Slot Machine Symbols Explained: Wilds, Scatters & More

From physical slot machines and classic 3-reelers to modern video slots, megaways, and progressive jackpots, all slots use symbols. Functions of individual symbols (or symbol groups) vary greatly between games, but in most cases they do one of two things: calculate winning combinations or activate in-game bonuses. 

The world’s first slot machine was made by Charles Fey in 1985. The Liberty Bell had just a handful of unique symbols, including horseshoes, card suits, and a bell. Later down the line, newer games introduced a variety of novelty options, from lucky seven symbols and classic slot symbols related to fruits to the new-age cascading symbols, walking Wilds, and multiplier symbol slots. 

Back in the early 1900s, slot gambling was prohibited in many regions, and some machines actually “paid” in chewing gum to work around existing prohibitions. 

Standard and Low-Paying Symbols

Regardless of how a symbol “looks,” it’s assigned a value based on how frequently it appears. Low-paying symbols, such as cherries and lemons in classic slot machines, have a decently high hit rate, and that’s why they offer lower payouts than high-paying slot symbols like bells, bars, and sevens. 

Some slots, like Pragmatic Play’s 777 Wheel Blitz, mainly use colours instead of different symbol types. In this example, Blue Opal is the lowest-paying one, followed by Ruby (4x), Emerald (10x), and Yellow Diamond (20x). 

A more relevant example of today’s slots would be Greentube’s Book of Ra. This slot machine has four symbol tiers, including the following:

• Card suits (10s, Js, Qs, Ks, and As) are the lowest-paying ones, offering from 5x for three-of-a-kind, up to 100x for five-of-a-kind combos.
• Scarabs and Idols represent the standard paying symbols. They pay from 5x for pairs, up to 75x for five-of-a-kind. 
• Mummy is the first standalone high-paying tier, paying 5x for pairs, up to 200x for five-of-a-kind. 
• Explorer is the highest-paying symbol, paying 10x for a pair and up to 500x for five-of-a-kind.

Since Book of Ra is one of the most popular bonus symbols slots, it’s also worth mentioning that Scatters also offer payouts, in addition to triggering a Free Spins round when 3 or more land anywhere on the grid. 

Wild Symbols

Wild symbols (shortened from Wildcards) basically work like Jokers in card games. They substitute for any other non-bonus symbol to help you make easier wins. However, plenty of different types of Wilds exist:

• Random Wilds: In Hacksaw’s Dusk Princess, 3 Wild symbols will appear in random cells when you fill the progress bar at the top of the screen (by chaining winning combos). 
• Expanding Wilds: Expanding Wilds or Stacked Wilds will cover the entire reel where they land. One of the best examples of this feature is the VS bonus in Wanted Dead or a Wild, where Wilds not only expand but also apply a win multiplier. 
• Sticky Wilds: During the bonus round in Ainsworth’s King Chameleon, Wild symbols will become “sticky” for the duration of your free spins. 
• Multiplier Wilds: In wild symbols slots like Chaos Crew and R.I.P. City, Wild symbols will occasionally come with built-in multipliers. 

Scatter Symbols

Scatter symbols slots feature a bonus symbol called “Scatter,” which is typically used to trigger the bonus round. In book-inspired games, such as the iconic Book of the Dead, Scatters serve multiple functions. Here are some of the main uses of Scatters:

• Scatter Wilds: They double as substitute symbols that can replace any other symbols except Books themselves. 
• Scatter Symbol Payouts: Depending on the game, drawing at least 2 or 3 Scatters provides an instant payout. For example, in Pragmatic’s Gates of Olympus Super Scatter, drawing even 1 gives you a 100x win multiplier, while drawing 4 gives you the max win of 50,000x. 
• Scatter Bonus Rounds: In most slots, Scatters are used to activate a Bonus Round. For instance, Hacksaw Le Bandit has three in-game bonuses; 3 scatters unlock the “standard” bonus round; 4 scatters unlock the All That Glitters is Gold improved bonus, while drawing all 5 activates the Secret Bonus. Note that you can only use Bonus Buy to purchase the first two variants. 

Bonus Symbols

Slot scatters usually lead to free spins, but in certain machines, you’d get to play Pick’em-style minigames. 

A great example of this is the legendary NetEnt Blood Suckers, famously known as one of the highest-RTP slots (98%). This game has traditional scatters (Vampire lady) that pay the same way bar symbol slot machines do – a flat multiplier on your bet, from 2 to 100, depending on how many you’ve landed in one go. 

