When slots such as White Orchid were first released to the public, the highlight of the game was landing 3 matching symbols on the 1 pay line the 3 reels created. This would lead to a pay-out of sorts depending on the value of the symbols in place. 

Technology allowed slot manufacturers to increase the reels and the symbols on them, both in number and variety and this continued to evolve right to the present day. Even now slot symbols are still developing along with the graphics and other dynamics that make slot games. Because of their sophistication, slot games have been able to offer bonus rounds for some considerable time and special symbols have been added to the reels to trigger these bonuses.

Scatter Symbols Explained 

The pinnacle of slot gaming is the bonus rounds, these come in many different formats and the most sort after is free spins. To play these bonuses, punters need to land special symbols known as Scatter symbols on the reels. Usually, 3 Scatter symbols are needed to trigger a bonus, but in today’s world of Mega gaming platforms with extra reels and rows, 4 can sometimes be needed instead. 

Triggering a bonus round is the main purpose of a Scatter symbol and some slots like Cleopatra,  pay out for landing just 2 Scatters that don’t even manage to trigger a bonus. These Scatter symbols sometimes have Scatter written on them or Bonus. They can also be labelled with Free Spins, but sometimes they are just a specially designed symbol that stands out from the rest. 

Other Functions of Scatter Symbols 

Some Scatter symbols have dual functionality, and this can be seen in book-based slots of which there are many. Here, the book of the title acts as the Scatter symbol, and 3 or more are needed to trigger the bonus round. However, in most of these book-based games, the Scatter symbol also acts as a wild and these symbols not only trigger and retrigger bonus rounds, but they also help build winning slot symbol combinations on the reels as well. 

Games like Book of Ra, Book of Dead, Book of Halloween, and Book of Christmas are just some examples of games where the Scatter has this dual functionality employed. 

Bonus Game Choices 

In some slot games, landing the required amount of Scatter symbols does not take you directly to a bonus round. Instead, players are taken to a second screen where a selection of different types of bonus games are displayed on a wheel. This is spun, and whatever bonus the wheel stops at is the one the player gets. Punters can choose to gamble the selection away for a better bonus if they wish to. 

In Summary 

Scatters do have dual functionality in some slot games, and this is because they trigger bonus rounds but can act as wilds as well. They can also trigger features the give you a choice of bonuses that are picked for players at random.