Slot Machine Symbols Explained: What Every Icon Does
Every suspenseful slot spin comes down to one simple question: which symbols landed, and where?
Understanding what slot machine symbols do is the foundation of understanding how any slot machine works.
There are multiple types of slot symbols, which fall into two main categories.
Classic symbols create winning combinations by landing on active paylines or winning ways.
Special symbols change how the game behaves, triggering bonus features, adding multipliers, substituting for other symbols, or unlocking free spins.
This guide breaks down every major slot symbol type, so you can turn the symbol sleuthing part of your brain off and enjoy the game.
Classic Symbols – The Building Blocks of Every Win
Classic slot machine symbols are the regular icons that fill most positions on a slot’s reels. Those are the ones to thank for most base-game slot wins.
They award prizes when the correct number lands consecutively on an active payline, usually starting from the leftmost reel.
Classic symbols are also the backbone of the theme, creating the vibe with their featured pictures.
Fruit slots are just as outta sight as they were in the ’60s, with cherries, lemons, watermelons, bars, and lucky 7s squeezing out smiles on the reels. Nowadays, card-playing symbols (J, Q, K, A) fill the gaps for most slot types.
How Classic Symbols Pay Out
The more frequently a symbol appears on the reels, the less it pays. Likewise, the rarer a symbol is, the higher its payout.
This relationship plays a role in a slot’s payline and hit frequency. You don’t have to guess any of this stuff. It’s all listed clearly in the game’s paytable.
Standard symbols serve no special purpose aside from regular wins. The bigger purpose is a job reserved for special symbols, which we’ll get to next.
| Symbol Type | Example | Payout Rank (Low to High) | Notes |
| Card Symbols | 10, J, Q, K, A | Low | Super common in all slots |
| Fruit Symbols | Cherries, Lemons, Grapes | Low to Medium | Traditional slot icons with moderate payouts. |
| Lucky Sevens | Big, shiny “7” symbols | High | Often among the highest-paying standard symbols |
| Premium Theme Symbols | Characters, story elements from the theme | High | The top-paying standard symbols |
Wild Symbols — The Substitutes
Wild symbols in slots substitute for standard slot symbols to complete or extend a winning combination. It’s the slot equivalent of a wild card.
In most games, a wild will not replace special symbols like scatters or bonus symbols. However, that certainly doesn’t make this special symbol a one-hit wonder. Wild symbols appear in all shapes and sizes.
One popular pair is stacked and expanding wilds. Stacked wilds occupy multiple consecutive positions on one reel, covering a wider range of paylines. Expanding wilds start as a regular wild, then grow to the full height of the reel on which they land.
Then you have sticky wilds. These stay in place where they landed, allowing more combinations to score as more regular symbols land.
A multiplier wild is a fan favorite. It applies a win multiplier whenever the wild is involved in a winning combination.
In slot games, it’s common to find one or two varieties in one machine, or even a combination of two, such as an expanding sticky wild.
If you have any doubts, check the paytable. Go wild with the review. It’ll pay off in your enjoyment of the game.
Scatter Symbols — Wins Without Paylines
Unlike standard symbols, scatter symbols pay or trigger features regardless of their position on the reels. They’re the rebels that don’t need to align on a payline or run left to right.
Not only are they free from the restraints of paylines, but scatter symbols are among the highest-paying on the reels as well. And they have another very special, very serious duty: triggering bonus rounds.
The more scatters you land, the more free spins you receive. You might even get a direct multiplier on your bet for the number of scatters you land. .
All of these rules are game-dependent, though, so always check the paytable to know what’s going on.
It’s also possible to encounter two distinct scatter types that trigger different features. Again, the paytable will clear this up in a jiff if that’s the case.
Because of all of these perks, scatters are among the most anticipated symbols in a slot. Players yearn for them, knowing that three or more are an insta-trip to the free spins round, which is the best part!
Bonus Symbols — What Opens the Feature
Bonus symbols in slots trigger bonus rounds like pick-me bonuses, hold-and-win games, and jackpot bonus games.
Unlike scatters that can land anywhere on the reels to count, bonus symbols usually need to land on specific reels.
For example, the bonus symbol might only count if three land on reels 1, 3, and 5.
Bonus symbols are quite similar to scatter symbols, in that they don’t follow paylines and they lead to a bonus round. The only way to know for sure what’s what is to check the paytable, which will clearly state their function.
Special Symbol Variants in Modern Slots
While scatters and bonus symbols are the most common special symbols, slots these days know no bounds.
The symbols make the game in a lot of ways, and developers embrace the opportunity, using them to dress up the experience in all sorts of ways.
Other special slot symbols you’ll get chummy with include sticky symbols, multiplier symbols, walking wilds, colossal or giant symbols, and more, which are described in detail below.
Sticky Symbols
When a symbol is “sticky,” it means that once it lands, it stays in that position. As other regular slot symbols land around a sticky symbol, its locked position opens the door to more wins.
The most common type of sticky symbol you’ll find is a sticky wild.
Multiplier Symbols
Multiplier symbols carry a number (2x, 3x, 5x) that multiplies your win. For example, if it’s a 20x win multiplier and you win $2, you actually pocket $40. The multiplier could also multiply your bet instead of your win.
Nothing makes a slot player go bananas like a multiplier, since it usually leads to the biggest wins. You’ll find them plentifully in Megaways slots, cascading reel games, and, shoot, most modern slots, tbh.
