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Slots with Bonus Rounds 
Our guide to slots with bonus rounds will give you the full lowdown on what they are and exactly how they work. Plus, we’ve got some great recommendations on where to play them. We will also tell you specific games that contain some of the most fantastic bonus rounds. Read on for all the essential details!
Find the Best Online Slots with Bonus Rounds at JohnSlots!
On this page, you’ll find a full guide for how and where to find the best online slots with bonus rounds. There are also complete details on the numerous types of bonus features, how they work and how to trigger them.
Plus, we’ve put our casino experts to work! They’ve compiled a handy list of the top online casinos where you can enjoy playing our recommended bonus round slots.
What Are Bonus Games in Online Slots?
Most modern slots today have one or several bonus round features that come in a range of formats, such as free spins, pick bonus games, and many more – the sky’s the limit. They can be mostly triggered from the base game, but you’ll find that some bonuses like jackpots may also trigger randomly on any given spin or within the bonus round in action – each game is different.
The reason slots with bonus games are so popular is that on top of making your gameplay more exciting, they can also offer bigger wins than the base game. Besides, slot bonus rounds allow developers to add layers of complexity to the game’s configuration, making it more exciting and enjoyable to play. In addition, bonus rounds can help extend your gameplay and budget if you’re lucky enough to trigger free spins or other features included in the game.
How Do Bonus Rounds in Slots Work?
Depending on the game, you’ll need to land several special symbols to launch a bonus round. If you’ve never played online slots with bonus rounds before, be sure to consult the game’s paytable. It will tell you how to trigger the unique features and what happens when you do.
While most bonus rounds are automatic, some may need your interaction for the feature to start working. For example, you might come across a bonus wheel containing free spins with a starting multiplier. You’ll need to spin that wheel to collect your bonus. Or, you might need to play a pick bonus game, sometimes called click me bonus, during which you’ll click on mystery icons to reveal your prize. But in most cases, bonuses like free spins or respins will pause the base game and start immediately after being triggered on top of the same or a new set of reels.
In addition to breaking you out of the base game, bonus rounds play at no additional cost to you, which is fantastic news! If anything, you’ll boost your play balance with extra wins if you’re fortunate enough – it’s called a bonus round for a reason. Instead of eating into your real cash balance, the feature will run using its dedicated credit. For instance, triggering a bonus round with 10 free spins allows you to spin the reels 10 times for free.
Some slots with bonus games come with retriggers, meaning that you can reactivate your bonus round up to a certain amount of times, extending your gameplay even further. Once the feature ends, the game will calculate your wins, add the final sum to your real money balance and take you back to the base game.
How to Trigger the Bonus Round Feature in Slot Games
It can differ from game to game, but most online slots with bonus rounds use scatters as the key triggering symbols. They’re called so because, unlike regular symbols, they don’t always have to land on consecutive reels to activate the feature. In some games, they can land anywhere; in others, you might need to hit them on specific reels to launch the bonus round.
Looks-wise, scatters can come in any shape or form and are usually connected to the game’s theme. One of the easiest ways to recognise a scatter is to look it up on the paytable, where you’ll also find out if they award a payout. In some games, as well as being the triggering symbols, they can offer payouts for a set of 3-5 or more identical symbols.
How Many Bonus Symbols Trigger Bonus Round Feature?
The key to unlocking any bonus round within a slot game is landing a set of triggering symbols like scatters or special bonus icons. The number can vary depending on the slot, but often you’ll need to find 3 or more identical symbols on a single spin in the base game for the feature to trigger.
The size of your bonus can also depend on the number of triggering symbols. In some games, the more scatters you can find on the reels to trigger the bonus round, the more free spins you’ll receive. Other games can offer an extra one or more free spins for any scatter landed beyond the trigger 3.
Random Bonus Games
Some slot games love to give you a helping hand by randomly triggering a bonus feature on any spin. Sometimes, but not always, this triggers on a non-winning spin. This way, the feature will give you a second chance at landing a win without any further bet on your part.
A random bonus round is often awarded by a slot’s main character, such as Finn (in Finn’s Golden Tavern). They will leap into action and help to trigger an event, such as a free respin. Or, they might put extra symbols onto the reels. These random triggers are a great! That’s because they boost your chances of winning in the base game without taking anything from your bankroll!
Bonus Retrigger Option
Some slots will have the ability for the bonus round to retrigger. This means that you can land specific symbols during the bonus feature that will get the feature to start over again. A good example of this would be landing another 3 scatters in a free spins round to award yourself another 10 free spins. By retriggering, you can therefore keep the feature going for longer.
