What is a Buy Feature in slots?

The very first slot games were very basic and just offered the simplest forms of payouts, match symbols across a series of mechanical reels and, on the very first slot game Liberty Bell at least, you would win yourself a token, which you could then exchange at the bar for an item of your choice, such as a pint of beer, a shot, a glass of wine, a cigarette or a cigar. It was all rather refined in those days!

It wasn't too long after this first slot release that the game was adapted so that instead of paying out tokens, a slot would pay out real cash. These games proliferated and grew hugely popular and for many, many years, these simple 'one-armed bandit' style slots were hugely popular in casinos, pubs and slots halls across the globe.

However, as technology advanced, people realised slots could offer more than just the bog-standard payouts. As electronic and then computer chip technology advanced, so did the complexity of slot games and instead of awarding prizes just for symbol patterns, games began to develop an extra level of complexity in the form of features.

The first features were generally low tech options, such as the ability to Hold a reel in place while the others spin, or the option to 'Nudge' a reel up or down one position to try and land a win. The success of these features then saw a huge increase in the number of companies coming up with innovative ways to introduce new features into slots.

Soon, slot games had additional games players could access if they collected enough of an item on the reels, and when slots moved into the computer age, they were linked together to offer progressive jackpot prizes and games started to offer other bonus features, such as many more ways to win across the reels.

However, it was the advent of the internet that saw these features increase massively. Free Spins games, Pick 'Em games, cash prizes, many different types of Wild symbol, Scatter pay symbols, and Jackpots all became key features of many slots. Even now, we are seeing the top slots producers like Microgaming come up with new features to add to games every few months.

Now the vast majority of these features were accessed through playing the game and triggering the feature by landing a certain combination, or number of symbols on the reels. However, one bright spark realised that if a player could purchase a chance to play the feature within the game, then the slot may well have more appeal for them.

Thus, once the maths had been worked out as to how much to charge for this option, the Buy Feature option began to become available across slot games.

What is a Buy Feature option?

As the name suggests, a Buy Feature option is a way in which a player can elect to pay a predefined amount for a spin, but when they do, the spin will trigger one of the more lucrative bonus features in the game. Obviously, seeing as the feature can be potentially much more lucrative than a standard spin and triggering it is guaranteed, the cost you need to pay to trigger the feature is considerably higher than your standard bet amount.

How much higher the wager you need to make is, depends on a number of things such as the initial cost per spin, the jackpot size available in the bonus feature, how difficult the bonus feature is to trigger and of course, how much a player could potentially win when playing the feature.

The amount shown to Buy the Feature is not an arbitrary amount. The developers will have taken into account all the above factors and many more to ensure that the price charged offers the players a chance of a profit, while also ensuring that the casino is not at risk of losing money on the deal by having to pay out too many top value cash prizes.

One thing to note here is that in some countries, it is not allowed for players to buy a feature in a game. This does differ around the world, but on some games in some countries, some of these features may be disabled for these players and only the standard slot game will be available for them to play. However, these players can still trigger the bonus from within the standard game in the traditional fashion.

The range of features that can be bought within a game are generally Free Spins rounds, although there are options for players to play a different Game Mode, or to play with higher value symbols in certain features of the game. The type of features you can buy are only defined by the type offered within the game itself.

Are Buy Feature options generally positive for players?

This is a great question and the truth of the matter is that Buy Feature options are extremely variable both in their type and also in how effective they can be for players. Some features may offer a better chance of bigger value wins, but can be expensive in the long run and offer only an improved chance, not a guarantee of larger value wins.

Similarly, if you buy a Free Spins feature for example, you could win more than what you paid to trigger the feature, but by the same token, you could also win considerably less than what you paid to access the bonus feature.

I do think a distinction between different types of Buy Feature options needs to be made here and I think that those options where you pay a premium on top of your standard bet amount (usually of either 50% to 100% more of your bet, but sometimes it can be 10x your standard bet) to access some of the more premium features or bigger value wins can be less good value for money than other Buy Feature options.

That is because these options don't offer a cast iron guarantee that you will trigger either a bonus feature, or indeed that the higher value wins you are paying a premium for, will actually come to fruition on the slot when you play.

While buying a Free Spins round or other feature may be the more expensive of the two Buy Feature options (in most cases), at least with this option you are guaranteed to access the bonus itself, even if the size of the payout you generate is not and could well be considerably smaller than what you paid to trigger the bonus.

By their nature, Buy Feature slots tend to be very volatile when you do elect to use the feature but the best thing about them is really that players have the option to use them if they so wish, or they can ignore them completely and play the standard game.

What games can I play that offer Buy Feature options?

Outlined below are some of the most popular recently released slot games that offer a kind of Buy Feature option, although it should be noted that the feature may not be called this in the game itself, but may use another phrase that is similar.

• Wheel of Wishes

Famous as being the first of the Wowpot Progressive Jackpot slot games, the Wheel of Wishes slot offers players the chance to play the slot as standard (for a minimum bet of 0.10 per spin), or they can elect to switch in Power Mode, which means that every spin you play will be the top feature, the Power Spin.

The cost for this feature however is 10x your standard bet, so if you were playing a minimum bet of 0.10 per spin, then each spin would cost you 1.00.

The benefit is with Power Mode active, you access the main bonus of the slot on every spin and on each Power Spin, you do have a guarantee that the spin could trigger the Progressive Jackpot Bonus Game (which is not the case in the base game), where you are guaranteed to win one of the four progressive jackpot prizes.

Furthermore, if you do land a win in Power Mode, given that there are only the higher value Jumbo Blocks symbols on the middle three reels, plus the same high value symbols displayed on the first and fifth reels, it does mean that any wins you land will be of five symbols, which of course means they are the higher value wins.

• Almighty Aztec

This is a simple Buy Feature option which means that if you are willing to shell out 50x your standard base game bet, your spin will trigger the Free Spins bonus. However, 50x your bet will only see you win the minimum 5 Free Spins, although the bonus features does feature Sticky Wilds on the reels and the option to win up to 50x your standard bet (not the Buy Feature amount) if you land five Scatters on the reels during the bonus.

• Wolf Howl

The Wolf Howl slot has a number of different Free Spins options and you can buy each of these for a set amount based on your standard bet. To play the minimum 8 Free Spins costs you 93x your stake, 15 Free Spins costs 159x your stake and 30 Free Spins costs 314x your stake. However, the slot does offer a maximum win of 25,000x your bet and the RTP rating of the slot actually increases a little if you opt to use the Buy Free Spins option.

Bear in mind though, that even at the minimum bet of 0.10 per spin, the 30 Free Spins option would cost you 31.40 to trigger and there is no guarantee that you would claim back at least that amount if you do opt to use the Buy Free Spins option.

Buy Feature games do seem to be coming back into vogue at the moment and I would expect to see a few more of these titles released over the next couple of years from providers as they do offer player a choice of ways to play the game.