How to Play Starburst Slot Australia: A Plain Walkthrough

Starburst has been around since 2012, and it's still one of the first slots people meet when they open a demo lobby. If you want to understand how to play Starburst slot Australia players tend to start with, this guide walks you through a single round, explains the one bonus feature it has, and sorts out the published figures that disagree with each other. Starburst was built by NetEnt, which has been part of the Evolution group since 2020.

The basics before you spin

Starburst runs on a 5-reel, 3-row grid (5×3). The theme is cosmic: a jewel-studded star symbol, five coloured gems, a Number 7 and a BAR symbol. It plays on desktop and mobile, so you can load it on a PC or a phone without anything changing.

There are 10 fixed paylines. You don't choose how many lines are active — all 10 are always in play, so your only real decision is the stake.

What a round looks like

1. Set your bet. Gamblerid lists the betting range as €0.10 minimum up to €100 maximum. In an Australian lobby the currency and limits will follow the operator, but that's the published spread.
2. Spin the reels. Symbols drop onto the 5×3 grid.
3. Check for wins. You need 3 or more matching symbols on a payline, landing on adjacent reels.
4. Collect, then spin again — or let autoplay handle a set run of spins for you.

That's the whole loop. There's no feature to unlock, no meter to fill, no scatter to chase.

Does Starburst pay both ways

Yes. This is the detail most people miss. Wins form left to right and right to left. A line can start from either the leftmost reel or the rightmost reel, as long as the matching symbols sit on adjacent reels.

In practice that means a run of three matching gems on reels 3, 4 and 5 can pay just as a run on reels 1, 2 and 3 does. With 10 lines each capable of paying in two directions, small wins come up fairly often.

How the Starburst Wilds and respins work

The expanding wild is the only feature in the game. There's no classic free spins round and no separate bonus screen — so everything interesting happens on the base reels.

Here's the mechanic:

• The Starburst Wild lands only on the three centre reels: reels 2, 3 and 4.
• When it lands, it expands to cover the entire reel.
• The wild substitutes for all standard paying symbols.
• The expanded wild locks in place (it stays sticky) and triggers a free re-spin.
• If another wild lands during that re-spin, it expands and locks too, and you get another re-spin.

This repeats for a maximum of three consecutive re-spins, which means you can end up with all three centre reels covered in wilds at once. With both-ways pays and three full wild reels, that's where the bigger results come from.

Because the wild can't appear on reels 1 or 5, you'll never see a full screen of wilds — the outer reels always hold ordinary symbols.

Is there a bonus buy option

No. Starburst has no bonus buy feature. It also has no scatter-triggered free spins and no multipliers beyond the standard payline wins. The expanding wild respin is the sole feature, and you can only reach it by landing a wild during normal play.

What the RTP actually is

This is where published sources disagree, so it's worth being precise.

• NetEnt's current public game page lists the RTP at 96.08%.
• Evolution's catalogue page and several affiliate reviews list 96.09%.

The difference between those two is tiny and comes down to how each page rounds the same underlying maths. The practical takeaway: check the game's own information screen in the client you're using, because that's the figure that applies to your session.

There's a bigger wrinkle. Gamblerid reports that Starburst can run in multiple operator RTP versions, listed as 96.09%, 99.06%, 98.05%, 95.05%, 94.05%, 93.05%, 92.05% and 90.05%. Operators can be served different builds, so the number you get isn't guaranteed to match a review you read elsewhere. Again, the active information screen is the one that counts — open it and read the figure before you play.

Is Starburst high or low volatility

Mostly low, depending on who you ask. NetEnt's own classification calls it low. Some reviewers describe it as low-to-medium or medium — LeoVegas lists it as low-to-medium, while NetEnt's current page lists Medium, and some pages show no volatility value at all. VegasSlots cites a volatility index of 3.1, which sits at the low end.

What that means in practice: wins land often but tend to be small. NetEnt's page lists a hit frequency of 23.00%, and Gamblerid puts it around 22.7% or 22.2% — roughly one in five spins returns something. Don't expect long dry spells followed by a huge payout; this is a slot built around steady, modest hits.

What is the maximum win

The headline figure is the most contradicted number in Starburst's listings. Different sources report:

Several sources also list a maximum win cash value of €50,000 (or $50,000) when you play at the maximum stake.

One concrete example is easier to trust: per LeoVegas, if the entire grid fills with BAR symbols, the win is 500 times the stake. That's a specific, checkable payout rather than a disputed ceiling. Given the spread above, treat the top-end claims with caution and confirm the max win on the game's own paytable — it will match the build you're actually playing.

Can you play Starburst for free in demo mode

Yes. A free demo version exists with identical gameplay mechanics, RTP and volatility, and no financial risk. It can be accessed without logging in. The demo is the sensible place to see the both-ways pays and the expanding wild respin for yourself before you commit any money.

A good thing to try in the demo: run a batch of autoplay spins and watch how often a centre-reel wild lands and triggers a respin. You'll get a feel for how rare three stacked wilds really are, and that sets realistic expectations.

Setting expectations

Starburst is a simple, fast slot with one feature. Frequent small wins, no free spins, and a top payout that the sources themselves can't agree on. The sensible approach is to read the information screen in your client for the RTP and max-win that apply to you, use the demo to learn the rhythm, and set a budget and a time limit before you play with real money.

If you go in expecting a steady, low-key game rather than a jackpot chase, Starburst behaves exactly the way its design suggests.