Retriggers are a great way to increase your win potential from a slot’s bonus round without making a dent in your bankroll. Unfortunately, not all slot games will have this ability. On most slots, you’ll need to go back to the base game and land another set of scatters or bonus symbols to trigger the feature again.
Types of Slots with Bonus Games
So far, we’ve mostly mentioned free spins as bonus games, but there are many other exciting events to discover and enjoy when playing slots with bonus rounds. We’ve listed some of the most popular options below, from pick bonus games and bonus wheels to jackpot features.
Free Spins
These are normally played on the same set of reels as the base game but with additional features coming into action. These can include multipliers or sticky wilds. The ever-popular Immortal Romance has a fantastic progressive free spins round for players to enjoy. The more times you trigger it, the bigger the rewards, which is a nice addition.
Jackpot Bonus
A jackpot bonus is a special bonus round where you have a shot at winning the game’s top prize. Slots might have a single jackpot or multiple ones, such as the mini, midi and mega jackpots in the mighty Hall of Gods from NetEnt. Jackpots can be a fixed amount or progressive.
With a fixed jackpot, you can win a certain multiple of your bet (up to 10,000x, 20,000x or more!). With a progressive jackpot, the prize increases with every spin of the slot’s base game from any player in the network. Progressive pots can go well into the millions!
Pick a Reward
This gives you a blind chance at winning by selecting the symbols that you think are hiding a reward. It’s common to see treasure chests or playing cards used to cover up the potential prizes. Pick the right one to get a reward, pick the wrong one and the round is usually over, and it’s back to the base game. Beat the House is a great example of this style of bonus round where you have to move across the progressive tiers and collect coins and 2x multipliers.
Bonus Wheel
Sometimes triggering the bonus round takes you to a wheel that you’ll have to spin to determine your reward first. There could be instant cash prizes on offer or a number of free spins to play. Wherever the wheel stops, that’s the reward you’ll receive. The Bonus Twister Wheel in From Dusk Till Dawn is a great example of this bonus round style.
Bonus Game
Some bonus rounds will appear as an entirely separate feature from the slots base game. A game within a game if you like. A new set of reels, bonus wheel or game board will appear on the screen ready to play. The Car Chase Bonus in Cops and Robbers from Play’n GO is a great example of this bonus round in action.
What Makes a Good Bonus Round?
The pure popularity of bonus round slots means that there are hundreds and hundreds to choose from. While all that choice is nice, it can make it hard to track down the games with the best bonus round features. It’s important to know what to look for when selecting a new bonus game slot, so here are a few pointers to help you decide:
- Hit Frequency – even if you find a slot with a fantastic bonus round that’s packed with great prizes, it’s not much fun if you can never trigger it. Therefore, you’ll need to know the ‘hit frequency’ of a slot’s bonus features so you can be sure there is a realistic chance of triggering them as you spin away in the base game.
- Entertainment Factor – there’s no point in working hard to trigger a bonus round if it’s boring to play. You want to look for slots with a strong theme that ties into its bonus round to keep you entertained as you spin towards some bigger rewards.
- Payout Potential – even if you can regularly trigger a slot’s bonus round, you need to be sure that it’s going to reward you for your efforts. Look for games with bonus round multipliers to really boost your wins and leave you with something worth playing for.
Bonus Round Features
In addition to the pointers mentioned above, the features will usually come into play to help distinguish the bonus round from the regular game. Any bonus round worth its salt should have enough special features to make it worth playing.
Things like multipliers and sticky wilds can seriously increase your chances of hauling in a sizable win inside any bonus game. Here are a few of the main ones to look for in any good slot with bonus rounds:
| BONUS ROUND FEATURE | HOW IT WORKS DURING THE BONUS ROUND |
| Colossal Symbols | This sort of symbol is larger than the games regular symbols, making it easier to form winning combinations. They will be 2×2, 3×3 or even bigger to cover more of the reels and rows. |
| Expanding Symbols/Wilds | These start at a regular size but can expand to cover entire rows or reels for increased win potential. If the expanding symbols are also wilds, then it can become much easier to form wins across the slot’s reels. |
| Exploding Symbols | These symbols will explode and disappear when they form a winning combination, potentially leaving space for more symbols to drop down and replace them. |
| Moving/Walking Wilds | This type of Wild will move around the game’s reels or grid with each spin. They often travel from the rightmost reel to the leftmost, forming extra wins as they go. |
| Wild Reels | Wild Reels are when entire reels become wild to help in forming winning combinations across the game. |
| Multipliers | These might be attached to specific symbols such as wilds or apply to the whole spin. They will multiply your win by whatever number is displayed such as 2x, 3x and so on for some epic potential rewards. |
| Progress Feature | There might be a bar or meter at the side of the game area which you’ll fill by landing specific symbols or winning combinations. Once the meter is full, it can trigger a special feature during or at the end of the bonus round. |
| Sticky Symbols | These will stick like glue and remain in place for the following spin or even the entire bonus round. As more sticky symbols land, the game screen can quickly fill up with and trigger some larger rewards. |
| Stacked Symbols | Several identical symbols will stack up within a reel to give a better chance of spinning up some winning combinations. |
How to Choose the Best Slots with Bonus Games
It can be tricky to know which slots you should be looking to play and which you should give a wide berth. Here are a few ways that you can quickly assess any bonus round slot to know if it’s going to be worth your time and money:
Paytable
Every slot game has a paytable that gives details of how much the game’s symbols pay. It should also include details about the game’s special features, how to trigger them and how much potential they have. It’s a quick way to gauge the range and style of bonus features inside any slot game. With this, you can see if it fits with your budget and playing style.
