What a multiplier does to a ways-to-win payout

On a ways-to-win slot the payout for a symbol is two numbers multiplied together: how many ways the symbol has, and what each way pays for a run of that length. A wild works on the first number, as the post on wilds on a ways-to-win slot shows. A multiplier works on the second. It does not add a single way; it makes the ways that already exist pay more.

Every pay value below is hypothetical and chosen to keep the sums easy. None of it is the pay table of any real game, including Brasslight Slots, whose Play listing does not describe multipliers on ways wins.

The base sum

Suppose a fish pays, per way and in multiples of the total bet, 1 for a three-reel run, 3 for four reels and 10 for five. Now take a screen where the fish counts on reels 1 to 5 are 2, 2, 1, 2, 0.

• Reel 5 has no fish, so the run stops at four reels.
• The ways are 2 × 2 × 1 × 2 = 8. The counting rule is in what 243 ways to win means.
• The win is 8 ways × 3 = 24 times the bet.

Everything that follows starts from that 24.

A multiplier on the whole win

The simplest design applies the multiplier to the finished total. A ×2 gives 24 × 2 = 48. A ×3 gives 72. Nothing about the ways changes: still 8 ways, still a four-reel run, and each way now pays 6 instead of 3.

It makes no difference whether you think of the multiplier as scaling the total or scaling each way, because the multiplication can be done in either order: 8 × (3 × 2) is the same as (8 × 3) × 2.

A multiplier on one cell

Some games attach the multiplier to a single symbol or cell, so that it applies only to ways passing through that cell. Then you need to know how many ways that is. The ways through any one cell are the total divided by the count on that cell's reel, because every other reel still offers its full count.

Here, put a ×2 on one of the two fish on reel 2. The ways through that cell are 8 ÷ 2 = 4. The other 4 ways go through the second fish on reel 2 and are untouched.

• 4 multiplied ways: 4 × 3 × 2 = 24.
• 4 plain ways: 4 × 3 = 12.
• Total: 24 + 12 = 36 times the bet.

So the same ×2 is worth 36 on one cell and 48 on the whole win. A cell multiplier is worth more the larger its share of the ways. On a reel where the symbol appears once, every way passes through that cell, and the cell multiplier behaves like a whole-win one.

When multipliers stack

Two multipliers on one spin can be combined in two ways, and games differ. Take a ×2 and a ×3 on the whole win.

• Added: 2 + 3 = ×5, so 24 × 5 = 120.
• Multiplied: 2 × 3 = ×6, so 24 × 6 = 144.

The gap grows as multipliers get bigger. Two ×10s add to ×20 but multiply to ×100. Any rule you read about stacking should say which of the two it uses, because the same symbols give very different results.

The ceiling

The largest possible count is 243 ways, with one symbol, or that symbol plus wilds, filling all fifteen cells. At the hypothetical 10 per way for five reels, that is 243 × 10 = 2,430 times the bet. A ×2 on the whole win makes it 4,860. Most of a multiplier's headline value comes from landing it on a screen that was already large. On the 24-times win above, a ×2 adds 24; on a screen like this one it adds 2,430.

What a multiplier does not change

A multiplier changes the size of a win, not how often one happens. The reel strips decide which symbols land, and a multiplier only acts once a winning screen already exists. It also does not move the long-run average for free: the return of a game comes from the pay table, the reel strips and any multipliers together, as the post on RTP and volatility explains. A game with big multipliers has to pay less elsewhere to keep the same return, which usually means smaller base wins and a bumpier ride.

A multiplier is also not the same thing as a bonus prize quoted as a multiple of the bet. The Play listing for Brasslight Slots says the Yarn Pick bonus hides three prizes worth up to 25 times your bet. That is a prize size, picked once in a bonus round. A multiplier scales a ways win that has already been counted.