How Infinity Reels Slots Actually Work

Most pokies tell you upfront how many ways to win you've got. Twenty paylines. Two hundred and forty-three ways. The 117,649 you get on a Megaways title. Infinity Reels throws that number out. There isn't one. Every time you land a win, a new reel slides in from the right, and if it keeps the combo going, another one shows up after that. The grid grows for as long as you keep connecting symbols, and the game only settles up once the wins finally stop.

It sounds gimmicky on paper. In practice, it's one of the more genuinely different mechanics released in the past few years, and it's worth understanding before you load up a session.

Where the Mechanic Came From

The format was built by ReelPlay, a Sydney studio that quietly puts out a lot of the more inventive maths models in the industry. They launched it in 2020 with El Dorado Infinity Reels and have since licensed it out to other developers — Yggdrasil, Relax Gaming, PG Soft, and a handful of others have all shipped titles using the engine. Around the same time, NetEnt released something similar called InfiniReels, which has caused a fair bit of confusion in player forums. The two studios developed their versions independently, and the mechanics aren't identical.

What Happens on a Spin

A standard ReelPlay Infinity Reels game opens with three reels, four rows tall. Five matching symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost, count as a win. When that happens, three things kick off at once:

• A respin is triggered automatically, no extra bet.

• A new reel slides in on the right, populated with fresh symbols.

• The win multiplier ticks up by one (it starts at x1).

If the new reel contains a symbol that extends your winning combo, the cycle repeats. Reel five appears, multiplier goes to x3, another respin. If the new reel doesn't help, the sequence ends, and your total payout is calculated against the final multiplier. This is why the mechanic feels different from cascading wins or expanding wilds — the grid itself physically grows, and the multiplier rides along with it.

There is no hard cap. Most titles include an Infinity Bonus that pays out 888x your stake if you manage to extend the grid to 12 or 13 reels in a single spin, which is rare but mathematically possible.

A Quick Comparison With Other Big Mechanics

Here's how Infinity Reels stacks up against the two formats it's most often confused with:

The practical difference: NetEnt's version triggers on any win and needs three matching symbols. ReelPlay's version needs five and only fires when the new rightmost reel contributes to the combo. ReelPlay also gives you free respins as part of the same paid spin, whereas NetEnt's older versions could require additional bets to keep the chain going.

Volatility and What to Expect

Don't go in thinking this is a steady-drip mechanic. These games sit firmly in the high-volatility bracket. The hit rate on most ReelPlay titles hovers around 1 in 3.5 to 1 in 4 spins, but the vast majority of those hits resolve at the base three-reel level for modest payouts. The big sessions — the screenshot-worthy ones where the grid stretches across the screen, and the multiplier climbs into double digits — are uncommon by design. The maths is built so that the rare extended chains carry most of the game's RTP weight.

If you want to get a feel for the mechanic without burning bankroll, demo mode is the obvious move. Across NZ-facing operators, you'll find Infinity Reels titles bundled into the broader portfolio — sites like https://spin.city/en/casino/collection/slot list ReelPlay alongside the major studios, and most let you spin in practice mode before committing real money. A handful of demo rounds is usually enough to see the rhythm.

Titles Worth Knowing

A few that stand out, each with its own twist on the base mechanic:

• El Dorado Infinity Reels — the original, and still a clean example of how the engine works without extra bells.

• Odin Infinity Reels Megaways — pairs Infinity Reels with Megaways for genuinely massive theoretical maximums.

• Tiki Infinity Reels Megaways — same hybrid approach, sticky multipliers in free spins.

• Zodiac Infinity Reels — lower volatility, friendlier for shorter sessions.

• Gems Infinity Reels — uses two stacked grids and only needs three matching symbols for a win.

Each one tweaks the formula slightly, so trying a couple gives you a better sense of which variation suits your playing style.

Worth a Spin?

Infinity Reels isn't for everyone. If you prefer fast wins and predictable pacing, the high volatility will frustrate you. But if you've ever wished a slot would just keep going when you're on a hot streak, this is the format built around that exact feeling. Pick one of the lower-volatility titles, put it in demo, and watch a few extended chains play out — you'll know within ten minutes whether it's your kind of game.