Wilds can complete wins; scatters follow their own rules.

A wild is normally part of win formation: it substitutes for one or more paying symbols under the game's rules. A scatter follows its own paytable entry and can award a separate payout, trigger a feature, or do both without following an ordinary payline.

Those are common roles, not universal rules. Some wilds appear only on selected reels, some cannot replace a scatter, and some scatters need exact reel positions. The in-game help and paytable control the answer for the title and version in front of you.

The simplest wild fills a gap in an ordinary winning combination. Variants can then add a second job: an expanding wild covers a reel, a sticky wild remains for later spins, and a multiplier wild increases a win it helps complete.

Starburst uses expanding wild reels to award respins without a separate free-spins round. Dead or Alive 2 starts with substituting wilds, then changes their behavior across three bonus modes. The symbol name alone therefore says less than its reel limits, persistence, and multiplier rules.

A scatter may count anywhere on the visible grid instead of tracing a fixed line. The number that lands can determine a separate payout, the number of awarded spins, or whether a feature opens at all. Other games restrict scatters to particular reels or use a bonus symbol with similar trigger rules.

Book of Dead shows why labels need care: its book symbol acts as both wild and scatter. Dead or Alive 2 pays for two or more scatters and opens free spins from three. Gates of Olympus uses four scatters to start its feature, while its multiplier symbols are a separate mechanic rather than wilds.

Sticky wilds remain in place for a stated part of a feature. Expanding wilds cover more positions or a full reel. Multiplier wilds increase the value of a qualifying win, but the rules decide whether several multipliers add, multiply, or only apply to their own line or reel.

Wild West Gold attaches 2x, 3x, or 5x values to wilds and keeps them sticky during free spins. Sherlock's Casebook uses a simpler sticky Watson wild. Recycle Riches ties a separate multiplier to wilds on each reel, which makes its cluster grid a different comparison again.

A scatter is one special symbol. Paylines, ways, Cluster Pays, and pay-anywhere rules describe how ordinary matching symbols form wins across the board. A slot can use one of those payout systems and still add a separate scatter trigger.

Keep the ordinary win rule, the special-symbol rule, and the bonus rule separate. That makes it easier to compare two reviews without assuming that similar words create the same mathematics or feature timing.