Sticky wild in slots
A sticky wild is a wild symbol that locks into the position where it landed and stays there for more than one spin, rather than vanishing once the spin resolves. How long it holds is set by each game’s rules: a single respin, a fixed run of spins, a cascade sequence or the whole of a free spins round. While it stays, it keeps substituting for eligible paying symbols, so the reels around it spin while that one position remains wild.
How a sticky wild works on the reels
The studio that built the game decides every detail of the mechanic. Some titles lock every wild landing during free spins, while others hold only wilds on certain reels or add a multiplier.
Accumulation gives the feature its character. In ten free spins, a wild sticking on spin three stays for spins four to ten, and if a second lands on spin seven, the last three spins carry both.
That pushes volatility up, not RTP.
The value of sticky wilds is already counted inside the published RTP, so a game with them is not more generous by default; the return is simply spread differently, and one short session proves nothing about it. The help screen holds the exact rules, and we read it before describing any title.
Sticky wilds versus walking and expanding wilds
Sticky wilds are most often confused with walking wilds, since both stay for more than one spin. A sticky wild holds the position where it landed, while a walking wild shifts one reel after each respin until it drops off the grid.
Expanding wilds are a separate idea again.
An expanding wild stretches over its whole reel for the spin it lands on, adding coverage rather than persistence, though some games let a wild expand and then hold the reel for a respin. Game documentation also uses locked, held or frozen wild, and these usually mean the same behaviour.
