Slot machines were once associated with fruit symbols, bars, and bells, but nowadays, the variety of themes and features in modern video slots has led to the introduction of many interesting symbols, often referred to as special symbols. These are various themed images that have different functions in the game – they can substitute for other symbols, trigger free spins or bonus features, and many more.
Before looking into the feature-rich video slots found today online and in land-based casinos, we need to see how it all started. The evolution of slots and their symbols has begun more than a century ago and the slow modernizing of these games laid the foundations of today’s multi-billion gambling industry.
Standard Symbols in Slots
1Playing Card Symbols
Although fruit machines often come up into our mind when thinking about the oldest casino games, they are, in fact, a late development. Gambling started with table games like poker, roulette, and blackjack, while the first gambling machines had more in common with poker than with the modern-day idea of slots.
The first machines, which were popularized in the late 19th century in American bars, had 5 moving reels and card faces as symbols. Players would put a nickel in the small slot for coins, pull the lever, and wait for the reels to show a poker hand – the better the poker hand, the better the prize. Of course, there was no way for these first machines to incorporate an automatic payout mechanism, which is why players received a free drink from the bar owner.
In the coming decades, the machines were improved but the card symbols remained. Even today, many online video slots feature card faces as their low-paying symbols.
2The Liberty Bell Slot Symbols
In 1985, Charles Fey, a car mechanic based in San Francisco, invented the first gaming machine that paid out coins. A few years after that, he invented the Liberty Bell Slot Machine, which became the most popular gaming machine of its time. It had 3 spinning reels and several symbols that were painted on each of them – a diamond, spade, and heart symbol, as well as an image of a cracked Liberty Bell.
The biggest payout was given when three bells appeared in a row and players received 10 nickels as a reward. Soon, these games were installed in many bars across the United States. Fey created several variations of this machine and later, he also invented the first Draw Poker machine.
3Fruit and Bar Symbols
At the beginning of the 20th century, gambling machines were incredibly popular and in 1907, arcade machines manufacturer Herbert Mills came up with the Operator Bell. This machine was almost identical to Fey’s original creation but Mills was the first to add fruit symbols to the game. There were lemons, plums, oranges, and cherries on the machines and they were associated with the different flavors of gum that were offered as a prize.
In addition, the manufacturer added an image of a stick of a Bell-Fruit Gum, which later became known as the Bar symbol. Over the next couple of decades, different combinations of these symbols appeared on slot machines but the most popular images remained the fruits, card faces, the Liberty Bell, the Bar, the Lucky 7, and the Horseshoe.
Watch Why Do Slot Machines Use Fruit Reel Symbols?
The Wild Symbol
In the 1970s, Las Vegas-based firm Fortune Coin Company pioneered the first video slot, which gave rise to multiple developments, including in the symbols that appeared on the reels. One of the first special symbols to be added to the classic slot games was the wild symbol. In can be found in most online slots today, although it comes in different forms and shapes, depending on the theme of the game.
Function
Separate Payout
Variety of WildsFunction
Just like in card games, the wild symbols in slots function as substitutes for other images in winning combinations. This way, they help players complete paying combos more easily. While in most card games, the Jokers come as wild substitutes, slot wilds may be represented as different themed images.
As you can imagine, wilds increase players’ chances of winning, which is why these are the most anticipated symbols on the reels. And the more wilds on the screen, the better. Usually, they cannot replace other special symbols in winning combinations – these include various images that would trigger bonus features, free spins, etc.
Separate Payout
Apart from acting as Jokers, wild symbols might also form winning combinations on their own. In many slots, the top payout is given for three or more wilds that appear on an active payline. Some games even pay for two wilds lining up so players must always check the paytable before they start playing.
Variety of Wilds
Video slots have evolved a lot in the past decade and today, there are many types of wild symbols. They all function as substitutes in combinations but work in slightly different ways – some wilds appear only on particular reels, other wilds may act as both a replacement for other symbols and as bonus symbols.
There are also expanding wilds, which expand to cover an entire reel, sticky wilds, which remain on the reels for several spins, stacked wilds, landing in stacks of several symbols, etc. One of the most interesting types is the so-called walking wilds. They remain on the reels for a few spins but rather than standing on their initial position, they move from one reel to the next, until they finally disappear when reaching the last reel.
The Scatter Symbol
Another special symbol that can be found in many video slots is the scatter. Its name derives from the way it appears on the reels and pays out. Unlike the rest of the slot symbols, the scatters bring a payout even if they do no land on a fixed payline. Depending on the style and theme of the slot, the scatter symbol may be represented by various images.
How Scatters Pay Out
Triggering Free SpinsHow Scatters Pay Out
The best thing about the scatter symbol is the way it pays out. It does not work in the conventional way where you need to get three or more symbols of the same kind on a payline in order to win. With these special symbols, players receive a payout when three, four, or five scatters land anywhere on the reels.
Typically, the scatter payout is lower than that of the wilds or of other high-paying symbols. However, as this symbol does not have to be a part of a payline, it is much easier to hit such a combo. The main function of the scatter, however, is very different from just simply bringing easy payouts. It is usually used to activate a special feature such as a free spins round.
