How does a bonus round start in a slot?

Usually by landing a set number of scatter symbols anywhere on the grid. Gates of Olympus and Treasures of Aztec need 4 or more, Wild Bounty Showdown needs 3 or more, and Lucky Neko needs 5 or more. The info screen of each game states its own count.

What is the difference between a bonus round and a bonus game?

Players use the two terms interchangeably for a special section outside the base spins. Free spins are the most common version, and wheels or pick-and-reveal screens are others. Crazy 777 and Mega Fishing use a wheel as their feature event.

Is the bonus round where a slot pays the most?

Often, because the multipliers live there. In Sweet Bonanza the multipliers of up to 100x appear only during free spins, and in Treasures of Aztec the multiplier rises twice as fast inside them. The base game is the qualifying round.

JiLi333 Slot Features: Trigger Each Round with Scatters

In this section
Fact	Value
JiLi333 Aztec Slots	Treasures of Aztec is the profiled title: PG Soft, 6x5, up to 32,400 ways, cascades, a multiplier rising 1 per cascade (2 in free spins), 96.71% RTP, medium volatility.
JiLi333 Buffalo Slots	Buffalo slots descend from land-based cabinets and the format leans on ways to win, where adjacent matching symbols pay without fixed lines.
JiLi333 Egyptian Slots	The JiLi333 catalogue lists Egyptian slots in eight studio tabs, from Jili's Legacy of Egypt to Pragmatic Play's Pyramid King.
JiLi333 Greek Slots	The JiLi333 catalogue lists many Greek-myth slots across the Jili, PG, PP and KAGAMING tabs.
JiLi333 Slot Grid Shapes	Reels are the vertical columns of a slot and rows are the horizontal lines across them.

You are twenty spins in when three scatters drop and the screen changes colour. That is one of the slot features starting, a bonus round, and from that moment the game plays by different rules.

This page, part of the online slot casino choosing method, explains how rounds trigger and what shifts inside them, using the features the studios publish for the lobby’s slice titles.

How slot features trigger

The trigger is nearly always the scatter. A scatter pays or counts wherever it lands, so it does not need to sit on a line. The scatter symbol meaning explained entry covers the symbol, and the free spins meaning in slots entry covers the round it usually opens.

Land the set number of scatters. Gates of Olympus and Treasures of Aztec need 4 or more. Wild Bounty Showdown, Big Bass Splash and Fruit Party open on 3 or more, and Lucky Neko needs 5 or more.
The round opens with a fixed or a rising multiplier. Wild Bounty Showdown opens its free spins at 8x.
The round runs its spin count. Treasures of Aztec awards 10 or more, Big Bass Bonanza awards 15 to 20, and The Dog House awards 9 to 27 through a mini-grid.
A retrigger can extend it. Sweet Bonanza 1000 opens at 10 spins, and 3 further scatters add 5 more.

Bonus round: what changes inside it

The base game and the round are different games sharing a grid. Each slice title changes something specific.

Title	Trigger	What changes inside
Gates of Olympus	4+ scatters	Random multipliers up to 500x combine across the tumble
Sweet Bonanza	Free spins	Multipliers of up to 100x appear, and only here
Sweet Bonanza 1000	4+ scatters	Multiplier bombs reach 1000x over 10 spins
Treasures of Aztec	4+ scatters	The multiplier rises by 2 per cascade instead of 1
Wild Bounty Showdown	3+ scatters	Opens at an 8x multiplier, gold-framed symbols raise it
Lucky Neko	5+ scatters	40 paylines widen to 85 with a 5x symbol multiplier
Big Bass Bonanza	4 to 5 scatters	The fisherman wild collects money fish values
Big Bass Splash	3+ scatters	Boosters add fish, fishermen or higher multipliers
The Dog House	Mini-grid	Multiplier wilds turn sticky
Mahjong Ways 2	Free spins	A multiplier rises to 10x and does not reset within a round
Fortune Ox	Feature	Reels synchronise and respin until a win lands
Charge Buffalo	Feature	A respin-driven buffalo charge, with free games and a multiplier

Three patterns repeat. Multipliers move up, symbols stick in place, or a collect mechanic turns values on screen into a payout.

Bonus game: when the round is not free spins

A bonus game is any special section outside the base spins, and free spins are only the most common version. Crazy 777 carries a wheel, Mega Fishing has an octopus wheel as its feature event, and Fortune Gems 3 uses symbol splitting with a rewards board.

Big Bass Bonanza shows how a bonus game can hold two halves:

Money fish land carrying cash values and pay nothing alone.
The fisherman wild collects every value on screen when it appears.

The outcomes split cleanly. A round full of fish and no fisherman pays nothing, and a fisherman on an empty screen pays nothing.

Bonus round slots: reading a round before you stake

Set the budget by the round, not the base spin, because the multiplier sits in the round. The reels meaning for bonus grids page shows how a grid change in the round alters the pay rule, and the buffalo slots and charge respins page covers a respin-based feature.

Problem

The scatters land but the round pays little.

Fix

That is a rising-multiplier design doing its job. The Dog House and Treasures of Aztec build value as the round goes on, so a low early spin is normal.

Problem

You cannot tell how many scatters a game needs.

Fix

Open the game’s info screen. It lists the trigger count, the number of spins awarded and whether a retrigger exists.

JiLi333 Slot Features: How Each Round Starts and What Changes