Innovation is key to keeping anything from going stale and slot games are no different. Slots can give players the chance to win big money and offer hours of thrills, but that doesn’t mean that players won’t start to get tired of playing the same old games all the time. Because of this, slot developers have had to get creative and produce a range of different slot game types to keep players on their toes.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at all the different types of slot you’ll find yourself faced with while playing at the casino. Each variant has its own small tweaks which create a fresher game, but also have the added consequence of adding some additional confusion. It’s always best to read any instructions before playing a game you don’t understand, but these are the most popular slot variations you’ll face, just to give you that extra boost of confidence.
Standard Slots
These are the most common form of slots that any person who’s ever visited a casino will recognize straight away. The common slot will usually just be a number of reels that are covered with symbols. The number of reels is usually five, with each one showing 3 symbols at a time, but slots can vary in their layout. The basic principle will always be the same however.
Players will spin the symbol covered reels and when they stop, they slot will be filled randomly with symbols. Slot wins are counted using either paylines or adjacently. If enough symbols fall along a payline, which is just a pre-selected line along the reels, then they’ll get a payout. Alternatively, if players manage to land enough symbols adjacent to one another, then they can also win that way as well.
How wins are selected depends on the slot. The general rule is that slots which use adjacent wins offer more ways to win than a payline slot overall, but it’s more unlikely for matching symbols to land adjacently to one another, so the chances of winning even themselves out. But even with this simple setup, a slot can still be switched up a lot to vary its gameplay wildly. The next common variant to the slots comes in the form of…
Avalanche Slots
Avalanche slots were the slot lover’s dream when they first started becoming popular. There are a healthy selection of avalanche slots available to play, so players should have no trouble finding their new favourites. Avalanche slots are so loved, because they allow for combo wins. They work in much the same way as standard slots, with symbols being spun onto the reels, and then winning based on if they are connected by paylines.
The difference is that any symbols which are part of a winning line are then removed from the slot. This causes any symbols above these new holes in the reels to drop in and fill any gaps. Further symbols will then be added to the slot to completely fill the reels with slots once more. If there are any wins from this second round of symbols, then the process repeats again and only stops once no new winning paylines have been made.
After this has ended, the slot then spins again as normal, removing all the old symbols and refilling the reels with an all new set of symbols. These respins are free, so just from one winning payline, players are given the chance to combo their wins and greatly increase their payout, without paying any additional wager.
Grid Slots
Grid slots are similar to avalanche slots in the sense that any winning lines of symbols will cause those symbols to be removed from the slot, allowing any symbols above to drop in to fill the newly created gaps. One difference with grid slots is that they don’t have the same shape as regular slots. Instead, grid slots are usually square in shape. They also don’t have reels, with symbols instead dropping in from the top, in much the same way that a game of Tetris fills its grid with Tetris pieces.
Probably the biggest difference with grid slots compared to other slot forms, is that grid slots don’t refill their symbols when winning symbols get removed. Instead symbols from above will drop in to fill any gaps and your combo will only last as long as there are symbols available to drop in. This is the reason why grid slots are taller than regular slots, since this increased verticality allows for more symbols to be able to drop in.
Grid slots also don’t use paylines, but instead they work out wins based on if symbols are in a straight line and adjacent to each other. If symbols of the same kind can’t be lined up either horizontally, vertically or diagonally, then you won’t get a winning line and therefore your chances of a combo are extinguished.
Cluster Slots
Cluster slots are by far the rarest slot types players will come into contact with, but they have made an increasing appearance on the casino floor in recent years, so that obscurity might be a temporary thing. Cluster slots are simple to understand as they basically forgo paylines altogether.
Symbols are instead counted in clusters. If enough symbols are adjacent to one another, then it will count as a win. The more symbols that are clustered together, the higher the payout. The slot helps you along with your wins, as multiple symbols of the same kind will spin onto the reels in groups, therefore making clusters more likely to happen. From there, all you can do is wait for a couple of reels to spin the same symbols and bring on a big cluster win.
