243 Ways To Win Slots

As regular players would expect, the catalyst behind the popularity of the system was Microgaming, who have in many ways made it their own and remain the most popular choice among players who want to experience the unique betting opportunities available. However, other manufacturers have of course not been left behind and they too have implemented the system. For example, while Microgaming’s well-known Untamed series of slots features the system, so does Net Entertainment’s Alien Robots and a range of titles from Playtech.

243 Ways To Win Slots is a reference entry rather than a review: it collects the games in this library that belong under the heading and says what the heading actually means, because on a casino site it is usually a marketing label and nothing more.

Two things are worth knowing about lists like this one. A theme is a skin — the artwork, the soundtrack and the symbol set change, the mathematics underneath does not, and two games sharing a theme can behave nothing alike. A feature name, on the other hand, is often a trademark: the same rule ships under a different word in every studio’s catalogue, so a game missing from a list of one name may well be on the list of another name for the same thing. Where that is the case, the entry says which family the rule belongs to instead of pretending the label is unique.

Every game named below has its own spec sheet with the layout and the figures the studio published for it. The rules behind the features are taken apart family by family in Slot Mechanics, the arithmetic is in Slot Math, and the full index of sheets is Slots A–Z.

«243 ways» is not a theme and not a trademark — it is arithmetic. A five-reel game with three symbol positions on every reel, paying for matching symbols in adjacent columns from the leftmost reel regardless of which row they land in, has three choices on each of five reels: 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3, which is 243. Studios print the number on the thumbnail because it sounds like a feature; it is the direct consequence of the layout.

The consequence for a player is how the stake is spent. On a payline game the stake is divided by the number of lines and each line is a separate chance to pay; on a ways-to-win game the stake buys the whole grid at once, and a win is any adjacent-column run of the same symbol. Wins arrive more often and each one is proportionally smaller, which is why a ways-to-win game with the same published return as a payline game feels calmer. The same arithmetic gives the other numbers you see advertised: a fourth row on every reel makes it 1,024 ways, and a grid that changes height between spins is what the Megaways family sells.

The mechanic itself is described in ways to win versus reel expansion, the layout families are listed in Slot Types, and what any of it does to volatility is in Slot Math.

The system is so popular simply because players like to look out for as many winning opportunities as possible. The 243 System does away with win lines completely and instead every symbol from the most basic to the most lucrative effectively becomes a scatter. As long as the symbols match up adjacently from left to right then the player has a shot at a winning combination. The overall effect is the equivalent to 243 win lines, but with no need to place a coin or more on each and every one, providing excellent value to players.

You can find our biggest and best recommendations for players looking to enjoy the 243 Ways to Win System right here on this page, where all of the games are just like the rest of the Gamblib range, with no deposit or download ever required.