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How do cascading reels work? Four studio multiplier rules
Win, clear, refill, repeat. How cascading reels work, and when Pragmatic Play, NetEnt and Red Tiger say the cascade multiplier grows, caps and resets.
By Staff, Spin & Tell
Cascading reels work as a loop inside a single paid spin. When a win lands, the winning symbols are removed, the symbols above drop into the gaps and new ones fill from the top. The grid is then evaluated again, and the loop repeats until a refill produces no win, and only then does the spin end.
That loop is common property. What differs is the multiplier riding on it: when it grows, where it stops, and when it goes back to the start. This is an evergreen explainer, not a release note, and it takes those rules from the studios’ own game pages rather than from an operator blog. This desk read Pragmatic Play’s Sweet Bonanza page, NetEnt’s pages for Gonzo’s Quest and Gonzo’s Quest II: Return to El Dorado, and Evolution’s demo-site page for Red Tiger’s Gonzo’s Quest Megaways on 17 October 2026.
How do cascading reels work, step by step?
NetEnt’s Gonzo’s Quest page gives the original statement of the sequence. Its Avalanche feature, the page says, replaces traditional spins:
- A winning combination forms on a payline.
- The winning symbols explode and leave empty positions.
- New symbols cascade down to fill them.
- The new grid is checked for wins, and any win starts the sequence again.
- A refill with no win ends it.
The composition is simple. What gives a cascade game its texture is what the studio attaches to step four.
Cascade multiplier rules, studio by studio
| Game (studio) | When it grows | Cap | When it resets | Published RTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet Bonanza (Pragmatic Play) | Multiplier symbols of 2x-100x can land during the free-spins feature | 100x per symbol | Values add together at the end of the tumbling sequence | 96.48% |
| Gonzo’s Quest (NetEnt) | +1 per Avalanche | 5x main game, 15x in Free Fall | A non-winning spin | 95.97% |
| Gonzo’s Quest II (NetEnt) | Free Spins: starts at x2, +2 per Avalanche | Not found in the page text read | Back to x2 once the spin’s Avalanches end | 96.06% |
| Gonzo’s Quest Megaways (Red Tiger) | “up to 5x from the 4th Avalanche on the same spin” | 15x during Free Falls | Not found in the page text read | 94.66% / 96.00% |
Sweet Bonanza is the outlier. Per Pragmatic Play’s page, wins come from 8-12+ matching symbols anywhere on the grid, and the multiplier is not a counter at all: it is a set of symbols whose values are summed once the tumbling sequence ends. Nothing in the page text read here puts those symbols in the base game.
The NetEnt pair shows a studio revising its own idea. In the 2010 original the counter climbs by one per Avalanche and only a dead spin clears it. In the 2025 sequel’s Free Spins the step doubles to two and the multiplier returns to x2 at the end of every spin, so no single spin inherits the last one’s run. NetEnt’s page also says each Avalanche adds a row, up to four, and that base-game multipliers do not carry into free spins.
The Megaways row is quoted rather than paraphrased. Evolution’s page does not say whether the multiplier starts climbing at the fourth Avalanche or reaches 5x there, and this desk will not guess. It also prints two RTPs, which is the plainest reminder in this set that the in-game paytable, not a studio summary, is the authoritative copy.
Why the timing matters more than the name
Tumble, Avalanche and cascade are labels. A per-cascade counter rewards a long chain inside one spin; summed multiplier symbols reward what happens to land before the chain stops. Those are different designs with the same animation, and the three ranking explainers this desk read, from BetMGM Canada, 888casino and Ante Up, describe the loop without quoting any studio page on when a multiplier applies. Readers who want the cascade in a single game in full can see how Light & Wonder handled it in our Gremlins Time to Tumble review, and the mechanics underneath every spin are in how online slots work. Locked-symbol bonus rounds are a different loop again, set out in how Hold and Spin slots work.
Cascading reels FAQ
Do cascading reels increase RTP?
Not as a separate number on the studio pages read here. Pragmatic Play’s and NetEnt’s pages state one RTP for each whole game, cascades included: 96.48% for Sweet Bonanza, 95.97% for Gonzo’s Quest. The cascade is part of how that figure is reached, not an addition to it. Operators may run other configurations, so the in-game paytable is the copy to check.
Are cascading reels the same as Megaways?
No. Megaways is a ways-to-win system from Big Time Gaming: it decides how many ways a spin can pay. A cascade decides what happens after a win pays. Red Tiger’s Gonzo’s Quest Megaways runs both at once: up to 117,649 ways, per Evolution’s page, with NetEnt’s Avalanche clearing and refilling on top.
What does tumbling reels mean?
Tumbling reels is Pragmatic Play’s name for the same clear-and-refill loop. In Sweet Bonanza, a win needs 8-12+ matching symbols anywhere on the tumbling reels, per the studio’s page, and the tumbling sequence runs until no further win lands. NetEnt calls it Avalanche, and the generic term is cascading reels. The name is a studio label; the rules underneath are set game by game.
This is a description of a mechanic, not advice on playing one; nothing here was played or recommended. 18+.