Read Slot Reviews
One solid shortcut to finding out if a slot with bonus games is worth playing would be to read a professional review. Here at JohnSlots, our team of expert game reviewers investigate each and every detail in any slot they review. We bring you an honest rundown of its features, potential and payouts. Save yourself some serious time by checking out our latest online slot reviews.
Play for Free
Did you know that you can ‘try before you buy’ with online slots? Many casinos offer the ability to play their games in demo or free mode. Therefore, you can experience all the bonus features of a slot game without spending any of your own funds to play it. It’s a great way to quickly assess if a game is to your liking or not.
Favourite Developer or Theme
This is where the old adage – stick with what you know – applies. If there’s a casino games developer or specific theme of slot games that you prefer then explore that avenue. Numerous titles are coming out every single day, so you’ll never be short of choice, even with niche themes and smaller gaming studios.
Best Slots with Bonus Rounds of 2024
Our team of casino pros have been hard at work, seeking out the very best slots with bonus rounds that you can play right now. Here are their top 10 for you to enjoy!
| SLOT WITH BONUS ROUNDS | HIGHLIGHTS |
|---|---|
| Betty, Boris and Boo | Sticky Wilds, Expanding Symbols, Free Spins and Multipliers |
| Rome: The Golden Age | Free Spins, Progressive Multipliers, Sticky Symbols |
| Money Train 2 | Free Spins, Respins, Money Cart Bonus Round |
| Foxpot | Win Multipliers, Nudge Feature, Fox Wheel |
| Wheel of Fortune Megaways | Free Spins, Wild Megastacks, Extending Reels |
| Reactoonz 2 | Fluctometer, Quantumeter, Wild Pair Explosion |
| Deadwood | Shoot Out Feature, Shot Out Free Spins, Free Spins, xNudge Feature |
| Book of Ra Deluxe | Free Spins, Mystery Symbols, Special Expanding Symbol, Win Multipliers |
| 9 Pots of Gold | Free Spins Feature, Free Spin Wheel, Pot Pays Feature |
| Thunderstruck 2 | Wilds, Wild Storms, 4 Free Spins Options, Multipliers |
Betty, Boris and Boo
Betty, Boris and Boo is a quirky ghost-themed slot with an awesome free spins bonus round which kicks off with 10 spins as standard. The spooky bonus round features sticky wilds, expanding symbols and a up to 10x multiplier.
Rome: The Golden Age
Even in the base game, Rome: The Golden Age has a mighty up to 1,000x multiplier that can be triggered. Landing sticky Rome symbols in the free spins round on an unlocked position will award you a 1x to 50x your bet random prize and reset the spins.
Money Train 2
As well as the very welcome respin feature in the bonus game, Money Train 2 has a rather unique free spins round. Landing one of the 11 special symbols will unlock an extra reel to rocket your winning potential sky-high in this wild west themed epic.
Foxpot
Foxpot from Games Global is a great example of a slot packed with bonus rounds and features. The king of them all is the Fox Wheel with its 3 sections – the money wheel, the multiplier wheel and the respin wheel. Spinning this gives you the potential to hit one of the game’s 3 highly lucrative jackpots.
Wheel of Fortune Megaways
If you love the TV game show then you’re bound to enjoy the Wheel of Fortune Megaways slot from Big Time Gaming and IGT. The epic free spins bonus round here features some unique ‘extending reels’. Each reel can extend up to a maximum of 10 symbols high. Triggering this feature can boost the Megaways mechanic up to a maximum of 1,000,000. Yes, that’s right, one million ways to win. That’s something quite special, indeed!
