Slots are not generally games of skill (and when they are, it’s often not related to how things land on the reels). But that doesn’t stop players from getting creative in trying to think how things may matter:
Have you ever tracked the bonus (good/bad/whatever) outcome based on the bonus symbol placement on the landing g screen. IE: On a screen with 15 spots, say the bonus symbol lands on place # 1,2,&3. Does that signify a larger/better bonus than if it lands on place #1, 7& 13?
Laura H.
We haven’t tracked this per se, but based on how slots work, the placement of where scattered symbols land (which is traditionally how bonus symbols work – as scatter symbols that count regardless of where they land on the screen) doesn’t in any way impact their value, nor do they have any specific relationship to the bonus that follows.
Of course, as players, we don’t have any control over where they land, so we can’t use that information to help us anyway, but we can go a bit further into why it doesn’t matter.
Bonuses can be either based on the RNG or predetermined. If it’s RNG, the outcome of each spin, as we always share with players here, is not dependent on what came before it, and that includes how many bonus symbols landed and where they landed. If it’s predetermined, the game already knows what’s going to happen with your bonus before those reels even come to a stop. In either case, the symbol placement didn’t matter.
Of course, there are reasons why placement matters. Some games (think Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania as an example) require three bonus symbols on a pay line to trigger the bonus. Newer slots can award a bonus at random with one symbol, and guarantee it with three or more. Many slots award a larger credit prize, more spins, or both, for landing more than three symbols (so getting four or five can have its reward).
But none of these necessarily guarantee a better outcome in the bonus itself. But neither does that mean the related myth of the four symbol or five bonus symbol curse is a thing either. They’re more rare, and get players excited, so when they bomb out they’re more memorable, but the odds of a four symbol bonus being bad is generally no better or worse than a three symbol, particularly if the number of spins is the same.
