Hold and Spin slots feature a special bonus round packed with sticky symbols, resetting respins, and a shot at the Grand jackpot. Every bonus symbol that lands sticks to the reels, so your prize pot grows as the grid fills, and each new hit buys you more time to keep racking up wins.
We’ll explain how the Hold and Spin mechanic works, what the cash symbols pay, and how to land the top prize. You’ll also discover some of the most popular Hold and Spin slots to try.
What Is Hold and Spin?
Hold and Spin is a bonus feature that kicks in when you land a certain number of special symbols during a slot’s base game. You normally need six or more coin symbols to trigger the feature. The bonus symbols will lock in place while the reels respin, typically three times, and you can win prizes on each respin.
Landing another bonus symbol while this feature is active provides two benefits:
- The symbol sticks to the reels, and its cash value is added to your total payout.
- It resets your respins. For example, if you’re down to your last respin and you land a bonus symbol, you’ll be topped back up to three respins.
It’s easy to see why this feature is so popular: your winnings build up symbol by symbol, and every blank spin ratchets up the tension.
Aristocrat’s Lightning Link popularized the format at land-based casinos, and it’s now one of the most common bonus rounds for online slots. The feature is most commonly known as Hold and Win, but you’ll also see it referred to as Hold and Spin, Link and Win, Lock and Win, or Stick N Win. Whatever the name, the format is the same: bonus symbols stick to the reels during the respin feature.
How Hold and Spin Works
Most Hold and Spin slots feature a standard 5×3 grid, leaving you with 15 positions to fill. You normally need at least six bonus symbols to trigger the Hold and Spin round, but some slots only require three, four, or five. The symbols that trigger the bonus feature stay on the reels, and each one carries a cash value or a jackpot label.
The respins feature then begins, and the regular symbols disappear. You’ll normally start with three respins. There are two possible outcomes for each respin:
- Blank: All the remaining positions stay blank. If so, you move on to the next respin.
- Bonus symbol: At least one more bonus symbol appears on the grid. If so, the counter resets and you’ll start with three respins again.
There are two ways in which the round can end: you fill up every space on the grid with a bonus symbol, or you run out of respins. Either way, at the end of the round, the game adds up the values on the grid and the total is added to your balance.
You can look forward to a large prize if you fill every space on the grid. Most Hold and Spin slots award you the Grand jackpot for a full grid, but this is rare.
Cash Values, Collections, and Jackpot Tiers
Each bonus symbol will usually have a specific cash value or a multiplier. For example, you might land bonus symbols worth $5, $10, and $250 on a slot. Alternatively, you might land symbols worth 5x, 10x, and 250x. If you’re playing for $1 per spin, you’ll get $5, $10, and $250.
Alongside regular coins, most Hold and Spin slots include jackpot symbols. There are normally four tiers: Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand. The first three land as individual symbols, and they pay a multiplier of your bet. For example, the Major jackpot might be 300x your bet. If you’re playing for $2, you’ll get a $600 payout. The Grand jackpot is often reserved for players who fill an entire grid with bonus symbols, but not always.
Some newer games add special symbols to the mix. These symbols can dramatically increase your payouts:
- Collectors: These symbols have their own value, but they also gather the values of every coin on the grid and add them to the total payout.
- Multipliers: They increase the value of other symbols, either individually or across the grid.
- Boosters: These symbols add respins, open a new set of reels, or unlock extra rows.
Popular Hold and Spin Slots
Hundreds of online slots now include a Hold and Spin round, although they may refer to it by a different name. Here are three high-quality games to try:
- Big Bass Hold & Spinner: This is one of many games in Pragmatic Play’s flagship Big Bass fishing series, which puts its own twist on the Hold and Spin format. You only need three coin symbols to trigger the Hold & Spinner bonus, which clears every other symbol from the reels and starts you off with four respins instead of the usual three, with each extra coin retriggering them.
- Sun of Egypt 3: The third entry in 3 Oaks Gaming’s Egyptian series offers five fixed jackpots, from Mini to Royal. The first four land as individual jackpot symbols, but you need to fill the entire grid to win the Royal jackpot, which pays 10,000x your total bet. If you land a Super Bonus symbol alongside your trigger, the round upgrades, with every bonus symbol becoming a higher-value Super Bonus symbol.
- Wild Moon Thieves: This lunar-themed slot from BGaming swaps cash coins for sticky Moon Multipliers worth up to 20x, with Collector, Booster, and Cleaner symbols that can push the total higher. Two bonus symbols on reels 2 to 4 trigger the Moon Respin round, which starts with three respins. When the round ends, all your multipliers are added together and applied to your bet. This slot also has an above-average 97% return to player (RTP) rate and a 5,000x max win.
FAQs
You normally need at least six special bonus symbols to trigger the Hold and Spin feature of an online slot. However, the precise number can vary on a game-by-game basis, so check the game rules before playing to confirm.
You’ll normally win the Grand jackpot if you fill the full screen with bonus symbols during a Hold and Spin bonus round. This is usually a multiplier of your total bet, such as 5,000x or 10,000x.
Hold and Spin is better if you enjoy watching a prize build symbol by symbol and you like chasing fixed jackpots. Free spins are better if you prefer classic bonus rounds with regular line wins and multipliers that can stack up. It really depends on what you want from a bonus round, although many slots offer both.
Ilija is a CCN writer with 7 years of experience covering all things crypto. Ever since a fateful run-in with Litecoin in 2013, he's been an avid investor and writer in the space. When he's not maniacally hacking away at his keyboard, Ilija spends his time either hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.
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