Slots that pay for groups of matching symbols touching on a grid instead of lines. Five cluster pays games compared, from NetEnt's originals to Hand of Anubis and Jammin' Jars 2.
Wins That Need Symbols to Touch
Cluster pays slots have no paylines. A win is a group of matching symbols joined side by side or top to bottom, anywhere on the grid, and the bigger the group, the more it pays. Most games ask for five or more in a cluster, and a diagonal touch does not count.
NetEnt gave the idea its name with Aloha! Cluster Pays in 2016, and today most big studios have cluster games of their own. Games that pay for symbols anywhere, without touching, are compared with cluster games on our grid slots page.
Five Cluster Pays Games, Small Caps to Huge Ones
The figures come from each studio’s own pages and run from the biggest top prize to the smallest. A dash means the studio does not publish that figure.
| Game | Studio | Grid | RTP | Max win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jammin’ Jars 2 | Push Gaming | 8×8 | 96.40% or 94.40% | 50,000x |
| Hand of Anubis | Hacksaw Gaming | 5×6 | – | 10,000x |
| The Legend of Shangri-La: Cluster Pays | NetEnt | 6×5 | 96.59% | 800x |
| Aloha! Cluster Pays | NetEnt | 6×5 | 96.42% | 700x |
| Gems Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 8×8 | 96.51% | – |
Jammin’ Jars 2
Matching at least five fruits pays on Push Gaming’s 8×8 grid, and the game has the highest top prize of any cluster slot here, 50,000x, rated high volatility by the studio. The first Jammin’ Jars and two other big cluster games, Reactoonz and Sugar Rush, are covered on our grid slots page.
Hand of Anubis
Hacksaw Gaming’s 2022 Egyptian game runs its clusters on a 5×6 grid, with cascades after each win and Soul Orbs that build up multipliers. Hacksaw calls it high volatility with a top prize of 10,000x. Our Hand of Anubis guide covers the game in full, and more games set in ancient Egypt are on our Egyptian slots page.
The Legend of Shangri-La: Cluster Pays
NetEnt’s 2017 cluster game adds four features to the cluster idea: Sticky Re-Spins, Random Substitutions, a Nudge Reel and free spins. It has the highest return in the table, 96.59%, and pays on 20% of spins, with a top prize of 800x.
Aloha! Cluster Pays
The game that named the mechanic plays on a 6×5 island grid. A cluster win can start Sticky Win Re-Spins, which hold the winning symbols while the rest spin again for as long as the cluster keeps growing, and three free spins symbols bring a round where some paying symbols are dropped from the reels. It returns 96.42%, wins on 21% of spins and caps at 700x.
Gems Bonanza
Pragmatic Play’s 8×8 jewel grid has a run of spin modifiers, and its Gold Fever feature switches all of them on together. Reaching the last level of that feature brings a 10x win multiplier. Pragmatic lists 96.51% but no overall top prize.
What Happens After a Cluster Pays
Paying the cluster is only the first step. What the game does next shapes how a spin plays out, and the five games use two main ideas.
- Hold and respin: NetEnt’s two games keep the winning cluster in place and spin the rest, so the group can keep growing. On Shangri-La, each starting cluster for this has 5 to 8 symbols.
- Clear and refill: Jammin’ Jars 2 and Hand of Anubis remove the winning symbols and drop new ones into the gaps, so fresh clusters can form from the same stake.
The clear-and-refill idea has its own page, cascading slots, with the multipliers that often come with it.
Does a Slightly Higher RTP Matter?
Over 600 spins at £1, Shangri-La at 96.59% costs about £20 an hour on average and Aloha at 96.42% about £21, so a gap that small changes little in one session. At the £5 limit for players aged 25 and over it is about £102 against £107, and at the £2 limit for those aged 18 to 24 about £41 against £43.
The bigger difference is in the shape of the play: these two NetEnt games pay often and stop at 800x or less, while Hand of Anubis and Jammin’ Jars 2 pay less often for a far higher ceiling. In other markets Hand of Anubis sells direct entry to its bonus rounds; in Great Britain that purchase is not available, and the bonuses have to land in play.
