When a slot rewrites its own rules for a while
This shelf holds components rather than game types. A feature switches on inside the game: a different symbol appears on the reels, a few positions stay put, or a multiplier enlarges the win. The studio counts their value into the game’s RTP as well – whatever the bonus round ‘gives’, the base game has already paid for in advance.
This lesson is for players who already know how a plain spin works. If that is still hazy, start with the slots shelf, where we follow one round through six beats.
Feature names vary from studio to studio. The same mechanic is Hold & Win in one game, Cash Safes in another and Heist in a third – the substance is always in the help screen.
Fact sheet for six features: what moves, what stays put
| Feature | On this shelf | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Free spins | A series of spins with no stake deducted, often under modified rules | The series is worth what the modification is worth, not the spin count |
| Multiplier | Enlarges an existing win, fixed or rising | Without a win, a multiplier is worth nothing |
| Wild | Substitutes for other symbols, sometimes also acts as a scatter | More combinations form from the same screen |
| Respin, Hold & Win | Certain symbols stay in place while the rest spin again | The round lasts as long as new symbols keep arriving |
| Bonus buy | Skipping straight to the bonus round at a set multiple of your stake | A single decision can take a big slice of your budget |
| Gamble | Staking a win you already have on one guess | The win either doubles or is gone |
Free series, rising multiplier, dual-role wild – from studio descriptions
Free spins. In BGaming’s Book of Kemet, three or more books award 10 free spins, and before the series the game picks an expanding symbol. Each retrigger adds another expanding symbol, up to nine. The Troy Spins round in Red Tiger’s Gods of Troy Megaways is simpler arithmetic: 3 scatters start 8 free spins, 4 scatters start 12.
Multipliers. Red Tiger’s Mega Rise runs a rising multiplier bar up to 100×. In the Heist round of Vault Cracker Megaways, ×2–×7 multipliers join the sticky safes. In the Super Spins stage of BGaming’s Jewel Boom Super Drop, the multiplier can go up to ×100.
Wilds. The book in Book of Kemet is wild and scatter at once: it substitutes and triggers the bonus at the same time. Novomatic’s Lord of the Ocean gives the same role to the GATE symbol. The full rundown of the book mechanic is on the book slots shelf.
Piggy Bank coins: a Hold & Win round from the inside
BGaming’s Piggy Bank Hold&Win (96.98%, Medium) runs on a 3×3 grid. In the Hold & Win round, coins that land are sticky: they stay where they are while the other cells spin again. The coins can include fixed jackpots: Mini ×25, Minor ×50 and Major ×125, as multiples of the stake. Filling the whole 3×3 grid gives the Grand ×500.
What sets the game apart is its three ‘piggies’. One puts multipliers on the coins, another extends the round by 3 spins, and the third expands the grid to 3×5. On the expanded grid the Royal ×2,500 is in reach, which is also the game’s ceiling.
The bonus round can be bought here in three versions, but the studio does not publish the price. The ‘Jackpot’ lobby label is missing, yet the jackpot levels are real. If you like the mechanic, the Hold & Win shelf has more detail.
A feature’s rules in six steps, starting at page one of the help
- Open the info panel before you start. Features get their own section there.
- Find the trigger condition. How many scatters, books or coins are needed, and on which reel.
- See what changes during the round. Expanding symbol, sticky symbol, multiplier – and whether these add up or multiply.
- Read how the round ends. A fixed number of spins, or does it last as long as new symbols arrive?
- Look for the price and the RTP. For a buyable bonus, the help states its cost in stake multiples; if it has a separate RTP, that is listed here too.
- Note the ceiling. The maximum win is a multiple of the stake, and it includes the features.
If a term is unfamiliar, the slot dictionary explains it in alphabetical order.
Six coins and a multiplier piggy at a fifty-cent stake
Worked example with invented values – independent of Dukat.bet:
Your stake on Piggy Bank Hold&Win is 0.50 EUR. At the end of the Hold & Win round six coins sit on the grid; suppose five plain coins are worth ×1, ×2, ×2, ×5 and ×10, and the sixth is the Mini jackpot (×25). The multiplier piggy adds an invented ×2 to the total. What does the round pay, and what would the Grand and the Royal pay?
Solution. The coins add up to ×1 + ×2 + ×2 + ×5 + ×10 + ×25 = ×45, which is 45 × 0.50 = 22.50 EUR. With the invented ×2 piggy, that becomes 45 EUR. The Grand for a full 3×3 grid is 500 × 0.50 = 250 EUR, and the Royal on the expanded grid is 2,500 × 0.50 = 1,250 EUR.
The calculation shows what the round is worth, not how likely it is.
Bought bonus rounds and gamble under the five-euro stake cap
The slots shelf offer is Slots Bonus – 500% up to 3,000 EUR + 15% Cashback, and if you accept it, point 2.7 of the general rules applies while you wager: by default a single stake may be at most 5 EUR, unless the offer says otherwise. Gamble and purchased bonus rounds count as stakes too.
Let’s look at two real games, using the studios’ minimum stakes:
- Vault Cracker Megaways (Red Tiger, 95.68%): Hold-Up Artist costs 10× the stake, which is 1 EUR at the 0.10 EUR minimum – it fits under the cap up to a base stake of 0.50 EUR. Heist at 60× already costs 6 EUR at the minimum stake, so more than 5 EUR.
- Gods of Troy Megaways (Red Tiger, 95.71%): according to the page text, the two buy levels are 75× and 300×. At the 0.20 EUR minimum, that is 15 EUR and 60 EUR.
Dukat.bet’s own stake limits on these titles were not part of our check. On top of that, the lobby’s ‘Bonus Buy’ tab shows almost only Novomatic titles – Vault Cracker, for instance, is not on it.
Gamble puts a win you already hold on a single guess. On a fair two-way guess the expected value does not grow; only the outcome gets sharper – and with a bonus it still has to fit under the cap.
Four checks before you sit down at a slot for its feature
- Trigger condition: you know what starts the feature and whether it can retrigger.
- Price within budget: if you bought the round, how many times its price would fit into today’s budget.
- Bonus and cap: with an active offer, the purchased round or gamble does not go over 5 EUR.
- Ceiling: how high the game’s maximum is as a multiple of the stake, and whether you saw it in the help screen rather than in an ad.
For your next shelf we suggest Hold & Win slots, where sticky coins and fixed jackpots get a closer look.