Online Pokies Features Explained: Symbols, Reels, Jackpots and More
Pokie features aren’t just bells and whistles—they’re your secret weapons for smarter, more exciting gameplay. From boosting your wins with wilds to unlocking thrilling bonus rounds, these features can make or break your gaming experience.
If you’re new to online pokies, understanding the features can feel overwhelming—let alone figuring out how to use them to boost your chances of winning or find games that match your style.
That’s why our team of experts is here to break it all down. From wild symbols and scatters to free spins, random jackpots, and beyond, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s get started.
What Are The Most Popular Online Slots Features?
When you play online pokies, you’ll notice a heap of exciting features designed to make gameplay more thrilling and boost your chances of winning. These features aren’t just there to look pretty—they add depth and variety, keeping you engaged spin after spin.
From wilds and scatters to free spins and jackpot triggers, pokie features are special elements or mechanisms within the game. They can unlock massive multipliers, interactive mini-games, or even life-changing progressive jackpots.
Here’s a quick look at some of the most common pokie features you’ll encounter:
- Wild Features
- Scatter Features and Bonus Triggers
- Reel Features
- Free Spins / Bonus Features
- Jackpot Features
- Gamble Features
Additionally, free pokies games are often part of no deposit bonuses, allowing players to enjoy games without financial commitment.
Below, we’ll break each one down to show how they work and why they’re worth keeping an eye on.
Wild Features
Wild features are the Swiss Army knives of pokies, stepping in to enhance gameplay and boost your chances of winning. At their core, wild symbols substitute for most other symbols (except scatters or bonus icons), helping to complete winning paylines. Picture this: you’re one symbol short of a payout, and a wild lands just where you need it—boom, that win is yours.
Wilds aren’t just functional—they’re visually distinctive. Whether it’s a glowing star, a golden coin, or a treasure chest, you’ll always know when a wild is in play.
Some wilds go beyond substitution, offering additional perks like multiplying payouts, covering entire reels, or sticking around for multiple spins. These added features make wilds a cornerstone of pokie gameplay, creating or enhancing winning combinations you wouldn’t otherwise hit.
Now let’s dive into the different types of wilds and how they take the excitement to the next level.
Expanding Wilds
- What It Is: A wild symbol that starts small but grows to cover an entire reel, creating multiple winning opportunities across all paylines it touches.
- Why It Matters: Expanding wilds supercharge your gameplay by turning a single reel into a powerhouse of winning combinations. They’re especially impactful during bonus rounds, where they can appear more frequently or stay locked in place.
- Game to Try: Starburst by NetEnt—this iconic game features expanding wilds that trigger free respins, combining stunning visuals with the chance for consecutive wins on every spin. One player reportedly scored over $25,000 in a single bonus round thanks to this feature, highlighting its massive potential.
Expanding wilds are where the magic happens. These special symbols start as a single wild and then stretch to cover an entire reel, creating multiple winning opportunities in a single spin. Imagine a wild landing on the center reel, then growing to fill all its spaces—suddenly, every payline running through that reel lights up with potential.
This feature often comes with eye-catching animations, like glowing symbols or dramatic transformations, making it easy to spot during gameplay. Real money online pokies often feature expanding wilds, contributing to their popularity among players looking for high RTP and innovative gameplay. Want to see these wilds in action? [Check out our full guide to expanding wilds here.]
Sticky Wilds
What It Is: A wild symbol that locks in place for multiple spins, giving you repeated opportunities to form winning combinations.
Why It Matters: Sticky wilds are game-changers during free spins or bonus rounds, where they can build up over several turns, creating massive win potential.
Game to Try: Dead or Alive 2 by NetEnt—this high-volatility game features sticky wilds that can fill entire reels during free spins, unlocking legendary payouts of up to 100,000x your bet.
Sticky wilds are a fan-favourite for a reason—they stick around, literally. Once they land, they remain locked in place for a predetermined number of spins, keeping your winning chances alive. Picture this: a sticky wild lands on your first spin and stays put for three more, while other symbols continue to spin into place. The result? More winning combinations and a nail-biting buildup to a potential big payout.
These wilds often come with visually striking effects, like glowing icons or animated locking mechanisms. To see sticky wilds at their best, dive into Dead or Alive 2, where they’re the secret to unlocking massive rewards. Curious about how to maximise your wins with sticky wilds? [Explore our full guide here.]
