What is Collect Meter?

A collect meter is a progress bar beside or above the reels that fills as qualifying symbols land, and awards a feature, a multiplier upgrade or a round when it reaches a threshold. Different games call it a meter, a counter, a clue list, a totem or a chase; structurally they are one thing. What it does to a slot's maths is move money forward. A game with a meter pays less on ordinary spins than a game without one, because a share of the return is being held back to fund whatever the meter releases. That is not a criticism — it is the design — but it is why a meter game can feel cold for a long stretch and then resolve everything at once, and why its volatility score is usually higher than its features list would suggest. Two properties decide how it should be read. The first is whether the meter persists. Some reset at the end of every session or every round; some carry over indefinitely, which makes leaving a part-filled meter behind a real if small cost. The game's information panel says which, and it is the single most useful thing to check before starting. The second is whether progress can be bought. Several games sell a shortcut priced against how full the meter already is, which means the same feature costs different amounts at different moments — and that a price quoted anywhere outside the game itself is describing one particular moment in one particular session rather than the feature.