Expanding wilds on the middle reels
On expanding wild machines, a wild landing on reels 2, 3 or 4 grows to cover the whole reel. Here is what that means.
What a wild symbol does
A wild symbol stands in for other symbols to help complete a line. If a line has two matching symbols and a wild in the right place, the wild acts as the third. Each machine's paytable shows which symbol is wild and whether any symbols, such as scatters, are excluded.
How a wild expands
On Orbitpop's expanding wild machines, a wild that lands on reel 2, 3 or 4 fills that entire reel. Instead of covering a single position, it turns every position on the reel wild for that spin.
- Only reels 2, 3 and 4 can expand. A wild on reel 1 or 5 stays as a single symbol.
- The whole reel becomes wild for the spin it landed on.
- Because a full reel touches every payline that passes through it, one expanded reel can take part in several lines at once.
- The reels return to normal on the next spin.
Watching the Preview of an expanding wild machine is the easiest way to see why middle reels matter: you can watch a single wild stretch from top to bottom.
When an expanded reel helps complete more than one line in the same spin, each line is paid separately and the play-coin amounts are added together, just as with any other multi-line result.
Why only the middle reels
Lines are counted from left to right starting on reel 1. A wild on reel 1 would be the first symbol on a line and has nothing to stand in for yet, and reel 5 sits at the end of every line. The middle reels are where a wild has the most lines running through it, which is why the expanding feature lives there on these machines. This is simply how the machine is designed; it does not give you anything to aim for, since you have no control over where symbols land.
What expansion does not mean
A wild expanding across a reel is a nice moment to watch, but it does not guarantee a win. If the other reels do not line up, a full reel of wilds can still produce nothing. And like every feature on Orbitpop, whether a wild lands at all is decided at random by your browser's random number generator. Each spin is independent; one expansion says nothing about the next spin.
Your stake also has no effect on how often wilds appear. Larger stakes simply mean larger play-coin amounts when lines do pay, and smaller amounts are just as entertaining.
Checking a machine's details
Each expanding wild machine's paytable explains its wild and its lines in full, and its information screen may show measured return and hit-rate figures. Those were found by running the machine's own code for millions of spins. They describe the long-run average and do not predict a session. Play coins have no value and cannot be withdrawn, sold or exchanged, so the expanding wilds are purely there for enjoyment.