Wild Symbols & Scatter Symbols in Online Casinos
Before the dawn of the 20th century, there used to be fruit machines. Gambling and risking a chance to win some more money has always kept humankind busy. These fruit machines were the predecessor of today’s pokies, in some sense. The reward was cherries or melons depending on the winning fruit symbols that they would hit.
But time slowly changed when people started following queues and working their way on a handle that rolled three reels. The player only needed to focus on matching three symbols while the pokie will pay out whenever a match is made. The rewards differ for different signs, of course. This was the modernized predecessor of today’s online pokies. These were called one-arm bandits because of their very nature of stealing the money from the players with just one arm. They always ended up taking more than they paid to the winner and thus gaining the famous brand as we know today.
Years have passed since then, and the slots have become smarter. The industry grew exponentially with new kind of games, strategies, and cross-strategies to defeat the player. On the other hand, players got to play with more reels, more symbols, and legalized fair gameplay. When casinos took over, they had all these pokies too. They introduced special symbols that meant special things, rather than their normal meanings. There were icons that meant something. They started doing all sorts of clever things to make the game more interesting and fun. And, you know what? People loved it.
Special Pokie Symbols That Stood Out
Today’s modern day pokies, whether online or offline, have amazing special signs, scatter symbols altering the way these slot machines started with just cherries and melons. All was done to make the games relevant with time, interesting with age. The wild and scatter symbols are by far the ones that stood the test of time, and that is the topic of today’s article.
They are also the most common type of signs gamblers come across irrespective of their gameplay. And, in order to get the huge wins, these have to appear in the right sequence and follow the rules of the game.
Taking a Look at Wild Symbols
Let us start with one category, called the wild symbols. Today these pokies have become such a commonplace that it is impossible to imagine a time when there were simply fruits hanging all around. They are the icon of a slot machine today.
To identify symbols as “wild” you need to pay attention to specific things. There are many symbols. Some come with the name “WILD” appearing on them. But these days’ designers are getting smarter. So some wild symbols are identified because of their connection to the gameplay theme in a certain manner.
Their job is to swap with regular symbols as soon as they appear on a reel. And, your job as a player is to make a winning match using these wild symbols. As soon as it pops up on the reels, it triggers a winning combination. And, this means that it brings people some bonus over their cash prize.
But, at the same time, a wild symbol has to be different from normal symbols. It must not be mistaken for simple bonus cash or scatter symbol. It brings boosted cash, for sure, but both these are different in the slot dictionary.
The wild symbols have the ability to replace all or the majority of the symbols. They can often trigger new lines of winning combination that was otherwise not possible. By replacing other symbols, they can introduce new chances of winning. They replace the symbols on the reel when they appear. For example, some slot machines introduce “Wild symbols” that even replace “Jackpot symbols”. They substitute them as an order of preference.
The simplest type of wild symbols is “Regular Wild Symbols” that always cover or substitute only one other symbol on the reel. Some other types of wild symbols you can pay attention to are Locked, Split, Magnetic Wild, Frozen and such things. Your game developer is the hand behind all these adventurous designs.
They are not a bonus, as we mentioned. And, now you understand the reason. It is possible that wild symbols can combine to form their own winning combination and give any rewards to players. So, always keep an eye on these, especially locations where you can play 24×7. Once you find some favorite titles, just stick to them.
Other forms in which you can find these wilds are Shifting Wilds, Expanding Wilds or Sticky Wilds. As you can understand, they all act in some crazy way different from the others. Meaning, they have their own special benefits, if you are lucky to find them on your reel.
Now, a Bit about Scatters
Having talked a lot of wild symbols, you can understand the role of scatter symbols too. This is the most powerful of the symbols that can appear on your reel. You must always keep an eye on them. Just remember, they can be active even when they have not yet appeared on your reel. With thousands of slot machines, there is a variety of “scatters” you can find.
The majority are designed in a way to pay out a fixed reward. You can discover sometimes more than one, and at times, three or four of them on your reel. Since they are so powerful, they are also often used to unlock special rewards and benefits just like in a game. These are worked together with bonus symbols.
At times, these scatters will need to appear only on a special reel. And, when a bonus symbol arrives, it is multiplied to boost it. If one reel has a scatter sign, the bonus symbol must land on the other two, and you have a combination for a huge win. A variety of games are developed, they come with different kind of bonus rounds that pay differently and are triggered differently. The above was just a simple example, to convey this item.
Secondly recognizing scatters is actually easy. The more you have the better your chance of taking home a reward. These days’ online casino game developers and online game developers are hugely taking advantage of this concept to make their games more rewarding, unpredictable and engaging. The idea is to stick as long as possible.
