows new symbols to cascade down into the empty spaces, creating the potential for more matching combinations to form. The cascade repeats until no more combinations can be formed, increasing the potential payout from the single spin.
Paylines and clusters
Even the oldest slot machines used a payline – with symbols needing to land on the middle horizontal line across the reels to count towards a combination. But where there used to be just one payline, now many Slots feature anywhere from dozens to hundreds of potential paylines.
Other games do away with the concept of paylines altogether in favour of a new mechanic – clusters. Instead of symbols having to land on set lines, as long as enough matching symbols appear next to each other on the reels – in a cluster of three or more – this is counted towards a payout.
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There are plenty of other features that are unique to particular slot game designs, and others that are present in larger groups of games. But if you understand how special symbols like wilds and scatters work, as well as cascading reels and paylines you should have a good idea of how modern slot games play.
