Water Margin on Joker123: The Arcade Classic in Your Phone
The old arcade favourite on nine lines that pay left to right and right to left. Heroes, weapons, full-screen ALL prizes and the scatter mini game.
Flight info
- Reels
- 5 x 3
- Lines
- 9, paying both ways
- Wild
- Water Margin logo (ALL x5000)
- Scatter
- 3, 4, 5 = mini game x1, x2, x3
- Mixed full-screen prizes
- ALL ANY heroes x50, weapons x15
Water Margin (水滸傳, Shui Hu Zhuan) is the slot many Malaysian players first saw in a coffee-shop or arcade cabinet years ago, and Joker123's version keeps that look: a wooden frame held by chains, a red title bar, and heroes from the Song dynasty outlaw novel. What makes it different from a modern 9-line slot is in the paytable, so that is where to start.
The paytable
Payouts for 5, 4 and 3 of a kind, with the ALL full-screen prize in the last column:
| Symbol | 5 | 4 | 3 | ALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 忠義堂 hall plaque | 1000 | 100 | 20 | x2500 |
| 替天行道 banner | 300 | 80 | 10 | x1000 |
| Song Jiang (宋) | 150 | 40 | 10 | x500 |
| Lin Chong (林) | 100 | 30 | 10 | x400 |
| Lu Zhishen (魯) | 50 | 20 | 10 | x250 |
| Broadsword | 20 | 10 | 5 | x150 |
| Halberds | 20 | 10 | 5 | x100 |
| Axes | 20 | 10 | 5 | x50 |
Two extra rows cover mixed screens: ALL ANY x50 for a screen full of any hero portraits and ALL ANY x15 for any mix of weapons.
The paytable also states the rule that defines this game: wins are paid left to right and right to left. Nine lines paying both ways catch more combinations than nine lines normally would.
Wild and scatter
The wild is the Water Margin logo, the red 水滸傳 title with a dragon behind it. It substitutes for everything except the Scatter, and a full screen of it is worth x5000.
The Scatter is a black banner with the heroes' names on it. Three pay 2 and start the mini game once, four pay 5 and play it twice, five pay 10 and play it three times.
The paytable shows the mini game as a small arcade board with a strip of symbols and multipliers (x200, x100, x70, x50 down to x2). It works in the spirit of the old cabinet's bonus: match the symbols and the multiplier applies.
Wins in action
Winning heroes come alive: Lu Zhishen, the monk with the prayer beads, glares out of the frame while the rest of the screen fades to grey.
Bet panel
LINES stays at 9. PLAY is per line, from 0.01 (0.09 total) up; the screenshots also show 0.06 per line for 0.54. MAJOR, RANDOM and MINOR meters sit above the reels. Most wins are the weapon lines at 5 to 20, so a low line bet and patience for the scatters is the way to play it.
For Joker123 accounts, read the Joker123 guide. For another Chinese classic in the same lobby, see Three Kingdom. To play, get a Joker123 game ID.
Questions players ask
Does Water Margin pay both ways?
Yes. The paytable says wins are paid left to right and right to left, so three matching symbols starting from reel 5 also count.
What is ALL ANY?
A full-screen prize for a screen made up of any mix of the hero portraits (x50) or any mix of the weapons (x15), rather than one single symbol.
How many times does the mini game play?
Three scatters give the mini game once, four give it twice and five give it three times, and the scatters also pay 2, 5 or 10 on their own.
Check-in desk
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