How do Megaways slots work?
Megaways slots are awesome and the mechanics behind it are even more impressive. Megaways slots can have up to 117,649 ways to win and can produce wins of more than 100,000x the size of your bet! That’s massive, but how is that even possible? While classic slots have only a few pay lines and maximum wins are capped at 1,000x the size of your bet. So how is it possible that Megaways slots have so many more ways to win? And so much bigger wins? So, how do Megaways slots work? With the help of images and example we will answer the following questions about Megaways slots:
How do Megaways slots work? How can Megaways slots give you so many ways to win? How can Megaways slots pay you so much money? How to calculate the potential of Megaways slots?
How to win in Megaways slots?
In Megaways slots there are no traditional pay lines. The traditional pay lines are replaced by “ways to win”. Any symbol of the same kind anywhere on connecting reels starting on reel 1, will give you a win. For example if you hit 10’s on reel 1, 2 and 3 it will give you a 3 of a kind win of 10’s. Let’s give you an example of a non winning pay line and a winning pay line:
Example 1: symbols are not connecting since there is no matching symbol on reel 3.
Example 2: On each reel there are matching symbols and thus this is a 6 of a kind win with 8 matching symbols.
The Megaways slots mechanics explained
Megaways slots are a beautiful addition to online slots and online casinos, but they are also very difficult and complicated to understand. How can Megaways slots have tens of thousands, even hundred of thousands of ways to win, while the classic slots only have 5 or 9 pay lines? In order to understand the Megaways, we need to understand the reels and rows. The reels and rows give you a certain amount of pay lines. In order to calculate the amount of Megaways, you need to multiply the amount of symbols you can get on a single reel by the total amount of reels. Let’s give you an example on the 2 most common amount of Megaways.
117,649 ways to win
The maximum amount of Megaways you could potentially get is 117,649. In order to get this amount of Megaways, the slot needs to have 6 reels. Usually the slots come with an additional reel above reels 2 to 5. Each reel alone should be able to have up to 7 symbols which will give a total of 117,649 ways to win. The calculation of the Megaways will look as follow:
7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 = 117,649 ways to win
On reel level the calculation will look as follow:
Reel 1: 7 symbols (total of 7 Megaways)
Reel 2: 7 symbols (total of 7 x 7 = 49 Megaways)
Reel 3: 7 symbols (total of 49 x 7 = 343 Megaways)
Reel 4: 7 symbols (total of 343 x 7 = 2,401 Megaways)
Reel 5: 7 symbols (total of 2,401 x 7 = 16,807 Megaways)
Reel 6: 7 symbols (total of 16,807 x 7 = 117,649 Megaways)
Impressive he? Obviously it’s relatively difficult to hit the maximum amount of Megaways in a slot. Luckily there are Megaways slots where you could secure a minimum amount of Megaways including the maximum 117,649 ways to win! Safari Gold Megaways is a good example. Let’s give you an example of the more common Megaways and the maximum amount of Megaways:
Example 1: 3 x 2 x 6 x 2 x 3 x 2 = 432 Megaways.
Example 2: 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 = 117,649 Megaways.
15,625 ways to win
Beside Megaways slot with a stunning 117,649 ways to win, there also quite some Megaways slot which have “only” 15,625 ways to win. These slots will have 6 reels in total and each reel alone will have up to 5 symbols. The maximum amount of Megaways are 15,625 when you multiply the symbols with the reels. The calculation of the Megaways will look as follow:
5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 15,625 ways to win
On reel level the calculation will look as follow:
Reel 1: 5 symbols (total of 5 Megaways)
Reel 2: 5 symbols (total of 5 x 5 = 25 Megaways)
Reel 3: 5 symbols (total of 25 x 5 = 125 Megaways)
Reel 4: 5 symbols (total of 125 x 5 = 625 Megaways)
Reel 5: 5 symbols (total of 625 x 5 = 3,125 Megaways)
Reel 6: 5 symbols (total of 3,125 x 5 = 15,625 Megaways)
Gods of Olympus Megaways is a good example of a slot with 15,625 ways to win. Let’s give you an example of the more common Megaways and the maximum amount of Megaways:
Example 1: 2 x 3 x 2 x 2 x 4 x 5 = 480 Megaways.
Example 2: 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 15,625 Megaways.
How to calculate your winnings in Megaways slots?
Did you manage to get a big win by connecting multiple premium symbols? But you have no idea how your win is being calculated? Let us help you with this! Calculating the winnings is as difficult as the mechanic behind calculating the amount of Megaways. In order to calculate your winnings, you would first need to know how much the symbols are worth in a particular Megaways slots. You can find the value of the symbols in the pay table. Once you know the values, you need to use the following calculation to understand your winnings:
Amount of winning lines x value of symbols x bet size
Still not very clear how you calculate your winnings in a Megaways slot? Let’s give you some examples with the help of images and pay tables.
Example 1: Pay table of Diamond Mine Megaways.
Example 2: €/$/£ 5 win on a €/$/£ 5 stake and 3,456 Megaways. How is this win being calculated? First you need count the amount of winning lines and thus you need to have a look at the winning symbols and connected reels. In this example we have 3 connecting premium symbols (gold miners) on reel 1, 2 and 3. So the total amount of winning lines are: 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. If we have a look at the pay table in example 1, we know that 3 connecting reels of the gold minors symbol have a value of 1. The winning lines multiplied by the value of the symbols is thus 1 x 1 = 1. The last step we need to do is multiply this number with the bet size which is €/$/£ 5 in this example. So our winnings are 1 x 1 x 5 = €/$/£ 5.
Example 3: €/$/£ 10 win on a €/$/£ 5 stake and 7,200 Megaways. In this example we have 7 connecting symbols (7’s) on reel 1, 2, 3 and 4. So the total amount of winning lines are 1 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. If we have a look at the pay table in example 1, we know that 4 connecting reels of symbol J have a value of 0.25. The winning lines multiplied by the value of the symbols is thus 8 x 0.25 = 2. The last step we need to do is multiply this number with the bet size which is €/$/£ 5 in this example. So our winnings are 8 x 0.25 x 5 = €/$/£ 10.
Example 4: €/$/£ 13 win on a €/$/£ 5 stake and 11,340 Megaways. In this example we have 2 different connecting symbols: the gold miner and the 9. We hit 5 connecting gold minors symbols on reel 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 = 1 winning line). We also hit 3 connecting 9’s symbols on reel 1, 2 and 3 (1 x 1 x 1 = 1 winning line). If we have a look at the pay table in example 1, we know that 5 connecting reels of the gold minors symbols have a value of 2.5. The winning lines multiplied by the value of the symbols is thus 1 x 2.5 = 2.5. For the 9’s it’s 1 x 0.1 = 0.1. This is a total of 2.5 + 0.1 = 2.6. The last step we need to do is multiply this number with the bet size which is €/$/£ 5 in this example. So our winnings are (1 x 2.5 x 5) + (1 x 0.1 x 5) = €/$/£ 13. Or 2.6 x 5 = €/$/£ 13.