What would the world of slots as we know it, be without Wild Symbols? Luckily, we don’t have to think about the answer because Wilds are part of most online slots, ready to brighten your day (and your winnings). We are starting a new series to explore probably the most intriguing elements in a slot game: the symbols, and we’re kicking it off with none other than the saviour, the Wild Symbol.
What makes this symbol special and why it’s often called the luck-enhancing symbol – we’re about to find out!
What is a Wild Symbol?
Simply put: a Wild is a slot symbol that can replace any other basic symbol on the grid. In other words, it can be anything you wish it to be in a payline, but the special symbols: Scatters, Bonus, Free Spins, or Money Symbol.
Let’s take an example: you are playing The Dog House slot, and you need another Pug to complete a payline. As luck would have it, you hit a Wild in the same spin, in the cell where the Pug was supposed to be. The Wild will act as the Pug, awarding you a juicy bone!
How Does a Wild Symbol Look Like?
Wild Symbols don’t have a specific design; they’re not marked with a lightning bolt scar on their forehead. Sometimes they stand out from the other symbols, having the word ‘WILD’ written across it, like in Smugglers Cove Slot. Other times, they blend in perfectly with the symbols and the slot’s theme. An example is the Big Juan slot – you can’t tell the Chilli is in fact the Wild unless you see it in action.
The best way to find the Wild is to check the paytable or play the slot and see what symbol replaces another in winning combinations.
Different Types of Wild Symbols
Although their function is pretty much the same, there are different types of Wilds that dictate how they land or stay on the screen.
- Raining Wilds – Wilds can appear randomly on the screen in any cell. In some cases, like the one of The Dog House Megaways slot, the Wilds hit with multipliers while in other videoslots, such as the Fairytale Fortune slot, Wilds land naked, without multipliers or other ostentatious features.
- Expanding Wilds – the name says it all, doesn’t it? What this Wild does is expand to cover the entire reel under certain conditions. In the Wild Walker slot, a reel with an expanded Wild is unlocked as you advance through the four available stages.
- Stacked Wilds – although similar to the Expanding Wilds, the main difference between them is that Stacked Wilds are displayed as single Wilds placed on top of each other, whereas an Expanding Wild is one Wild stretched across the reel. Stacked Wilds can be found in The Catfather slot.
- Sticky Wilds – their superpower is to stay on the reels throughout the entire feature (usually, a Free Spins round). If you want to see it in action, try the Starz Megaways slot demo!
- Roaming Wilds – these Wilds like to roam around the reels. After being involved in a winning combination, they move to a random position on the screen. In the Gates of Valhalla slot, if there isn’t enough space for the Wild to move, it will remain in place.
Social Tournaments holds a rich spectrum of online slots and free slot tournaments where almost all titles have the Wild Symbol in every shape and size. Whether you like your Wild to stay in one place or move around, stretch over all cells of a reel, or simply land in random places, you can definitely find a title that suits you in our Pragmatic Play slots collection!
