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What Symbols Offer the Biggest Wins in Slots?

When you open a new slot game, the symbols are probably what first grab your attention. In the era of themed online slots, most games now come with eye-catching symbols that crank up the atmosphere, but what are the most important and valuable symbols to be aware of?

Paying Symbols Give You Regular Wins

At the heart of any slot are the regular paying symbols. These are the images that are going to make up the majority of your wins. They’re typically divided into two categories: high-paying and low-paying symbols. The low-paying icons are generally standard slot images like playing card numbers or fruits, which often pay just enough to cover the cost of the spin.

Things get more interesting when we look at the high-paying category. These are images closely related to the theme and that provide bigger wins. If we look at the latest casino slots, we find titles like 3 Pots of Gods or Fortune of Egypt. This variety of themes is reflected in the most valuable symbols in each case, with the game’s characters and key objects used to provide the best wins. If we take a new title like Zeus Multiways, it’s no surprise to see objects from Greek mythology giving the top prizes.

Wilds Complete Winning Lines

The wild is an important symbol in casino slots since it acts kind of like the iconic Joker card, which was created as a trump card in Euchre before becoming a big part of popular culture. In slots, the wild can complete winning combinations by replacing any standard image, which is incredibly useful. In some slots, five or six wilds give the game’s biggest payout, while in other cases, they land with multipliers or some other sort of bonus feature.

If we go back to that Zeus Multiways slot, it’s no surprise to see that it’s the God of the sky himself is the wild, since this symbol is often based on the game’s top character. In the same way, the Three Wild Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf game has three wilds, with each of the piggies carrying out this role differently thanks to their unique features, such as expanding in different directions or filling a full reel.

Scatter Triggers a Free Spins Round

If we consider that the free spins round is often the part of a slot with the biggest win potential, it’s easy to see why the symbol that triggers it could be classed as the most important. One of the key aspects of the scatter is that it’s usually the only symbol that pays wins no matter where it lands, as long as three or more of them appear at once.

The mechanism for awarding free spins varies from game to game, but the most common approach is to award this bonus round when three or more scatters can be seen anywhere on the reels. More free spins may be triggered if additional scatters land while you’re playing this bonus, which could make it an effective way to claim large wins at no extra cost.

Collector Symbols Gather On-Screen Prizes

As a relatively new addition to the industry, collector slots provide an exciting feature where one of the special symbols gathers the cash prizes that are shown on other symbols. This is commonly seen in fishing-themed slots like Big Bass Fishin’ Fever, where an angler acts as a collector and hooks all the fish with prize values on them.

Other slots add a variety of different collector symbols with varying functions that can be triggered during a bonus round. If the slot has jackpot prizes, this may be how you can claim it, since the collector in these games will scoop up symbols with jackpot names on them.

What Symbols Are Best?

As we’ve seen, each of these symbol types plays a role in the way online slots are played these days. For example, the regular paying symbols might not be the most exciting in a game, but they’re going to give you the majority of your wins. On the other hand, the scatter might not appear much but if it gives you access to the free spins round then it’s going to be well worth the wait.

All of these help explain why slots are such well-balanced games that have stood the test of time. There’s no definite answer to the question of which symbol is best, but the mixture of images on these games helps to make them varied and a lot of fun to play!