Terms Used in Online Slot Games

Many players like to read reviews of the latest slot games on different sites which often use terms that may not be clear to everyone. Therefore, it is worth to get familiar with the terms used in online slot machines. Very often players may encounter terms like:

• 243 Ways to Win – Some slot games have a different system for calculating winning hands than pay lines. In such cases, the symbols do not have to be arranged along predetermined lines on the reels, but it is enough that they appear at all on the playing field. For example, three symbols will give a paid system if each of them appears in any position on the first, second, and third drums. Why 243 ways? We have 3 symbols on each drum. With two reels, all symbol combinations give us the number 9 (3 × 3). If we add a third drum, there will be 27 (3x3x3) combinations. So with five reels, counting 3x3x3x3x3 we get the number 243. A good example of a slot machine with 243 ways to win is the game Immortal Romance.
• 3D Video Slot – This is a slot game with the highest quality graphics and three-dimensional animation. The graphics give the impression of three-dimensional depth and animated symbols or characters appear on the playing field every time we hit a winning system. An example of such a 3D slot might be Jungle Books.
• Active pay line – Depending on the type of game, the slot machine can have from 1 to 99 pay lines. Paid lines are the ones on which we must hit the same symbols to get the win. In slot machines we have the ability to decide how many pay lines we want to activate, paying the appropriate rate for each. We will receive the prize when the winning system is on an active pay line. Inactive lines, i.e. unpaid, will not be taken into account when calculating our winnings, even if we find a winning hand.
• Drums, reels– These are vertical columns with “spinning” symbols in the slot machine playfield. Typically, video slots have 5 reels, while classic slots only three.
• Winning frequency – It determines how often we can expect our slot machine to reward us with a winning hand. Usually, these are numbers presented in percent, so if we read that the frequency of winning on a given slot is 30%, it means that throughout the game time about 1/3 of our spins will be rewarded with a paid hand. The only thing is that we do not know and we can not determine anywhere how long our game will be taken into account.
• Free spins – This is a type of bonus game found in many slot games. Free spins are the ones that we don’t have to pay for. Most often we activate them by hitting 3 or more special symbols called Scatters. Usually, we get from 5 to 25 free spins in the game.
• Multiplier – This is the number by which our winning combination will be multiplied. So if, for example, we have won 20 coins and the active multiplier is x5, then our win will be 100 coins. The multiplier can be obtained randomly (as in the game Subtopia, for example) or as a reward for hitting a specific symbol on the reels, usually Wild, which multiplies the winnings on a given line (as in the game Avalon).