You don’t have to do anything other than just bet and play the game before a wild symbol appears. However, the sticky wild is usually offered only when in a certain mode such as a bonus game or free spins. It freezes on the screen and can remain there for many subsequent respins increasing your chances of getting bigger wins.
Since sticky wilds don’t usually appear during regular spins, you will most likely encounter them after entering a bonus mode. There the sticky wild can appear randomly during the spins as the player doesn’t need to trigger them by himself.
Features are where things get really interesting. Before we delve more into them we’d like to let you know that slots that offer sticky wilds are usually highly volatile meaning that the spins can cost a lot but the potential of hitting large wins is greater than when playing other slots.
One of the best features has to be the sticky wild multiplier. In most cases, this appears as a 1x – 3x payline win multiplier and remains in place for the remainder of the bonus spins.
There aren’t any disadvantages as to the nature of the sticky wild feature but their presence isn’t always beneficial. Apart from the fact that slots offering them are highly volatile, the winnings tend to grasp from bonus modes where they appear. This means that if you only get one or two sticky wilds during a full round of free spins, then your chances of winning big aren’t that great.
On the bright side, sticky wilds do increase the payout as they substitute for almost all symbols on any given payline they contribute to.
There are many variations to this seemingly simple feature. Sticky wilds can shift places with other symbols, move, or expand vertically and horizontally. The latter can even lead to fully wild reels more on which you can read on the associated article on our site. Some games even allow you to pick a symbol and transform it to a wild for the next spin by paying a small fee.