Fruit machine features guide

What fruit machine features are and why they exist

A plain three-reel machine with one win line would be over in seconds and would pay only small line wins. UK makers spent decades adding layers on top: chances to hold reels, nudge them into place, climb a board of prizes and gamble winnings. These fruit machine features stretch a £1 game into something with choices and suspense, and they give the machine many more ways to pay its prizes.

The important thing to grasp is that features don’t add money to the machine. Its overall return is fixed by its design; features decide how that return is shared out, whether in many small line wins or in fewer, larger trail and jackpot awards. This guide takes each common feature in turn, then shows how they fit together. For general play, start with how to play fruit machines, or browse the guides hub.

Holds: keeping reels in place

When the machine lights its hold buttons, you can freeze one or more reels so only the others spin next time. Holds usually appear after a losing game, and some machines show a ‘hold’ message or flash suggested reels. The decision is simple in principle: hold the reels that already show part of a paying line, and let the rest spin.

Two cherries on reels one and two with a lemon on reel three is the classic case. Hold the cherries and you keep that partial line, needing only the third reel to land. Where nothing on the win line is worth keeping, holding has no value and you might as well spin everything. Our holds feature page covers auto-holds and holds that follow a nudge.

Nudges: the most British of fruit machine features

A nudge shifts a reel by one position. Machines award them in different ways: a fixed number after a spin, a counter you can spend over several reels, or nudges won from the feature board. Some also give ‘nudge’ results directly, where the machine moves a reel itself to make a win. The Leeds firm Dransfield Novelty has claimed it originated the nudge, a claim reported in 2019 in coverage of its Reflex Gaming deal (opens in a new tab); the claim is the company’s own.

Using nudges well is about reading the symbols just above and below the win line. Our step-by-step guide on how to use nudges on fruit machines has worked examples, and the rest of this guide shows how they sit alongside the other features.

Feature trails and boards

The board above the reels on most UK fruit machines is a feature trail: a path of squares, each showing a prize or a feature such as nudges, a cash amount or entry to a bonus game. Certain reel symbols or number results move a light along the path. Reaching the end, or a particular square, triggers the larger awards.

Trails are where much of a fruit machine’s excitement sits, because they show you a prize just ahead. That visibility is a design choice. A square marked £100 a few steps away isn’t a sign the machine is about to pay it; the steps are drawn from the same fixed maths as everything else.

Number reels, cash pots and mystery prizes

A number reel is an extra reel or display that shows numbers instead of fruit. When it is active, the number it lands on usually decides how many steps you move along the trail, so a 5 can carry you past several squares at once.

A cash pot is a running total, often shown on its own display, that builds during play and pays out when a feature collects it. A mystery prize is an award whose value isn’t shown until it is revealed. All three spread the machine’s return into less frequent, more visible prizes, which is part of why fruit machines can feel streaky.

Skill stops: control or theatre?

A skill stop is a button that halts a moving display, such as a spinning cash ladder or a set of reels in a feature. It feels like a test of timing. On many modern machines, though, the result of a feature is decided when it starts and the stop button only controls when it is shown. The machine’s rules screen is the only place to find out how a particular game treats it.

Online, the question is settled: stopping the reels early changes nothing about the outcome, and slam stops have been banned on online slots in Great Britain since 31 October 2021. See is stopping the reels a skill? for the detail.

Repeat chances and streak features

A repeat chance gives you an opportunity, after a win, to have that win paid again, depending on the game’s rules. Streak features pay a run of wins in quick succession once triggered, so the machine seems to hit a hot patch. Both are ways of paying a block of the machine’s return in one go.

Because they pay in bursts, these features are behind the impression that fruit machines go through good and bad spells. The bursts are built into the design; they don’t reveal a pattern you can use. How compensation and features combine is covered in why do fruit machines pay out in bursts?

Hi-lo, cash ladders and gamble buttons

After some wins, the machine may offer a hi-lo gamble: guess whether the next number or card will be higher or lower to move up a cash ladder, or lose the win. Some ladders let you collect at any rung. The gamble is a separate decision from the game itself.

1. Before you play, decide which amounts you are happy to gamble and which you will always collect.
2. When a gamble is offered, check what the next rung pays and what you lose if the guess is wrong.
3. If the win matters to you, press collect rather than gamble.
4. If you gamble and climb, decide in advance where you will stop.

However it is presented, a gamble swaps a known prize for a chance at a larger one. It doesn’t make the machine more generous over time.

How fruit machine features fit inside the payout percentage

Category C machines must display a theoretical target return, and many UK fruit machines are compensated: their software steers the long-run payout towards that target. Think of the target as a budget. If a machine is set to return, say, 85% (an illustrative figure), every line win, nudge prize, trail award and cash pot is paid from that 85%. A machine with generous trails will pay fewer small line wins, and the reverse.

This is why no feature beats the machine. Using holds and nudges well means you don’t miss prizes the machine has made available, which is worthwhile; but the machine’s share of £15 in every £100 played, on that illustrative figure, stays in place. The mechanism is explained under compensated machines.

How fruit machine features developed in the UK

Fruit machine features grew up alongside the laws that set machine limits. The Gaming Act 1968 treated pub and arcade machines as ‘amusement with prizes’ (AWP) machines, and the Gambling Act 2005 replaced that system with today’s categories. Our fruit machine history page has the full story.

Background on two of those machines is in the encyclopaedia entries for Bar-X (opens in a new tab) and the quiz machine (opens in a new tab). The Bar-X maker has its own profile under Electrocoin.

Fruit machine features in online slots

Online slots borrow fruit machine language but work differently. Every online spin in Great Britain is random and independent, takes at least 2.5 seconds and can’t be started by autoplay. Features with familiar names have new meanings: nudging wilds move a wild reel one step at a time to cover the screen, and Nolimit City’s XNudge wilds add a multiplier with each nudge. You don’t spend these nudges; the game does it for you.

Some online games recreate pub-style trails and gambles, often from makers with a UK machine history such as Barcrest. The fruit machines type page compares land-based and online versions.

Where to play slots with fruit machine features online

Our partner offers are online and open to new customers aged 18 and over; terms apply. Coral gives 100 free spins at 10p each on selected games when you bet £10 on slots, with 48 hours to accept, 7 days to use them and no wagering on winnings. Ladbrokes gives up to 500 free spins, 50 a day for 10 days at 10p each, when you play £10 on slots, claimed by 23:59 each day, valid 7 days and without wagering. PlayOJO’s 80 free spins are played on Big Bass Bonanza at 10p each after a first deposit of at least £10, with no wagering.

Free spins are tied to selected games, not necessarily fruit-style ones, and certain payment methods are excluded from the Coral and Ladbrokes offers. Coral and Ladbrokes share an operator, so check the terms before opening accounts at both. Game availability changes; search each lobby. See the current offers for full details.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: plan a slot budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.