What Is a Bonus Feature?
A bonus feature is any part of a pokie that goes beyond a standard spin of the reels. Some features change how the reels behave during normal play. Others move you into a separate bonus round with its own rules.
Features are designed into the game's mathematical model from the start. A portion of the game's return to player (RTP) is allocated to its features, and in many modern games that portion is large. This is one reason why features matter so much to a game's volatility.
How Bonus Features Are Triggered
- Scatter symbols: the most common trigger. Landing a set number of scatter symbols, usually three or more, anywhere on the reels starts the feature.
- Bonus symbols: some games use a dedicated bonus symbol that must land on specific reels.
- Special symbol counts: in hold-and-win games, landing a set number of coin or cash symbols, often six or more, triggers the feature.
- Random triggers: some features can start on any spin without a specific symbol combination.
- Collection meters: a few games fill a meter as you collect certain symbols, triggering a feature when it is full.
- Bonus buy: in some online games, players can pay to enter the bonus round directly. See Slot Buy Features Explained.
How often a feature triggers varies widely between games. Some developers publish an average trigger rate in the game rules, such as once every few hundred spins. Like everything else in a pokie, the trigger is decided by the random number generator.
The Most Common Bonus Features
Free Spins
Free spins are the most familiar bonus round. You receive a set number of spins that do not cost anything from your balance, often with extra features such as multipliers, sticky wilds or expanding symbols. Many games allow free spins to be retriggered. Read Free Spins Explained for the full picture.
Hold-and-Win (Hold-and-Spin) Respins
Hold-and-win features are especially familiar in Australian venues. Landing enough coin or cash symbols triggers a set of respins, often three. The triggering symbols lock in place, and the remaining positions spin again. Each new coin symbol locks too and usually resets the respin counter. The feature ends when you run out of respins or fill the screen. Coins can show cash prizes or jackpot tiers such as Mini, Minor, Major and Grand.
Games such as Lightning Link and Dragon Link are well known for this style of feature. Our Progressive Jackpots Explained guide explains how jackpot tiers work.
Pick-and-Click Bonuses
In a pick-and-click bonus, you choose from a set of hidden items, such as boxes, cards or doors, to reveal prizes. The game may continue until you reveal a "collect" or "end" symbol. Although it feels like a choice, the possible results are set by the game's maths, so picking skill does not change the expected outcome.
Wheel Bonuses
A wheel bonus spins a prize wheel with segments showing cash prizes, multipliers, free spins or jackpots. Some games use several wheels in tiers, where landing an "upgrade" segment moves you to a higher-value wheel.
Trail and Board Bonuses
Trail bonuses move a marker along a path or board, collecting prizes as it goes. Some trails continue between sessions or spins as a collection feature.
Expanding Symbols
In some free spins rounds, a chosen symbol expands to fill the whole reel when it lands, creating many more winning combinations. Book of Dead is a well-known example of a game built around an expanding symbol feature.
Wild Features
Wilds can be extended into features of their own, such as sticky wilds that stay in place for several spins, walking wilds that move across the reels and expanding wilds that cover a whole reel. See Wild Symbols Explained.
Multipliers
Multipliers increase the value of a win, for example doubling or tripling it. They can be fixed, random or progressive, increasing with each win or cascade. See Slot Multipliers Explained.
Cascading Reels
Also called tumbling or avalanche reels, cascading reels remove winning symbols and drop new ones into place, allowing several wins from one paid spin. See Cascading Reels Explained.
Random Base-Game Features
Some games add surprises during normal spins, such as extra wilds being added to the reels, symbols transforming or reels being upgraded. These features trigger at random and are usually designed to create occasional bigger wins in the base game.
Gamble Features
Some games offer an optional gamble feature after a win, such as guessing the colour or suit of a card to double the prize or lose it. A gamble feature adds risk to money you have already won. Choosing to use it does not improve your expected return.
Bonus Features and the Game's Maths
Features can feel like "extra" value, but they are paid for by the game's design. If a large share of a game's RTP is allocated to its bonus round, the base game has less left to pay out. That often means:
- More spins in the base game that pay little or nothing
- Larger swings in your balance
- Most of the game's big wins happening inside the feature
This is why feature-heavy games are often medium to high volatility. Our guide on RTP vs actual slot results explains why short sessions can differ so much from the long-term average.
Some games let you choose between different versions of a bonus, such as more free spins with a lower multiplier or fewer spins with a higher one. These choices usually change the volatility of the bonus, not its average value.
How to Learn a Game's Features
The game's paytable and rules explain each feature: what triggers it, what happens during it and what it can pay. Playing a free demo version is another way to see features in action without spending money. Our slot game reviews also describe the features in each title.
Common Misconceptions About Bonus Features
"The bonus is due because it has not triggered for a while."
No. Each spin is independent, and a long run without a feature does not make the next spin more likely to trigger one. See Pokies Myths Explained.
"Bonus rounds are free money."
No. Features are part of how the game returns its RTP. They are funded by the bets placed on the game, including yours.
"Picking the right box takes skill."
No. In pick-and-click bonuses, the outcomes are determined by the game's maths, not by which item you choose.
Playing Responsibly
Bonus features are designed to be exciting, with animations, sounds and rising prizes that can make it tempting to keep playing in search of the next one. GambleAware NSW notes that features such as free spins and progressive jackpots are among the things that keep people playing. Set a budget and a time limit before you start, and stop when you reach them, whether or not a feature has triggered.
Our guides on setting gambling limits and recognising gambling harm explain practical steps, and Gambling Help Online offers free, confidential support 24/7 on 1800 858 858.