Complete Overview of Slot Machine Symbols

As the technology getting more and more advanced day by day, casino software developers are realizing new slots sites on a weekly basis, with improved design and new sophisticated features, which empowers some of you, dear iGaming enthusiasts, to spice up your gameplay. Although the slot is getting more and more advance, their working is still pretty much based on the same types of symbols which all makes things a lot easier for all the new players out there, especially when it comes to understanding how slot machines work.

However, it’s important to acknowledge that there is a number of slot machine symbols and, in this blog, we’ll discuss non-identical slots icons that you are most likely to encounter. Now let’s find out more!

What are the Oldest Slot Machine Symbols?

If we talk about the oldest slot machine symbols, these very often include card symbols in 3 suits – Spades, Hearts, and Diamonds – mainly from 10-card through the ace: ten(10), Jack(J), King(K), Queen(Q), and Ace(A). Now, besides these high-playing card symbols, you’ll very often come up against the lucky number seven on the reels, but we will talk about it a bit later.

Then, there’s a traditional lucky symbol – horseshoe which seems to be one of the oldest and somewhat admired superstition icons, particularly when it comes to playing online slots. And, there’s Liberty Bell, of course. If you are counted as an experienced player, you will surely hear of the first-ever slot’s name was Liberty Bell, so that’s the reason why it became one of the evergreen symbols usually appearing in slot machines.

Fruit machine Symbols, Number 7 and Bubble Gum

Knowing that there are millions of different slots out there, but what the common aspects among all is that they all feature more or less the same reel symbols appearing on all of them. For example, you’ll often come up against these fruit machine symbols such as cherries, bananas, oranges, melons, grapes, and lemons appearing on a 3-reel slot machine, no matter what slot title you wish to play.

After a long-term back in the early 1900s, slot machine producers promoted brand new symbols in the form of colorful fruits and bubble gums. One of the prime slot manufacturers, Bell-Fruit Gum Company, even added its logo as the symbols appearing on the reels. The logo slowly became the slot machine bar symbol, the one that we are used to spotting today, who would have believed it derived from the company’s logo?

Yet another popular symbol, the lucky number 7, found its space on the reels of slot machines. It’s no wonder, it becomes a natural fit, as the number 7 is the synonym for prosperity and delight, all over the world.

How Many Symbols Are on a Slot Machine Reel?

Now you must be thinking exactly how many symbols actually exist on a slot machine reel. With a classic 3-reel slot, there are a total of 60 symbols (20x20x20) – usually, that’s 20 symbols per reel, which means that more than 8000 combinations grab a jackpot.

However, when it comes to modern electronic games, things get a bit complicated. The reel composition is no longer initiated by your exact odds of winning. Instead, it’s all up to a complex RNG hidden deep inside every machine.

Slot Symbols Classifications

Now we are all awake to the fact that there is a deep ocean of slot symbols, but there are also different types of slot symbols, with 3 crucial ones – standard, wild and scatter symbols. Let’s find out the main difference between them, because landing certain combinations of these slot symbols, can trigger many different features that will increase your payout every time it happens.

Standard Symbols

Now, what’s the major aspect to talk about the standard symbol is that they don’t have any special function but to pay out a certain amount of money when they appear in a row, on an active payline. In short, if somehow you manage to land at least three matching symbols on an active payline, you’ll hit a winning combo and receive a corresponding prize.

Wild Symbols

Now, Wild symbols are the most important ones, as they can add as a substitute for any other symbol in a slot. Just like the joker card functions. So, once you land them on the reels, they will act as a substitute for any other symbol, with the exception of the scatter and bonus symbols, as the wild card cannot act like their replacement. However, some special types of wild symbols also exist such as Expanding Wilds, Sticky Wilds, Stacked Wilds, Walking Wilds, Shifting Wilds, and Transferring Wilds.

It’s easy to spot Expanding Wild symbols as they are the ones that can frequently occur on any reel position and, once they do, they can expand upwards and downwards and occasionally from side to side, from time to time even diagonally. To be precise, they help you in forming more winning combinations, turning any adjacent reel positioned icon next to them into the Wild one.

Stacked Wild symbols are stacked on top of each other. As you’ve spotted, none of these wild symbols are the same, they all differ from others – they occur randomly, replacing regular casino symbols to help you score better results. While Sticky Wild symbols get stuck on the reels and usually give you another spin. Plus there are Soaring Wild symbols, Random Wild Symbols, or Floating Wild symbols.

Scatter Symbols

Everyone’s favorites – Scatter Symbol – usually function to trigger Free Spins or a Bonus Game feature, every time you land the needed number of scatters on an active payline. In many slots, these features will require landing at least 2 scatters, while others may require 3. Either way, they will activate Free Spins rounds which can be highly beneficial to you.

For example – if you land 3 scatters simultaneously – you’ll activate 5 Free Spins. Landing 4 of them will trigger 10 Free Spin rounds, whereas landing 5 scatters will initiate 15 Free Spins. Sometimes scatter symbols activate free spins that come with a multiplier.

Bonus Symbols

As the name suggests, Bonus Symbols functions to trigger various bonus games. In other words, they are like scatter symbols, because you often need to land at least 3 of them on the reels simultaneously before they activate the bonus round. Meaning you will have to land them on consecutive reels and, of course, they have to occur on an active payline only.

Multiplier Symbols

Last but not least are Multiplier symbols. Now, multiplier function as their name implies – they multiply your wins. They land on the reels carrying special symbols indicating the value of their multiplier bonus, but what they usually perform is, increases the size of your payouts. However, the more valuable multipliers can also be the wild cards, or the free spins feature, activated by scatters.