Slots have come a long way since the early days of the 1976 slot created by Fortune Coin, which is thought to be the world’s first video slot. This was a 4-reel slot with 3 paylines which pioneered the use of random number generators in slots and presented the outcomes on a video screen, rather than using mechanical reels.
The subsequent half-century has seen many innovations in slot machines, especially after the introduction of online slots. From IGT’s progressive jackpot slots to Yggdrasil’s Gigablox mechanic and NoLimit City’s range of xMechanics, there’s never been a greater variety of slot design.
Link & Win is an online slot respin mechanic that was developed by the creative minds of Microgaming and introduced in 2021. It’s an extremely popular feature that’s used in a large number of slots.
In this article, we’ll look at how Link&Win works and where you can find slots that use this mechanic.
How Does the Link&Win Mechanic Work?
Link & Win slots have similar main game mechanics to many regular slots, with a certain number of reels and lines and a variety of symbols.
There are many different Link&Win slots, but for the purpose of demonstrating how they work, we’ll focus here on Mighty Titan by High Limit Studio. This is a high variance slot with a 5000x maximum payout.
In addition to the symbols depicting clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades, and aquatic gods, there are four differently coloured pearl symbols. These are the Link&Win symbols, which you can see below:
Most of the pearl symbols are white, but there are also blue sapphire, green emerald, and red ruby pearls. If you land between 6 and 14 of these pearl symbols in a spin, you’ll trigger the Link&Win feature.
Not all Link&Win games require you to land the same number of Link&Win symbols. For example, you trigger the feature in Fortune Dragon Link&Win if you land between 3 and 14 of the symbols.
Example Link&Win Feature
In the screenshot below, you can see the Link&Win feature triggered by landing 7 pearl symbols:
Each of the pearl symbols has a monetary amount, which is relative to your stake (£2 stakes are used in this example, and the initial value of all the pearls is £22).
To enter the Link&Win feature, you need to click or tap the screen to continue:
The pearl Link&Win symbols are held in place and the reels spin around them in the parts of the grid that don’t have any pearls in them. You can see a spin in progress here:
You get 3 respins to try to collect more Link&Win symbols, but this resets to 3 if you land any additional symbols.
Once you run out of respins, or fill the grid with symbols, the Link&Win feature ends.
Here’s how the pearl symbols work:
- White pearls have a certain credit value
- Sapphire pearls add their credit value randomly to two or more held white pearls, before turning white
- Emerald pearls add their credit value to all held white pearls, then turn white
- Ruby pearls add their credit value to all held white pearls. They remain as ruby pearls throughout the Link&Win feature. If any more pearls are landed, the ruby pearl adds its credit value to all white pearls again
Below, you can see that a £2 emerald pearl has landed, but hasn’t yet added its credit value to the white pearls:
And here’s the situation after it’s added it’s value to the white pearls and turned white itself:
A £4 ruby pearl lands later in the feature round. Here it is before it adds its value to all the white pearls:
And here it is after the credit is added:
The final pearl that lands is a white £5 pearl. Again, the value of the £4 ruby pearl is added to all the white pearls:
When there are no more respins, the credit value of all the pearls is added together, giving a total feature win of £134 in this example:
Jackpots
Link&Win slots often have jackpots that are associated with the Link&Win symbols. Mighty Titan has these jackpot amounts with a stake of £2, for example:
To win the Mini, Maxi, Minor, and Major amounts, you need to land these symbols in a Link&Win feature. The Mega jackpot is triggered by landing all 15 Link&Win symbols.
Here’s a breakdown of the jackpots on Mighty Titan.
Mini
This pays 5x stake.
Maxi
This pays 10x stake.
Minor
This pays 50x stake.
Major
This pays 500x stake. The screenshot below shows a $5 stake major jackpot pearl. The value of this pearl is 500 x $5.00 = $2,500.
Mega
This pays 5000x stake.
It’s triggered by landing all 15 pearl symbols during a Link&Win feature.
Here’s an example of a big win on a Mighty Titan Link&Win round, with a Major jackpot symbol:
High RTP Slots
If you’re doing casino offers, you should always try to go for the highest possible RTP slot, unless you prefer to opt for a lower RTP one with lower variance.
Here are some high RTP Link&Win slots. Please note that there may be different RTP versions of these slots, so always check the information for the actual slot to check this:
Fortune Dragon – Microgaming – 96.5% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with between 3 and 14 Link&Win symbols.
Mystic Panther: Treasures of the Wild – 96.5% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with between 6 and 17 Link&Win symbols. Here’s an example of the Link&Win Feature:
Dragon Empires Golden Age – 96.4% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with 6 or more Link&Win symbols.
Gold Collector: Diamond Edition – 96.4% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with 3 or more Link&Win symbols.
In the Gold Collector: Diamond Edition Link&Win feature, each reel has a different jackpot linked to it, from Mini on the first reel to Grand on the final reel. The reel’s jackpot is awarded if all the symbol positions for that reel are filled with Link&Win symbols:
The screenshot below shows the Minor jackpot being triggered:
WWE Legends: Link&Win – 96.4% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with between 6 and 14 Link&Win symbols.
Big Mouth Fishin’ – 96.3% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with between 6 and 14 Link&Win symbols.
Spin Spin Sugar – 96.3% RTP
The Link&Win Feature is triggered with 3 or more Link&Win symbols.
Link&Win symbols in Spin Spin Sugar don’t have any monetary value. The Link&Win feature is triggered by landing at least three of the colourful sweet symbols. The total win amount is decided based on the number of symbols collected in the round, from a 1x multiplier with 3 symbols up to the maximum 5000x multiplier for 12 symbols:
Using Link&Win Slots for Casino Offers
Even if you pick the Link&Win slots with the highest RTP, you’ll still lose money in the long run, due to the house edge.
One way you can make long-term profits using Link&Win (or any other) slots is to use them to complete casino offers.
For example, if you had an offer to wager £10 on a slot for 10 free spins, worth 20p each, with all spins completed using Mystic Panther: Treasures of the Wild (96.5% RTP), this would have an expected value (EV) of £1.58.
Here’s Oddsmonkey’s handy EV Calculator showing the offer:
Summary
Link&Win is a great slot mechanic that adds an exciting feature to slots, with the potential for some big wins. It’s found its way to a large number of different online slots, each with their own individual character and theme.
The Link&Win feature round also differs from slot to slot, offering plenty of variety on the main theme.
You can find out how to make long-term profits from slots, including those with the Link&Win feature, by having a go at casino offers with All Access membership at Oddsmonkey.
