What Are Infinity Reels? How the Slot Mechanic Works

Most slots hand you a fixed set of reels and that is that. Infinity Reels does something else: the grid actually grows while you play.

In ReelPlay’s original Infinity Reels implementation, a win that involves the rightmost reel adds a new reel to the right edge. Keep the qualifying chain going and the grid keeps expanding.

Below we cover how it works, which bits are specific to individual games rather than the rule everywhere, and which expanding-reel titles you can play online.

We also set it against Pays Anywhere, because these two get confused constantly.

How Infinity Reels Works

The expansion is the whole thing. In ReelPlay’s original implementation, a qualifying win involving the rightmost reel adds a new reel and continues the sequence. Other expanding-reel games can use different triggers or reset rules, so check the specific paytable.

Starting grids are not standard, by the way. Some titles open on a small three-reel layout, others start wider. Check the game rather than assuming.

In ReelPlay’s original version, every new reel adds +1 to the multiplier. Four reels deep and you are applying 4x to everything that chain produces.

That is specific to that version though, not a rule across every expanding-reel game. Plenty handle multipliers differently, or skip them entirely. The paytable will tell you.

In ReelPlay’s original version, regular symbol wins can start the expansion without a scatter or separate bonus trigger. That is an implementation detail rather than a rule for every expanding-reel game.

The name comes from that original ReelPlay version, where the number of reels you can add is uncapped. Not every expanding-reel game plays it that way. Some cap the expansions, so check whether yours has a ceiling.

One thing to understand: the big payouts here come from long chains, not single spins. Volatility itself is set per game rather than by the mechanic, so check the rating on whatever title you pick instead of assuming.

Infinity Reels sits alongside other slot machine features with their own game-specific rules.

Expanding-Reel Games at SlotsLV

Infinity Reels is a branded mechanic, and the officially licensed games are a small club. What you will find much more of is the wider family of expanding-reel games, where the playing area grows as you go. Three at SlotsLV are worth your time.

Wynloch Keep

A fantasy game where the grid opens up as the round develops. The board you finish on is nothing like the one you started with, and the expansion is the point of the game rather than a bonus bolted on the side.

Fairytale Fortunes: Jack and the Giants

Takes the beanstalk idea literally and grows the playing area upward and outward as the feature runs. As always, triggers and maximum grid size are set by the game, not the format, so have a read of the paytable first.

Tiki Towers

A stacked, tower-style layout where the reels build as you go. Looks completely different to the other two, but the idea underneath is identical: finish bigger than you started.

Pays Anywhere: A Format Infinity Reels Is Often Confused With

These two get lumped together because neither uses fixed paylines. That is where the similarity ends.

In a Pays Anywhere game, matching symbols pay when enough of them land anywhere on the grid. No path to follow, no adjacency needed. Top-left corner and bottom-right corner? Both count toward the same win.

Crucially, grid expansion is not part of the Pays Anywhere win mechanic itself. A game can still combine Pays Anywhere with other features, so check the title rather than treating a fixed grid as a universal rule.

This is the point most often confused, so it is worth stating plainly: cluster pays requires symbols to be adjacent, touching each other on the grid. Pays Anywhere does not. Two mechanics that sound similar behave completely differently.

The win threshold varies between games. Some Pays Anywhere titles pay from a small number of matching symbols, while others set a higher minimum. The exact threshold and pay schedule are game-specific and listed in the paytable.

• Grill and Chill from Gameart runs at 96.48% RTP with a 15,000x max win across 117,649 ways.
• Cosmic Fruits 2 from Wingo carries a 97.17% RTP and a 5,000x ceiling with a cascade feature, and its confirmed volatility is very high.

Same broad mechanic, very different session profiles.

Infinity Reels vs. Pays Anywhere

Set against each other, the distinction is clear: one changes the size of the grid as you play, the other changes how wins are read on a grid that never moves.

	Infinity Reels	Pays Anywhere
Grid structure	Expands rightward as a win chain continues. Starting size and whether expansion is capped both vary by game	Pays Anywhere does not require grid expansion; the layout is set by the individual game and may be combined with other mechanics
Win evaluation	Win evaluation is game-specific. ReelPlay’s original implementation uses qualifying wins that include the rightmost reel to continue the chain	No paylines. Wins form on the total count of matching symbols anywhere on the grid
Expansion mechanic	In ReelPlay’s original version, qualifying wins add a reel and +1 to the multiplier. Other expanding-reel games can use different triggers, multipliers or reset rules	No expansion rule is inherent to Pays Anywhere; the key variable is how many matching symbols land and what the game requires for a win
Volatility	Set per game, not by the format. Check the confirmed rating for the specific title	Set per game. Cosmic Fruits 2 is confirmed very high, so do not assume the format sets the profile
Best for	Players who enjoy watching a win chain build across consecutive results	Players who want a simple visual read with no paylines to track

In practical terms, Infinity Reels suits players who enjoy building win chains and watching a grid grow, while Pays Anywhere suits players who want to see at a glance whether a spin has paid without tracing lines.

Neither format sets its own volatility: that comes from each game’s individual maths, so check the confirmed volatility rating rather than inferring it from the mechanic.

What These Mechanics Change About a Session

Both formats alter something a payline slot keeps constant, and the practical effect is worth understanding before you choose one.

With Infinity Reels the variable is the grid itself. Every qualifying win makes the board bigger, so your session becomes a run of chains. All the tension sits in whether this one keeps going, which feels nothing like waiting on a scatter.

With Pays Anywhere the variable is how you read the result. No lines to trace, just symbols to count. You can see whether a spin paid at a glance, which suits anyone who finds payline diagrams more trouble than they are worth.

Neither one changes RTP, by the way. They are both just ways of deciding what counts as a win, and the return figure already accounts for that. Look at Grill and Chill at 96.48% against Cosmic Fruits 2 at 97.17%. Same format, very different returns. The format is not doing the work.

What to Check Before Playing Either Mechanic

• For Infinity Reels: confirm whether a +1 multiplier applies at all, since it is specific to ReelPlay’s implementation rather than universal across expanding-grid games.
• Also for Infinity Reels: check the starting reel and row count, whether the number of expansions is capped, and how many respins each expansion gives you. All three vary between titles.
• For Pays Anywhere: check the minimum symbol count for a win and whether a scatter is needed to activate the structure. The pay schedule for each symbol count is in the paytable.

For both, the paytable is the last word. Triggers, thresholds, pay schedules, all of it sits there for the specific game in front of you. No general guide can beat that.

More About Infinity Reels Slots

What are Infinity Reels in slots?

In ReelPlay’s original Infinity Reels implementation, qualifying wins involving the rightmost reel add a new reel and continue the sequence. Starting grid size, expansion limits and reset rules can vary in other expanding-reel games, so check the paytable.

What does Pays Anywhere mean in slots?

Matching symbols pay when enough of them land anywhere on the grid, with no payline path and no adjacency requirement. That last point separates it from cluster pays, which requires symbols to be touching to form a win.

Do all Infinity Reels games use a +1 multiplier?

No. The +1 multiplier per added reel comes from ReelPlay’s original version of the mechanic. Other expanding-reel games apply multipliers differently, or leave them out entirely and pay through the expansion alone. The paytable confirms what applies to a specific title.

Are Pays Anywhere slots more volatile?

It depends on the specific game rather than the format. Pays Anywhere does not set volatility by itself, so check the confirmed rating for the title you are considering.

Do Pays Anywhere slots use cluster pays?

No. Cluster pays requires matching symbols to connect adjacently on the grid. Pays Anywhere has no adjacency requirement whatsoever, so symbols in opposite corners count toward the same combination.