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Theatre terms for the reels
Every word used in the productions and the programme notes, explained plainly.
- Auto-play
- Runs up to ten rounds in a row at the same play amount. It pauses for features, errors, a hidden tab or an interval reminder.
- Encore Reel
- Our name for the last-reel respin: when a spin pays nothing and exactly two scatters show, the fifth reel alone spins once more.
- Feature
- Anything beyond a plain spin, such as free spins, a Held Pose, a Scene Change or an Encore Reel.
- Free spins
- Rounds that use none of your Play Credits, begun by three or more scatters.
- Full Spotlight
- Our name for expanding wilds: a wild on reel two, three or four fills its whole reel before the lines are read.
- Gilt token
- One of the five round tokens numbered I to V, the lowest-paying symbols in every production.
- Held Pose
- Our name for the sticky-wild respin: wilds from a spin that paid nothing stay put while the other positions spin once more.
- Hit rate
- The share of rounds that return any award at all, measured over two million rounds per production.
- Line
- A fixed path across the five reels. It pays when three or more matching symbols sit on it, starting from the leftmost reel.
- Matinee
- A guest visit without an account: three productions and 50,000 temporary Play Credits for up to an hour.
- Play amount
- The Play Credits one spin uses: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 or 400.
- Play Credits
- Fictional units used only for play. Nobody can buy them, win them as prizes, pass them on or cash them out.
- Reel
- One of the five vertical columns of symbols on the stage.
- Return
- Across a very large number of rounds, the proportion of credits played that returned as awards. It speaks about the long run and tells you nothing about your next sitting.
- Rising Applause
- Our name for the free-spin ladder: the multiplier climbs one step with every free spin and holds at the top step.
- Scatter
- A symbol that pays in any position and begins free spins when three or more appear.
- Scene Change
- Our name for cascading wins: winning symbols vanish, the rest fall, the gaps refill, and chained wins pay 2×, 3× and then 5×.
- Straight Play
- Our name for classic lines: fixed paylines and free spins, with no other feature.
- Volatility
- How results are spread. Low volatility gives smaller awards more often; high volatility gives larger ones less often.
- Wild
- A symbol that can stand in for every other symbol except the scatter.
Want the fuller story? The programme notes take each idea in turn, with examples.