Cluster pays pokies: how clusters are counted and paid

Key facts

A cluster pays pokie pays for a group of matching symbols that touch each other, not for symbols on a line. Five is a common minimum: Play'n GO's Reactoonz and Pragmatic Play's Sugar Rush both start paying at 5.
Real examples: NetEnt's Aloha! Cluster Pays (6x5 grid, 96.42% RTP, 21% hit frequency, 700x max), Play'n GO's Reactoonz (7x7) and Hacksaw's Le Bandit (6 reels by 5 rows, up to 10,000x).
A five-symbol cluster can sit on a 7x7 grid in 1,603 different positions and shapes, and on a 6x5 grid in 766, by our count.
In our simulation of a 7x7 grid with 8 equally likely symbols, 17.7% of drops held a cluster of 5 or more, and 9.2% of those winning spins went on to a second cascade win.

How cluster pays pokies work

Cluster pays pokies pay for groups of the same symbol that touch, wherever the group sits on the grid. There are no paylines to follow. A group that reaches the game's minimum size, five in the games we checked, pays an amount that rises with the number of symbols in it. Three of the four games below then clear the winning symbols and drop new ones in, so one spin can pay several times.

Game	Maker	Grid	Cluster rule on the maker's page	RTP	Max win
Aloha! Cluster Pays	NetEnt	6x5	"Build big clusters"; Sticky Win Re-spins after a cluster win	96.42%	700x
Reactoonz	Play'n GO	7x7	"a cluster of five or more matching aliens"	not published	not published
Sugar Rush	Pragmatic Play	not stated	"clusters of 5-15+ matching symbols"	96.50%	not stated
Le Bandit	Hacksaw Gaming	6 reels by 5 rows	"Wintype: Cluster Pays"	96.34% top of four versions	10,000x

NetEnt also lists a 21% hit frequency for Aloha!, so roughly one drop in five pays something.

Counting a cluster: a worked grid

Here is a made-up 6x5 grid, the same shape as Aloha! or Le Bandit. The rule we use: symbols touch if they share an edge (left, right, above or below), and a cluster needs 5 or more.

	Col 1	Col 2	Col 3	Col 4	Col 5	Col 6
Row 1	A	A	B	D	E	E
Row 2	A	B	B	D	E	E
Row 3	A	A	B	C	E	B
Row 4	D	C	B	C	E	E
Row 5	C	D	C	A	D	B

Walk it symbol by symbol:

E: rows 1 and 2 in columns 5 and 6 (four), row 3 column 5, and row 4 columns 5 and 6. Seven symbols, all touching. Pays as a 7.
A: row 1 columns 1 and 2, row 2 column 1, row 3 columns 1 and 2. Pays as a 5. The A in row 5 column 4 is on its own and pays nothing.
B: row 1 column 3, row 2 columns 2 and 3, rows 3 and 4 in column 3. Pays as a 5. The two Bs in column 6 do not touch each other or this group.
D: two in column 4 plus single Ds elsewhere. No group reaches 5.
C: five Cs on the grid, but only two (rows 3 and 4 in column 4) touch along an edge. No win.

Three clusters pay. Now notice the Cs: rows 3 and 4 in column 4, row 4 column 2, row 5 columns 1 and 3. If the game counted diagonal contact, those five would link into a fourth winning cluster. That single rule changes the result of this spin, which is why it is worth reading in the rules screen.

To turn sizes into money you need the paytable. Suppose, purely as an illustration, E pays 2x the bet for 7 and A and B each pay 0.5x for 5. This spin returns 2 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 3x the bet before any cascade. Real figures are in each game's paytable; how to read a pokies paytable shows how to read them.

How many shapes a cluster can take

A line win has one shape. A cluster does not. We counted every connected group of five squares that fits on a grid, joined edge to edge:

Grid	Connected 5-symbol groups that fit
6x5 (30 positions)	766
7x7 (49 positions)	1,603

Every one of those 1,603 placements on a 7x7 grid, from a straight row to an L or a zigzag, pays the same as any other cluster of five of that symbol. That is the appeal of the format: wins can appear anywhere and in any shape, so they are hard to anticipate and easy to notice.

How often clusters land: our simulation

We simulated grids filled at random with equally likely symbols, counting edge-touching clusters of 5 or more. Real games weight their symbols, so treat this as a picture of the mechanic, not of any title.

Model	Drops with a 5+ cluster	Winning drops that cascade into a second win
7x7 grid, 8 symbols	17.7%	9.2%
6x5 grid, 8 symbols	9.3%	6.3%

Two things stand out. A bigger grid gives clusters far more room, so the same symbol set produces nearly twice as many winning drops on 7x7 as on 6x5. And cascades rarely run long: in the 7x7 model, fewer than one winning drop in ten paid a second time. Long chains are what the features are built around, such as Sugar Rush's multiplier spots, which start at 2x and double up to 128x when a later win lands on a marked position.

Pundit tip: a cluster grid lights up a lot. Watch your balance, not the animation: a small cluster on a big bet can pay less than the spin cost.

Cluster pays versus lines, ways and pay anywhere

Pay method	What must happen	Example
Paylines	Matching symbols along a set path from the left	Starburst, up to 10 lines
Ways	Matching symbols on adjacent reels from the left, any row	Twin Spin, 243 ways
Cluster pays	A touching group of the minimum size, anywhere	Reactoonz, 5+ on 7x7
Pay anywhere	Enough matching symbols anywhere on screen	Gates of Olympus, 8 to 30

Pay anywhere is the loosest rule. In our 6x5 model with 8 symbols, 21.4% of drops had 8 or more of one symbol somewhere on screen, against 9.3% with a touching cluster of 5. For more on lines and ways, see how do pokies lines work and megaways pokies.

None of these methods changes the price. The house edge is set by the RTP, and the cost of a session is your total bets times (1 minus RTP), which the pokies calculator works out for you. Cluster games carry the same RTP choices as any other: Le Bandit is listed by Hacksaw in four versions from 96.34% down to 88.36%, as our hacksaw gaming pokies guide explains.

Online cluster games and Australian law

Cluster pays is an online format, and online pokies cannot legally be offered to people in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, whoever makes them. It is not an offence to play, but there is no Australian licence behind any site that offers these games, and no Australian regulator to help if a payout goes wrong. Free demos on makers' own sites are the legal way to see how the mechanic plays; our guide to pokies bonus features explains the cascades and multipliers you will meet there.

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Frequently asked questions

How does cluster pays work?

Symbols land on a grid, and any group of the same symbol that touches counts as one cluster; the rules screen says whether diagonal contact counts. If the group reaches the game's minimum size, often five, it pays according to its size. Bigger clusters pay more.

Do diagonal symbols count in a cluster?

The maker pages we read do not spell it out, so check the rules screen of your game. Our worked example uses edge contact only; if diagonals counted, the same grid would pay one more cluster.

What is the difference between cluster pays and pay anywhere?

Cluster pays needs the symbols to touch. Pay anywhere, used in games like Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus (8 to 30 matching symbols), counts every matching symbol on screen wherever it is. On the same grid, a pay anywhere rule is easier to satisfy at the same count.

Are cluster pays slots better odds than line pokies?

No. The pay method changes how wins look, not the cost. The RTP decides the average return: Aloha! Cluster Pays lists 96.42%, very close to NetEnt's line games such as Starburst at 96.08%.

Which cluster pays pokies show several RTPs?

Hacksaw's Le Bandit, a cluster pays game, lists four versions: 96.34%, 94.23%, 92.17% and 88.36%. The rules screen of the copy you open tells you which one you are on.