If you draw at least 3 Hammer and Stake symbols, you’d be taken to a Pick Me Bonus Round instead. In this case, 12 coffins are presented, and you get to choose which ones you’ll open. If there’s a vampire inside, you get a prize; you can repeat the process until you open an empty coffin, when the minigame ends. 

Blood Suckers II has a slightly different type of bonus round. Instead of 12 coffins, each round has multiple selectable props, containing instant prizes, Keys (that take you to the next level), and Demons (game over). Always check the paytable to learn how the bonus symbols in your chosen game work. 

Multiplier Symbols

The most straightforward type of special symbols are multipliers. They simply attach a multiplier to the winning combination. For example, if you drew a Wild with a 3x multiplier over a line that won £5, you’d get £15 instead. 

Some slots, like Nolimit’s Duck Hunters or Pragmatic’s Gates of Olympus, feature Bonus Rounds where multipliers apply globally to all wins in each round, and more importantly, they persist until you run out of free spins. 

Always Check the Paytable

The Paytable is a window that lists everything you need to know about a specific slot, including its RTP, payline configuration, symbol payouts, bonus symbols, and various other details. 

The first thing you should do before playing any slot is to read the Paytable by pressing the “Information” button. Even though some symbols may look similar, each game has different payout rates, bonus hit chances, and jackpot values, all of which you can find more about in the Paytable menu. 

Quick Reference: Slot Symbols at a Glance

Whether you’re playing an old-school bar symbol slot or a modern Megaways game, paying and special symbols often serve similar functions. We’ve prepared a simple beginner’s guide explaining slot symbols meaning:

Paylines Explained

To properly understand how slot symbols work, it’s important to grasp the fundamentals of slot paylines. Essentially, wins are formed when matching symbols (and Wilds) appear on an active payline. 

Older slot payline configurations were super simple. The nostalgic slot machines had a single vertical payline; fruit machines invented slightly later had 3 vertical lines before 5-line slots threw two diagonal lines into the mix. 

Some of the first video slots had 10, 20, and 40 paylines, most of which involved various combinations of zig-zag lines, but no matter how many betways came to be, they always began at the first column and went through the remaining five. 

Rules of “adjacency” (where symbols had to be next to each other) were upended with the invention of Pay Anywhere slots. Basically, these machines have no paylines whatsoever: the only thing that matters is that enough symbols of the same kind (usually 7 or more) are drawn on the same spin. 

Cluster Pays slots are a bit different. They, too, have no paylines, but symbols have to be next to each other to form a winning “cluster.” 

One of the most iconic innovations in slot paylines is the Megaways system. Under this mechanic, RNG software would change how many active paylines are used on each spin. Megaways variations of Divine Fortune and Bonanza can have up to 117,649 ways on any given round, while White Rabbit Megaways, one of RG’s most popular slots, can have up to 248,832. 

RTP slots explained

Return to player (RTP) is a mathematical expression that explains how much money a slot should theoretically return for every £100 wagered. For example, Blood Suckers has an RTP of 98%, meaning it should pay £98 back per £100 played. 

The link between slot symbols and RTP boils down to the frequency of favourable symbol matchups. For example, a low RTP slot with a score of 88-90% would frequently throw Scatters to disrupt your winning chains, and you’d rarely see high-paying symbols on an active payline. 

By contrast, the RNG in high-RTP slots tends to favour the opposite. Winning symbols appear more frequently, and depending on the slot’s volatility rating, cold streaks are often followed by a decent high-symbol combo. 

Slot specifications shouldn’t be treated as guarantees, though, but it can be worthwhile to learn them before betting any real money. 

Common Myths About Slot Symbols

There are plenty of misconceptions surrounding slot symbols, most of which are old and have no basis in reality. Below, we’ll clear up some of the most common ones:

• Favourable symbols are “due” to appear: Slots run on random number generators, which you can’t plead with or persuade. Symbols aren’t due to appear at any given time (regardless of whether you’ve won or lost), so if you notice that you’ve been spending more than you should, take a break. 
• Hot and Cold slots: Under this theory, some slot machines pay often, while others never pay out. This myth gained somewhat of a footing with the rise of RTP trackers on some UK casino sites, but this data is often misinterpreted – it simply points to slots that players have more luck with compared to games nobody plays. 
• Symbols in demo modes reflect the RNG of real money slots: This is largely false for one simple reason – plenty of third-party slot demo sites often tamper with the RNG so that players have a sense they’re winning easily. Real UKGC-licensed casinos aren’t allowed to do this. 

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