Reactoonz 2
This crazy alien critter-fest from Play’n GO is the sequel to the hugely successful original Reactoonz slot and this time they’ve managed to pack in even more crazy special features. In Reactoonz 2 you’ll need to collect groups of symbols and charge up the Fluctometer and Quantumeter to unleash some epic bonus rounds. The 2×2 size Energoons or the gigantic 3×3 Gargantoon can bring sizable rewards here, so get busy with those little monsters.
Deadwood
Head out to the old Wild West in search of some rewards in the fast shooting Deadwood from Nolimit City. Stacked nudge wilds combine with a progressive multiplier to crank up the win potential in the base game. With multiple options to pick from in the free spins round, including sticky multipliers, you’ll need to balance risk against reward to walk away unscathed from this one.
Book of Ra Deluxe
Although Book of Ra Deluxe might appear to be light on bonus features at first glance, it still has enough going on to earn its place on this list. Landing 3 scatters anywhere on the reels will trigger the highly rewarding free spins round with a mighty 15 free spins and a double multiplier. Plus one of the standard symbols will become a special expanding symbol to further increase your winning potential.
9 Pots of Gold
This Irish slot game is as basic but as fun as they come. The main attraction in 9 Pots of Gold is the generous free spins round which seems to trigger frequently. Once you’ve landed 3 or more scatters to activate it, a bonus wheel will appear, loaded with up to 30 free spins and lucrative up to 3x multipliers. Whatever it lands on is yours to enjoy for the duration of the free spins bonus round.
Thunderstruck 2
You can feel the might of the Norse gods echoing through your screen in the epic Thunderstruck 2 from Games Global. Central to this slot is the multifaceted Hall of Spins feature that contains 4 different features within it. As well as this mighty bonus round, look out for the oncoming Wild Storm feature which can turn up to 5 reels completely wild for some epic win potential.
Where to Play Slots with Bonus Games
If you’re looking for a safe and secure place to play slots with bonus games, then your search is now officially over. The list below features only casinos that have passed the stringent tests set by our casino pros concerning safety, bonuses, game selection, payment methods and more.
Click on one to claim the bonus and start enjoying a new casino experience at any of the following sites:
How we Rate JohnSlots aim to help players make confident financial decisions with ease. Our expert reviews and slot tests are free of charge and we strive to be fully transparent, unbiased and accurate. Our seasoned team of over 12 experts follows strict criteria when rating and reviewing all casinos and slots. Our reviews are backed by rigorous analysis involving 8+ hours dedicated to researching and 16+ hours of data collection and verification.
Affiliate Disclosure To be able to provide quality services with no extra costs for players, we enter into paid partnership for product placement with the casino operators listed on the website. Additionally, we may receive a commission when a user clicks a link and makes a purchase. This does not affect in any way our independent and honest slot sites reviews and recommendations.
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Find the Best Slot Games at JohnSlots.com!
As you can see, bonus rounds in slots can come in many shapes and sizes, adding a splash of excitement to your casino gaming, wherever they are found!
Now that you’re an expert in finding and playing the best slot games with bonus rounds, why not take some time to explore the other great casino resources here at JohnSlots. We’ve got everything from some secret slot tips to help you play like a pro, right up to the latest online casino reviews.
If you’re looking to broaden your casino gaming horizons then why not dive into a world of quirky and diverse slot themes. Or, maybe investigate the exciting range of Megaways slots or Slingo games we’ve reviewed just for you!
FAQ Section
If you’ve still got a burning question or two when it comes to bonus features in slot games, then fear not. Our casino game experts have replied to the most common queries that players have about slot bonuses.
It depends on your preference and whether you enjoy games with complex bonus rounds or a more straightforward affair. But it’s not just the bonus games you’ll want to look out for when choosing your next title. The max potential, audiovisuals, and key stats like RTP and volatility also matter.
Of course, you can! When you play slots with bonus rounds in demo mode, you still get access to all the same features as you would playing for real money. Playing for fun doesn’t win you real money, but you still get to experience the game in its true form.
Playing games in demo mode can help you find your next favourite bonus rounds features. But the easiest way to discover some of the best slots is to read our expert reviews, where we explore key features in close detail.
Yes, bonus rounds are predetermined by the developer. They are an integral part of the game to make it more exciting. But some modern slots may also have bonus rounds with several modes allowing you to customise them or pick your preferred option.
For the best experience, we recommend playing online slots with bonus games at licensed and regulated online casinos. If you’re unsure where to find them, our toplist of some of the best-rated gambling sites will point you in the right direction.