Triggering Free Spins
Whenever three or more scatter images appear anywhere on the reels, they also trigger the main bonus feature of the game. In most slots, this is a free spins feature, which may award players 3, 5, 10, or even more free rounds. These free spins are automatic and at the same bet level as the spin during which they were activated.
In some games, they trigger different types of special features such as bonus games that open in a separate screen and are not played with the original reels. These are often matching games, in which players need to match specific objects, or picking games, where players need to pick symbols and reveal the hidden treasures beneath them. The best scatter symbols are those that can appear and trigger a bonus feature within another feature. In some games, scatters can re-trigger free spins and bonus games indefinitely.
Bonus Symbols and Multipliers
Bonus Symbols
Multipliers
In Bonus Rounds
Many video slots also feature bonus symbols, which once again are different pictures and images, depending on the overall theme of the game. As you can see, they are very similar to the scatters but unlike them, they need to land on a specific payline to activate a bonus game or some other special feature.
In most video slots, bonus symbols do not form separate winning combinations. When three or more of these symbols land on an active payline, they trigger the respective bonus feature. As we have explained above, the mechanics of the bonus games differ significantly from one game to the next. They can also be re-triggered or not.
View more...Multipliers are exciting, yet rare slot symbols and they do exactly what their name suggests – they multiply the winnings from the current round. A symbol that doubles the wins is usually represented as “a 2x multiplier”; if it triples the winnings, it is “a 3x multiplier”, etc. Players can often receive up to a 5x multiplier but some games, the multipliers are up to 15x or even 20x.
Another interesting thing is that while in many slots, regular symbols may appear as multipliers, increasing the respective payout for a certain combination, in others, there are dedicated multipliers or wild multipliers.
View more...When opening a video slot game with plenty of special symbols, players should first take a careful look at its paytable. In many online and land-based slots, there are different special symbols in the bonus games and free spins. For instance, multipliers often appear only during a special feature. In other games, the wilds and scatters are active only in regular rounds and cannot be landed once the special feature has been triggered.
View more...Additional Special Symbols
Expanding Symbols
Exploding Symbols and Cascading Reels
Split Symbols
Symbols with Mixed FunctionExpanding Symbols
The digital nature of modern slots has made it possible for game developers to create various symbols with different functions and advantages. Along with the wilds, scatters, multipliers, and bonus symbols, there may be many other special symbols in slot games. They attract players by making the gameplay much more interesting and offering great chances of winning. One of the symbol types that can be seen right now is the expanding symbols.
The expanding effect was once reserved only for wilds – a wild would land on the reels, expand to two or more positions on the reels, and increasing the potential for winning. However, many software providers have used the same concept with regular symbols or with multipliers and bonus symbols. Players love games with this type of symbol as it always improves the odds.
Exploding Symbols and Cascading Reels
One of the most unique and exciting types of video slots is the cascading slot or the slot with cascading reels, to be more precise. These games do not feature the conventional reel structure where the reels would spin and different symbols would appear at random once the movement stops. In cascading slots, the reels do not spin – instead, the symbols fall from above the reels whenever we click the Spin button.
When the symbols land on a payline or in some other winning pattern (such as a cluster of several identical symbols), they explode, giving way to new symbols to fall from the top of the reel grid and replace them. If the new symbols form a winning combination, they also disappear and are replaced by another set of symbols. The cascading effect could be allowed only once per round but it may also continue until no new combination is hit.
As you can imagine, these types of games could be really spectacular, especially if the cascading reels and exploding symbols are paired with an interesting theme, good payouts, and even more special symbols and bonus features.
Split Symbols
Split symbols are recent and still rare development in the world of online video slots. As their name suggests, they can split into two or even three symbols when they land on the reels. This is an interesting feature that is found only in a handful of games. Whenever it is present, players have the chance to get 15-symbol combinations on a regular 5×3 slot.
While this sounds really great, players should know that the regular payouts in these games are not particularly high. If they are lucky enough to hit a 10 or 15-symbol combo, however, they can expect unusually high jackpot prizes.
Symbols with Mixed Function
Often, players look for modern video slots with a lot of special features and interesting symbols. But playing a feature-rich slot is not a guarantee for winning more frequently. There are many simpler slot games that have just a few symbols but are more profitable – in terms of both RTP and hit frequency.
Classic online slots, for instance, often have several regular symbols plus a single special symbol that has mixed functions – it is often both a multiplier and a wild substitute. In other games, there are scatters that act as both scatter and bonus symbols – they trigger the bonus feature of the game and pay out when three or more scatters land anywhere on the reels. The options here are endless and depend only on developers’ creativity.
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What is the difference between Scatter and Bonus symbols in slots?
Scatter symbols are very similar to Bonus icons in slots as they often have pretty much the same function. When a certain number of Scatters appear anywhere on the reels, they tend to award a special payout and trigger some of the special features of the slot. Typically, Scatter features award free spins but it is possible to unlock different types of bonus games via this special symbol. Scatter payouts are special as they do not require hitting the symbols on a specific payline or formation. Bonus symbols can also unlock different extra functions of slots, improving players’ chances of landing extra payouts. The main difference between Scatters and Bonus symbols is usually that the latter does not offer a special payout and it is rarely capable of triggering the feature by appearing on random reels and positions on the slot’s grid.