WJ2 Ways to win Explained — What 1024 Ways Actually Counts

The reader is assumed by most pages using the word Ways to win to know it already. This one does not.

Ways to win (including Megaways) — A format used in place of the payline, with adjacent matching symbols paying regardless of where they sit.

What Ways to win actually means

What a ways-to-win game rewards is a run of matching symbols across consecutive reels from the left, in any row, rather than a fixed path. Because a 1024-ways game has four rows on each of five reels, its 1,024 possible combinations come to simply 4 to the power of 5. Megaways extends this through reels whose symbol number varies each spin, which is why the way-count is different from spin to spin rather than fixed.

A worked example

Sums are where this becomes clearest. Count a 5x4 grid and the answer is 4^5 = 1,024 ways. Using a 6x6 grid, the sum is 6^6 = 46,656.

Both figures measure how many symbol paths the engine evaluates, which has nothing to do with generosity. Advertising a way-count in the tens of thousands tells you how the game’s grid is arranged, while payouts are a different topic.

The common misreading

It is easy to read a large way-count as a large advantage. What the count contributes is an input to the RTP calculation, with no addition to the RTP itself. Treat a 46,656-ways game as one that hits more often and pays out less on each hit than a 1,024-ways game, not as forty-five times better, given the long-run return the studio set.

You should not think of ways to win as a bonus or a jackpot mechanic. Spin after spin it is there, being the structure by which the base game resolves wins, and not a triggered thing. Though a megaways game’s count varies, that is not random generosity, since the engine fixes the range.

Using it in practice

In ways-to-win games, the payout for each combination is normally lower, which compensates for hitting more often. For comparing games, RTP and volatility matter, whereas the headline way-count is simply a grid description. It is easier to hold onto alongside what paylines means, which the same pages tend to mention in the same breath.

No comparison-site number stands in for Ways to win on the game pages of this site; if the studio publishes no figure behind such a term, the page says exactly that. The reason some spec tables here have blanks is the one just given.

Checking Ways to win at WJ2

1. Pick a game at WJ2, then locate the info or help screen inside it.
2. Check that spot for Ways to win and interpret it according to the definition above.
3. Check how the same entry reads on another title, and only then decide which one to play at WJ2.
4. Write your stake and your stop point down before the first round at WJ2.