Lightning Link Hold & Spin explained: respins, the four jackpots and the free games

Lightning Link’s Hold & Spin starts when six or more bonus symbols land at once. Those symbols lock in place and you get three respins, and each time at least one more bonus symbol lands, the count goes back to three. When the respins run out you collect every prize on the screen, and filling every position wins the Grand jackpot. Separately, three to five scatters award six free games played on the Big Reel.

How does Hold & Spin work, step by step?

This is how Hard Rock Bet and BetMGM’s review describe the feature in High Stakes:

1. Trigger. Six or more bonus symbols (chips, in Hard Rock Bet’s words) land on one spin, in the base game or during free games.
2. Lock. The triggering symbols stay in place, and the remaining positions respin.
3. Respin. You start with three respins. Each time at least one more bonus symbol lands, it locks too and the count resets to three.
4. Collect. When a full round of respins passes with nothing landing, the feature ends and you collect the credit values and any jackpot prizes on the screen. BetMGM notes that landing the Grand also ends the feature.
5. Fill the screen. Covering every position with bonus symbols wins the Grand, according to Hard Rock Bet. On BetMGM’s 5x3 layout that means all 15 positions.

Tiki Fire works on the same idea with its own trigger: BetMGM’s game page says 6 to 14 bonus symbols start the feature, which begins with three spins.

What are the four jackpot tiers?

High Stakes has four jackpot tiers: Mini, Minor, Major and Grand. They are not all the same kind of prize. BetMGM’s review of High Stakes breaks them down:

The fixed prizes are stated in credits, so their dollar value rises with your bet. BetMGM says the starting (seed) values of the Major and Grand vary by game version, and its Tiki Fire page also lists progressive Grand and Major jackpots. Open the jackpot panel in your casino’s version for the live amounts.

How does the shared progressive Grand work?

Aristocrat describes Lightning Link’s online jackpots as shared progressives, including a Grand. In general, a small part of qualifying bets on a progressive is added to the prize, so it grows until someone wins it and then restarts from its seed value. A shared progressive pools that growth across many players.

Aristocrat has not published how its pools are linked, for example whether they span several casinos or states, or what share of each bet goes in. We have not seen a verified report of an online Grand win to cite. Because the Grand needs a full screen, expect it to be rare, and never chase it with money you had not planned to spend. Progressive jackpots on US online slots explains how these prizes work across games.

How do the free games work?

Three, four or five scatters award six free games, according to BetMGM’s game page. During them, reels 2, 3 and 4 combine into one Big Reel showing a single oversized symbol. BetMGM’s review adds that bonus symbols on the Big Reel award three more spins, and that Hold & Spin can still trigger during free games, so the two features can overlap.

In Tiki Fire, Aristocrat describes free games with big symbols and wilds that can carry a 2x multiplier.

Where to go next

How much of the game’s return sits in these jackpots is the subject of Lightning Link RTP and volatility. For the lines, denominations and symbols, read how Lightning Link plays online, or go back to the Lightning Link overview. If you play for money, set a budget first; see our responsible gambling page.