Walking Wilds
What It Is: A wild symbol that moves across the reels one step at a time with each spin, keeping its payout potential alive for multiple rounds.
Why It Matters: Walking wilds stretch the excitement by lingering on the reels, increasing your chances of hitting big wins across several spins.
Game to Try: Jack and the Beanstalk by NetEnt—walking wilds in this game climb their way across the reels, offering high-paying opportunities and immersive gameplay.
Walking wilds, also known as shifting wilds, bring a dynamic twist to pokie gameplay. These wilds don’t just land—they move. After appearing on the reels, they shift one position with each spin, sticking around for several turns. Imagine a walking wild landing on reel five and making its way left, creating new winning combinations as it goes.
Often paired with bonus features or free spins, walking wilds add a layer of suspense and anticipation to every spin. Jack and the Beanstalk is a perfect example, where walking wilds play a central role in the game’s story and payouts. Want to see how walking wilds can transform your spins? [Read more in our detailed guide.]
Random Wilds
What It Is: Wild symbols that appear unpredictably during gameplay, often triggered by surprise features or bonuses.
Why It Matters: Random wilds inject spontaneity into your game, turning ordinary spins into thrilling opportunities for unexpected wins.
Game to Try: Reactoonz 2 by Play’n GO—random wilds are a key feature here, creating unpredictable yet electrifying win sequences.
True to their name, random wilds can appear out of nowhere, instantly changing the course of your game. One moment, your spin looks like a dud, and the next, a wild or cluster of wilds lands to create multiple winning paylines. Random wilds are the most common types of wilds found in pokies.
Random wilds often come with dramatic animations, like bursts of light or symbols dropping in unexpectedly. In Reactoonz 2, these wilds are tied to the game’s electric energy system, delivering chain reactions that can lead to big wins. Ready to embrace the chaos of random wilds? [Check out our full breakdown.]
Stacked Wilds
- What It Is: Multiple wild symbols stacked vertically on a single reel, often covering it entirely.
- Why It Matters: Stacked wilds create winning combinations across multiple paylines, significantly boosting payouts.
- Game to Try: Wolf Gold by Pragmatic Play—stacked wilds dominate the reels, leading to frequent wins during the base game and free spins.
Stacked wilds appear as a column of wilds that cover multiple positions on a single reel. These symbols create winning combinations across multiple paylines, making them incredibly valuable. Stacked wilds are particularly impactful during free spin rounds, when an entire reel becomes a stacked wild, the payout potential skyrockets, especially during bonus rounds.
Multiplier Wilds
What It Is: Wild symbols that not only substitute for others but also multiply your payouts, sometimes stacking for even bigger rewards.
Why It Matters: Multiplier wilds can turn small wins into massive payouts, making them a must-watch feature for players chasing high returns.
Game to Try: Buffalo King Megaways™ by Pragmatic Play—this game’s multiplier wilds can stack during free spins, delivering staggering payouts of up to 5,000x your bet.
Multiplier wilds take the utility of standard wilds and dial it up. These symbols not only help complete paylines but also multiply your winnings, often by 2x, 3x, or more. And when multiple multiplier wilds appear in the same spin, their effects can stack, turning modest wins into truly monumental payouts.
In Buffalo King Megaways™, for example, multiplier wilds are central to the free spins feature, where stacking multipliers create jaw-dropping win potential. Want to learn how to leverage multiplier wilds for maximum impact? [Explore our guide for all the tips and tricks.]
Scatter and Bonus Trigger Features
Scatter, multiplier and bonus symbols are some of the most exciting features in pokies, and while they may seem similar, they play distinct roles. Scatters trigger features like free spins no matter where they land, while bonus symbols unlock unique mini-games or gameplay modes but often have stricter placement rules. Both are essential for keeping the action fresh and unlocking big wins.
Scatter Symbols
Scatters are all about freedom—they don’t need to follow paylines to trigger their features. When you land enough scatters—usually three or more—they unlock free spins or other rewards, even if they’re scattered across the reels. You’ll often find scatter symbols designed to stand out, like glowing books in Book of Dead or shimmering stars in Starburst.
For example, in Book of Dead by Play’n GO, landing three scatter symbols anywhere on the reels triggers 10 free spins. During these spins, one symbol expands to cover entire reels, creating massive win opportunities. Scatters are also more likely to appear in bonus rounds, making free spins even more rewarding.
