How to play
Shifting Ways has six reels and no paylines. Every time the reels stop, each one independently shows anywhere from 2 to 7 symbols, so the shape of the window is different on almost every spin. A tall reel next to a stubby one is normal.
Pick a coin (1, 2, 5, 10 or 20) and press Spin. The stake is always 20 coins, however tall or short the reels turn out. You start with 1,000 credits, which is fifty spins at the smallest coin.
A symbol wins when it appears on reel 1, reel 2, reel 3 and so on without a gap, in any row. The number of ways is the number of copies on the first reel times the copies on the second, and so on along the run. The pay from the table is multiplied by that number. Two amethysts on reel 1, three on reel 2 and one on reel 3 is 2 × 3 × 1 = 6 ways, so the three-reel amethyst pay of 9 coins becomes 54.
How the reel heights work
Each reel picks its height from 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, all equally likely and independent of the others. Six reels of seven give 7⁶ = 117,649 ways; six reels of two give only 64. Most spins land somewhere in between, which is why the win counter jumps around so much.
Two things follow from this:
- A tall reel holds more symbols, so it’s more likely to contain the one you need, and when it does, it often contains it twice or three times.
- The scatter also shows up more on tall reels, since there are more cells for it to land in.
The Gold wild counts as a copy of any paying symbol, on any reel. It has no pay of its own and does not stand in for the scatter.
Pay table
Coin pays, multiplied by the ways. Note that the royals need longer runs:
| Symbol | 3 reels | 4 reels | 5 reels | 6 reels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amethyst crystal | 9 | 20 | 42 | 104 |
| Emerald | 5 | 13 | 33 | 84 |
| Sapphire | 4 | 9 | 20 | 62 |
| Ruby heart | 3 | 9 | 17 | 42 |
| A | – | 4 | 9 | 20 |
| K | – | 3 | 9 | 17 |
| Q | – | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| J | – | – | 4 | 9 |
| 10 | – | – | 3 | 9 |
Free spins gem: four, five or six gems anywhere (one per reel counts) pay 2×, 10× or 50× the total bet and award 10, 15 or 20 free spins. Free spins keep the shifting heights and can retrigger.
The odds
The gem is rare: one per 37-stop reel, and four reels out of six must show it. In a 2,000,000-round simulation at the smallest coin, free spins began about once every 371 spins, the machine paid back around 95.6%, and 43.6% of rounds returned something. These are measured numbers, not exact ones.
The hit rate is high because short runs of the four picture symbols pay often across several ways. The swings come from six-reel runs on tall reels, where the ways can reach into the hundreds or thousands.
Strategy
You can’t choose reel heights, so the game has no decisions beyond coin size. A few things help you read it:
- Watch the first two reels. Every win starts on reel 1. A seven-high first reel full of different symbols gives many runs a chance; a two-high one limits you to at most two starting symbols.
- Royals are not filler here. J and 10 need five reels, but a five-reel run across tall reels can multiply into a big count of ways.
- Budget for the gem. At once per 371 spins on average, free spins are an occasional event. Choose a coin that lets you see a few hundred spins if you want to reach them.
If you want ways pays on a fixed 3-row grid, compare Safari Ways. For a slot built around a single bonus event, Treasure Picks is the other extreme.
If you enjoy Shifting Ways, try Short Deck Hold’em or Sic Bo next.
