Bonus Rounds; How Do They Work?

The bonus round is one of the main reasons why we play online slots. The bonus round is almost always where you get access to the big wins.
But don’t be confused; in many slots, the bonus round is also known as the free spins round. Either way, different slots will allow you to access the bonus round in different ways.
Here’s our quick guide to how bonus rounds work and how you can access them.

The Most Common Way to Access A Slots Bonus Round

Bonus rounds are usually accessed when you land the scatter icons on the reels. You will trigger the bonus round on most slot games when you land three or more scatter symbols from a single spin.

For example, if you land three gong symbols on the reels of Dragon Gaming’s Mythical Creatures slot, you will trigger the bonus round for a maximum of 30 free spins. In fact, if you are on the lookout for a high paying bonus round, Mythical Creatures is one of the best.

In other slots, you can actually pay to get access to the bonus round - this is known as ‘buying a bonus’. Megaways slots are quite famous for allowing players to buy their way into the bonus/free spins round.

However, buying a bonus can often be expensive, our advice would be to stick to the slot games where the bonus round can be triggered via scatter symbols.

Scatter Symbols

As aforementioned, 99% of bonus rounds are accessed via scatter symbol triggers. Almost every online slot with a bonus round will feature scatter symbols alongside wild’s, multipliers and regular symbols.

Before playing a slot, you should ensure that you know what the scatter symbol looks like. Part of the excitement of playing is looking out and hoping you land the scatters!

You’ve Entered the Bonus Round; What Now?

The highlight of any online slot machine is the beginning of the bonus round. The anticipation, the expectation and the excitement of potentially winning life changing sums of money will be with you.

When the bonus round begins, you can relax as you do not have to do anything. The slot will use your free spins automatically, one after another in just the same way as in the base game. A Night With Cleo free spins round is particularly fun. The 3x multipliers help to ensure the possibility of winning an even bigger amount of cash.

With any luck, the bonus game will reward the fruits of your labor. But even if the bonus round is not as successful as hoped, you always have the possibility of spinning the reels again and jumping right back into it!