Bonus Symbols
Bonus symbols, on the other hand, act as gateways to more interactive gameplay. Unlike scatters, bonus symbols often need to land on specific reels or paylines to activate their features. These features can include pick-and-win games, jackpot triggers, or cascading reel bonuses.
For instance, in Gonzo’s Quest by NetEnt, landing bonus symbols on the correct reels activates the Avalanche feature, where cascading wins and growing multipliers can lead to huge payouts. Bonus symbols are usually distinct, such as golden masks or treasure chests, making them easy to spot during spins.
Multipliers
Multipliers are the cherry on top, enhancing any winnings by doubling, tripling, or multiplying payouts even further. They can be tied to scatter-triggered free spins or bonus features, where they stack or grow with consecutive wins.
Take Gonzo’s Quest Megaways™, for example. During the free spins round, multipliers increase with each cascading win, turning small payouts into huge rewards. These features are often tied to specific mechanics, so knowing when and how they appear can help you maximise your wins.
Reel Features
Reels are more than just placeholders for symbols. Depending on your pokie of choice, they can be instrumental in creating combinations and cashing in big wins.
Once upon a time, reels remained stationary, but today you can manipulate reels in many of the top online pokies games to maximise your chances of winning.
Cascading Reels
With cascading reels, the reels remain fixed as symbols drop from the top of the screen. They form winning pay lines as they land before disappearing and making way for additional symbols to make their way to the pile.
Think of this like the Candy Crush Saga, but for video slots, every time a winning combination is made, the connecting symbols are spent and make way for fresh symbols. The combinations can be never-ending, with countless pay lines created from a single spin.
Reel Respins
Reel re-spins give you a second chance at a potential win when playing online pokies, thanks to a replay-at-a-price option.
Unlike some innovative reel games, the standard game is played exactly as you may expect, matching symbols and creating combinations of pay lines from left to right.
However, at the end of each spin, you’re given the option to spin single reels, keeping the others locked into place.
You can choose as many re-spins as you like from the symbols on the screen, but it does come with a catch!
Each re-spin comes at a price determined by the slot machines and the symbols on show at the time of play. Based on our experience, there's usually a decent chance of a large payout, but expect to pay a premium for giving it a shot to win real money.
Rotating Reels
The rotating reel feature is more commonly associated with bonus rounds than typical play.
The bonus will play out exactly like any traditional slot as you try to create pay-line combinations from left to right.
However, when the rotating reels are triggered, you’ll see a total of four 90-degree rotations with a payout for the pay-line combinations at each angle.
This gives you the benefits of a 4x multiplier thanks to the rotating reels shaking up the situation and finding more winnings for players.
Tumbling Reels
Tumbling reels come out of the BetSoft and IGT development labs.
Sugar Pop is perhaps the best-known example of tumbling reels and, like the cascading reel design, is undoubtedly influenced by the popularity of the mobile game “Candy Crush Saga”.
The design allows for both vertical and horizontal pay lines, much like the mobile game functions.
Wild Reels
A wild reel is the name given when an entire reel is given the wild treatment.
The wild symbols will stack one on top of the other to cover the entire reel rather than a single portion of one or multiple reels.
This lets you make combinations of pay lines across all lines, not just with a single symbol.
Free Spins and Bonuses
When it comes to pokies, free spins and bonus rounds are the features every player dreams of. Why? Because they crank up the excitement and give you a chance to win big—without spending a single extra credit. Let’s break them down.
Free Spins
Free spins are exactly what they sound like—spins where you don’t have to bet your own money. These spins are triggered in several ways:
- Landing at least three scatter symbols anywhere on the reels (scatter placement doesn’t matter).
- Hitting a random free spin trigger during regular gameplay.
- Collecting special symbols over several spins to unlock them.
Once triggered, you’ll get a set number of free spins—typically 10, 20, or more—depending on the game. Some pokies, like Bonanza Megaways™, even let you collect additional spins or choose between fewer spins with higher multipliers and more spins with smaller multipliers.
During free spins, other features like wilds or multipliers often come into play. For example, in Gonzo’s Quest Megaways™, cascading wins during free spins increase a multiplier with every drop, turning small wins into massive payouts.