Walking/Shifting Wilds
A walking wild, also called a shifting wild, lands as any normal symbol. But then, on each consecutive spin, it scoots one reel position either to the left or right, helping award more wins along the way.
It continues its little scoot-a-loot, shuffling one position until it reaches the end and tumbles off the grid.
Colossal or Giant Symbols
Instead of a simple, one-space symbol, some special slot symbols appear in 2×2 or 3×3 blocks, called “colossal” or “giant” symbols. These are handy because they can cover multiple payline wins with a single symbol.
No game has the same exact features. Always check the paytable before you spin so you know which slot symbols might appear in that particular game.
Then, when you see a tall chocolate cake wibbling and wobbling over the reels, you’ll know that’s not a glitch; it’s a walking wild. And a delicious one at that.
Where Classic Slot Symbols Come From
Whose idea was it to use fruits and bars, anyway?
The answer dates back more than a century. Long before video slots and online casinos, early mechanical machines relied on simple icons such as playing card suits.
In the 1890s, Charles Fey’s Liberty Bell machine beefed up the symbols by introducing horseshoes, stars, and the famous bell that gave the game its name.
As for the familiar juicy fruits, those arrived a few decades later. At the time, some areas banned cash payouts, so manufacturers got creative and awarded flavored chewing gum instead.
Cherry, lemon, watermelon, and other fruit symbols matched the flavor players won. Thankfully, there was no artificial banana flavor (yuck).
The BAR symbol also has roots in the gum machine era. It originated from the logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company, which appeared on many early machines and eventually became a standard slot icon in its own right.
Lucky 7s also rose to prominence during this era. Players began associating the number with big prizes, and it eventually became the highest-paying standard symbol in many classic slot machines.
These symbols still dominate retro and classic-themed slots today. You recognize them instantly, and the pang of nostalgia still rings true.
That’s why developers continue to rely on them more than a century after they first graced a one-armed bandit slot machine.
How Symbols Affect Gameplay
Symbols create wins, and that’s their biggest appeal on paper, for sure. But they do so much more than that. They influence how often features appear, how payouts are formed, and how you experience the game from spin to spin.
In traditional payline slots, standard symbols must land in specific positions to complete a winning combination. Those are called paylines.
In ways-to-win games, those same symbols only need to land on adjacent reels. Cluster pays slots are yet another approach that rewards groups of matching symbols that connect together in a cluster.
Special symbols have an even bigger role during gameplay. They’re special for a reason! Scatters can trigger free spins, wilds can help complete winning combinations, multipliers can increase payouts, and bonus symbols can unlock extra features and mini-games.
As multi-talented as they are, nothing a symbol does can help you predict the outcome of a spin. However, all symbols influence how a slot delivers wins and bonus features over time.
Ready to Find the Best Symbol Combination?
A slot symbol might show a flashy stack of hundos, a goblin Christmas elf, or even a charismatic singing frog, but no design determines what the symbol actually does.
A golden dragon isn’t automatically worth more than a cherry. What matters is how often the symbol appears and what the paytable says it pays.
While slot symbols look different from game to game, they follow the same framework:
- Standard symbols form wins by landing on paylines.
- Wild symbols substitute regular symbols to give you another chance at a win.
- Scatters count from anywhere on the grid, and three or more typically trigger a free spins round.
- Bonus symbols appear on specific reels and lead to a bonus mini game.
To explore the types of slot symbols we’ve mentioned here, from the beautiful to the wonderful and weird, the simple to the special and beyond, browse our slot recommendations articles.
More About Slot Machine Symbols
How many symbols are on a slot machine reel?
Modern video slots usually run with 8 to 15 distinct symbol types per game. However, the actual number of positions each symbol can occupy is determined by the RNG. It could run into the hundreds for digital slots.
What does a Wild symbol do in slots?
A wild is a special symbol that replaces any regular symbol with another regular symbol. This gives you another chance to win on the same spin. A wild does not replace scatters or bonus symbols, unless a game has a special rule that allows it.
You might also find other types of wilds, including sticky (lands and stays in place), expanding (grows to cover each row on one reel), and multiplier (multiplies your win if the wild helps achieve it).
What is the difference between a Scatter and a Bonus symbol?
A scatter symbol pays from anywhere on the grid, and three or more trigger a free spins round in most games. A bonus symbol must usually land on specific reels, such as reels 1-3-5, and a certain number triggers a mini-game. However, in some games, these symbol names are used interchangeably.
Which slot machine symbols pay the most?
The highest-paying slot machine symbols are always the rarest. There’s no way to give a sweeping generalization, because each game has a different set of symbols.
The paytable will tell you which is which. In classic slots, the highest-paying symbols are usually 7s or BARs. In video slots, it’s the game’s premium themed symbol.
Do the symbols on a slot machine affect my odds?
The symbols have nothing to do with your odds of winning. Each spin is determined by the RNG, or random number generator.
The symbols are simply the visual result of the software’s determination. To understand slot odds, look instead at RTP and hit frequency.
Why do slot machines use fruit symbols?
Fruit symbols originated from slot machines that paid out flavored gum. The symbol matched the prize. For instance, if you won on three cherry symbols, you won cherry-flavored gum. They became a recognizable shorthand for classic slots and have stayed ever since.
What are sticky symbols in slots?
Sticky symbols land just like any other slot symbol. But this time, they stick in place throughout multiple spins instead of changing like the rest of them. You can find regular sticky symbols, and sticky wilds are common, too.
These symbols are most common in hold-and-win games, where sticky symbols accumulate and reset the respin count.
