Water Margin (Joker123): symbol-by-symbol paytable and the scatter mini game

Water Margin is the slot version of the old Shui Hu Zhuan arcade cabinet, and the Joker123 edition keeps that cabinet look: a wooden frame with iron chains at the corners, the red title plate with the three characters of the novel's name, and a stone wall behind the reels. This page walks through the symbols in order of value, because that is where the game differs from most nine-liners.

The high symbols

The top earner is the Loyalty Hall plaque (the green board reading Zhong Yi Tang). Five on a line pay 1000 times the line stake, four pay 200 and three pay 20. A full screen of plaques pays x2500.

Next is the yellow banner with the slogan "Ti Tian Xing Dao" (act on behalf of heaven): 300, 80 and 10, or x1000 for a full screen.

Then come the outlaws, each portrait stamped with a single Chinese character. The first pays 150 / 40 / 10 (all x500) and the second 100 / 30 / 10 (all x400). A third, bearded outlaw on the right-hand column pays 50 / 20 / 5.

The weapons

The bottom three are a broadsword, a spear and a crossed pair of axes. Each pays 20 for five, 10 for four and 5 for three. Their full-screen prizes are much smaller, roughly x100 to x150.

Two mixed prizes sit under the grid: a whole screen of any portraits pays x50, any weapons x15.

Wild and scatter

The wild is the round Water Margin logo tile with the green dragon. It substitutes for everything except the scatter and, filling the screen, pays x5000, the biggest figure on the help page.

The scatter is a black tile with a row of figures and the word SCATTER in gold. Collect three or more to go to the mini game. The help art shows the arcade-style bonus board with a small inner reel set of four symbols surrounded by a ring of icons, the part regulars call Little Mary. One screenshot also shows four cells of the middle row as plain pink tiles inside a winning frame, part of the win animation rather than a separate symbol.

Why both-ways pays matter

Wins pay left to right and right to left. With only nine lines that doubles the ways a plaque or banner can land, which is why the WIN box ticks over more often than the line count suggests.

Bet panel and a small budget

The bottom bar is the standard Joker123 set: LINES 9, PLAY with minus and plus, TOTAL PLAY, WIN and SPIN (hold for auto). The screenshots were taken at 0.01 and 0.06 per line, 0.09 and 0.54 total. Low stakes suit this one: the weapons hit often, the plaque rarely.

The Mega888 cabinet is covered in Shui Gu Zuan Water Margin, and other titles are on the Joker123 overview. To play on Joker123 you need an ID: open a Joker123 account.