Imagine a single free spin turning into a jackpot-sized win—now that’s worth chasing.
Bonus Games Features
Bonus rounds take you beyond the standard reels, adding variety and excitement to your gameplay.
These features are usually triggered by bonus symbols, which often need to land on specific reels (like 1, 3, and 5) or in a specific pattern.
Once activated, bonus rounds can take many forms, including:
- Pick-and-Win Games: Select items to reveal prizes, like in Immortal Romance.
- Trail Bonuses: Follow a path to win rewards, like in Rainbow Riches.
- Interactive Adventures: Games like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Megaways™ mimic the TV show’s excitement, letting you climb a prize ladder through skill and luck.
Bonus rounds often come with bigger payouts and unique mechanics, so they’re always worth chasing.
For example, in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Megaways™, the bonus round lets you climb a prize ladder with a mix of skill and luck, mimicking the TV show’s nail-biting tension. Bonus rounds can also involve trail games, combat rounds, or interactive mini-games that feel like a whole different game within the pokie itself.
Randomly Appearing Features
Not every win in pokies comes from lining up symbols—some features are designed to surprise you! Randomly appearing features can activate at any moment, adding an unexpected boost to your gameplay.
Here’s how they work:
- Rewards at Random: Some games will gift cash prizes, multipliers, or bonus rounds at completely random intervals. Imagine spinning and suddenly receiving a surprise reward—no symbols required!
- Mystery Prizes: In some pokies, these features let you pick from a set of hidden prizes, like cash rewards, free spins, or multipliers.
- Re-Spins: Other games offer random re-spins to give you another chance at a win, often tied to features like sticky or walking wilds.
For example, in Reactoonz 2 by Play’n GO, random wilds and cascading wins can appear unpredictably, creating exciting chain reactions. These features keep every spin fresh and full of possibilities, even when you’re not expecting it.
Jackpots
Jackpot pokies are one of the most popular types of pokies, because they can give you access to a large pot of cash!
Based on our experience, we think there are three main categories that every player should know about.
Progressive Jackpots
A progressive jackpot works kind of like a lottery, with a small percentage of each wager used to fund the prize pool across multiple casinos.
These progressive jackpots get bigger as more people play, letting one lucky player potentially win a multimillion-dollar fortune!
Fixed Coin Jackpots
A fixed coin jackpot is a jackpot with a fixed value attached. This can range from small to life-changing values, depending on the game.
Daily Jackpots
Daily jackpot pokies are the most recent invention in the jackpot world. They showcase time-sensitive jackpots designed to dish out a determined amount of cash.
Introduced originally by Red Tiger Gaming, the time-sensitive jackpots often feature promotions such as “must be won before a specific date”.
These can be great because you know exactly how much is up for grabs and when the amount will be dished out.
Gamble Features
A gamble feature is a special bonus game found when you play real money pokies. At most online casino sites, it’s offered after a winning spin. It’s optional - giving you the chance to gamble your winnings.
Usually, you’ll get a 50/50 choice on a random outcome, like flipping a coin or rolling a dice. If you guess correctly, your winnings double. If you’re wrong, you lose all the winnings from that spin.
Although they can be exciting, in our experience, they’re not always worth the risk if you’ve won big. But for small wins, they can be a great option, depending on your risk appetite.
Types of Gamble Features
The gamble feature is a bonus game in many real money pokies, letting you risk your winnings for the chance to double—or even quadruple—your payout. It’s completely optional and usually pops up after a winning spin.
- Standard Gamble: Double your winnings with a coin toss or card colour guess.
- Suit Gamble: Take it up a notch by guessing the exact suit to quadruple your payout.
- Partial Gamble: Some pokies let you risk only part of your winnings, so you keep a portion no matter what.
Conclusion
With so many online pokies games to choose from, in our experience, it’s wise to play the best online pokies Australia has to offer so that you receive the best features to boost your chances of winning.
Maximising features to your advantage can make a big difference in not only how much you can win, but also how long you can keep playing to enjoy the thrill of playing online pokies at some of the best online casinos worldwide.
Understanding how they work and what to watch out for can help enhance your gaming experience the next time you visit an online casino. Letting you find the best pokies to play for real money.
Good luck!
Ryan is our resident pokies expert. Not only does he provide readers with the latest insights, innovations and technology news related to pokies, but he also knows all there is to know about pokies game developers.
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