What Are Some Of The Best Slot Features?

Slots have come a very long way over the last few decades. They started out as physical gaming machines with three large drums that had symbols on them. You would pull a lever to the side of the machine to spin the drums and would be paid if you formed a winning combination. That was it - these original slots were all about landing winning combinations, with no special features or anything like that.

Over time, they’ve evolved quite a lot and the slots of today can be very advanced indeed. Not only do they have high-quality, realistic graphics and sound effects, they also have a wide range of special features to enhance gameplay and offer even more chances to win. Play a selection of slots and you’ll no doubt come across lots of different features - here are some of my favourites.

Free Spins

Who doesn’t love getting something for free? Pretty much every slot released these days offers free spins. As their name suggests, they’re simply spins that you get to use at no extra cost. Even though they’re free, you can still win real money from them. You typically receive free spins whenever you land a minimum number of scatter symbols.

For some slots, the more scatters you land in the same spin, the more free spins you’ll receive. Most of the time, there’s a limit on how many free spins you can use in a single round, though for some slots, you can earn an unlimited number of extra free spins. Have a spin on the luxurious Gold King by Play’n Go, inspired by the legendary King Midas of Greek mythology - once you’ve triggered the Super Spins feature, you can keep on winning free spins indefinitely!

Avalanche Reels

What’s great about this feature is that it lets you win more than once from a single spin. The way it works is as follows: symbols simply fall down from above and whenever you win, all winning symbols vanish, with more symbols from above falling down to replace them. After these new symbols have fallen, if there are any more winning combinations formed, you’ll score another win and the symbols will vanish once again - this keeps on happening until the symbols fall and there’s no winning combination formed.

You’ll also see this feature referred to as ‘cascading reels’ for some slots. A hugely popular slot that has the avalanche feature is Asgardian Stones, a very well designed NetEnt slot themed after Norse mythology.

Cluster Pays

For most slots, the way you win is by landing a winning combination (a number of matching symbols) on an active payline. Some slots do away with this set-up and instead use the cluster pays mechanic. These slots typically have reels sets that are larger than average. The most common set-up for slots these days is three rows and five reels - slots that use the cluster pays mechanic can have reel sets much, much bigger.

For example, NetEnt’s Hawaiian-themed Aloha! Cluster Pays has five rows and six reels. To land a win in a slot with cluster pays, you simply need to form a cluster of matching symbols. A cluster consists of a minimum number of matching symbols that are horizontally or vertically adjacent. The more symbols that are in the cluster, the more you’ll win.

Multipliers

What’s better than landing a win? Landing a win that’s been multiplied. Lots of slots have multipliers that can increase the value of your win by quite a bit - some may only double or treble your winnings, whereas others can multiply your winnings by well over a dozen times.

There are lots of different ways multipliers can come into effect. For example, some slots have scatters or wilds that also function as multipliers, whereas others have multipliers in effect for free spins rounds. Play’n Go’s funky new slot Banana Rock, themed after a monkey rock band with neon-style graphics, is a great slot to play for multipliers. In fact, it has a special free spin that can be played with a multiplier of up to x25!

All-ways-win

Another way slots deviate from the traditional set-up of paylines is by using the all-ways-win mechanic. For slots with this mechanic, the game basically acts as if every possible line across the reels is a payline. So long as you land enough matching symbols on the reels, you’ll score a win - each symbol can be in any position on its reel and it will still count for a win.

For a slot with three rows and five reels, you usually have 20 or so paylines, or ways to win. If a 3x5 slot uses the all-ways-win mechanic, it has a total of 243 ways to win, which should improve your chances of landing a win. Have a spin at Microgaming’s cult classic slot Immortal Romance - this vampire-themed slot uses the all-ways-win mechanic and is packed with lots of other great features as well!