Last updated: May 2026. Walkthrough written for first-time players landing on 5 Lions Megaways without prior Pragmatic Play or Megaways experience.
If this is the first Megaways pokie you've ever loaded, the screen looks busier than the game actually plays. Six reels of different heights, a constantly shifting "ways to win" counter that pulses between 64 and 200,704, a pair of golden guardian lions framing the reels, and a Money Respin icon that occasionally lights up. Underneath all of that sit four discrete mechanics — Tumble Feature, Free Spins with multiplier wilds, Money Respin, and Ante Bet — that together produce the game's depth (the full review breaks down the studio's design choices). This walkthrough takes you from "what's a Megaways" to "running auto-spin on a A$1 bet" in about five minutes.
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Step 1 — Pick a casino
You need an account at a licensed casino that stocks the Pragmatic Play catalogue and supports AUD. We use four:
- Vegasnova — fastest PayID withdrawals; the full Pragmatic Megaways library is loaded.
- Joe Fortune — biggest welcome offer percentage and the longest AU-focused track record.
- GreatSlots — lowest minimum deposit (A$10), friendliest for first-time pokie players.
- CasinoRocket — highest stake caps and a A$5000 cashout cap on the welcome bonus.
Any of the four works. If you're brand new, GreatSlots's A$10 minimum deposit gets you spinning with the least commitment.
Step 2 — Open the game
After depositing and claiming the welcome offer, search the casino lobby for "5 Lions Megaways" or filter by Pragmatic Play in the providers list. The game tile shows two stylised gold lions on a red lacquer backdrop with the "Megaways" word-mark stamped across the top.
Click it. The game loads in your browser — no download required. It's HTML5 and runs on any modern device.
Before you spin a real cent, click the info icon (i) in the corner of the game. Scroll to the RTP field. It should read 96.50%. Pragmatic Play does ship multi-RTP variants of some titles (90.5% and 94.5% versions exist for other studio releases), so verifying on every casino is a habit worth keeping — our RTP & volatility breakdown explains why the 1% gap matters more than it sounds. All four featured casinos run the 96.5% certified default.
Step 3 — Set your bet
The bet panel sits below the reels. You'll see a number — that's your current bet per spin.
- Tap the + or – buttons to step the bet up or down.
- Min bet: A$0.20 per spin.
- Max bet: A$100 per spin.
For a first session we recommend starting at A$0.40 – A$1.00. That keeps you in the game long enough to actually see a bonus trigger (roughly 1 in 220 spins without Ante Bet, 1 in 110 with it on) without burning through your deposit before the math has a chance to work.
Bankroll rule of thumb: at least 200× your bet in funds before you sit down. So a A$1 bet wants A$200 in the account. A A$0.40 bet wants A$80. This is a high-volatility pokie — runs of 60-80 dry spins are normal between meaningful hits.
Step 4 — Decide on the Ante Bet
Beneath the spin button you'll find an Ante Bet toggle. Switching it on costs an additional 25% per spin but approximately doubles your scatter trigger rate, taking the free-spins trigger from roughly 1 in 220 spins down to ~1 in 110.
When does Ante Bet pay off?
- Long sessions (200+ spins): absolutely worth it. The extra cost is more than offset by the doubled bonus frequency.
- Short sessions (under 100 spins): marginal. You may not see a bonus either way.
- Bankroll under 100× bet: skip it. You can't afford to leak 25% per spin.
For most engaged players, leave Ante Bet on.
Step 5 — Press spin
The big circular button bottom-centre is spin. Tap once for a single spin. Press and hold (or use the dedicated auto-spin icon, depending on the casino's wrapper) to open the auto-spin menu.
What you're watching for:
- Matching symbols on consecutive reels left-to-right. This is a "ways" game, not a "paylines" game — position within a reel doesn't matter, only that matching symbols appear on consecutive reels starting from reel 1.
- The Tumble Feature firing. After every winning combination, paid symbols vanish and new ones drop in. Tumble chains of 3-5 wins on a single spin are common.
- Scatter (gold lion-coin) symbols. 4+ trigger free spins.
- Money symbols (gold coins with numeric values). 6+ trigger the Money Respin.
Step 6 — Tumble Feature (the base-game engine)
Every winning combination triggers the Tumble Feature:
- Winning symbols are paid.
- Those symbols vanish from the reels.
- Empty positions are filled by new symbols dropping down from above.
- If the new arrangement also produces wins, the cycle repeats.
A single spin can chain 5-8 tumbles deep when it's running well. The Tumble Feature is what produces the game's "active" feel even outside the bonus — base-game spins regularly chain into 20-50× hits without the bonus ever triggering.
The number of ways to win also recalculates after every tumble — taller reels = more ways, shorter reels = fewer. You'll see the counter ticking up and down between 64 and 200,704 throughout a session.
Step 7 — Free Spins (the headline feature)
When four or more scatter symbols land on a single spin, the screen flashes, the lions roar, and you enter:
- 4 scatters = 10 free spins
- 5 scatters = 15 free spins
- 6 scatters = 20 free spins
Inside free spins, two things change:
- A wild multiplier counter activates. Every tumble during the round adds +1× to the multiplier on wild symbols. The multiplier persists across free spins within the round — it doesn't reset between spins.
- More scatters can retrigger the round for additional free spins.
The chase is to land a long retrigger chain with productive tumbles, building the wild multiplier up while wilds keep landing across high-pay screens. That's the streamer-clip moment — the full mechanic is dissected in our free spins explainer.
Step 8 — Money Respin (the secondary chase)
When six or more Money symbols (gold coins with numeric values printed on them) appear anywhere on the reels, the screen freezes and you enter Money Respin:
- The Money symbols lock in place.
- You get 3 respins.
- Every new Money symbol that lands resets the respin counter to 3.
- The round ends when 3 respins pass with no new Money symbols.
At the end:
- All Money symbol values are summed and paid.
- Filling 1 full reel = Minor jackpot.
- Filling 2 full reels = Major jackpot.
- Filling 3 full reels = Grand jackpot.
- A maximum board fill collects the Grand plus every coin value.
The four fixed jackpots (Mini/Minor/Major/Grand) are bet-multiplied — typical values are 10× / 25× / 200× / 1,000×, though they can shift slightly per casino. See our Money Respin & jackpots guide for the per-jackpot probability tables.
Step 9 — Stop while you're ahead
This is the rule everyone hears and no one follows. 5 Lions Megaways bonus rounds are emotional — when you've just hit a 200× round, the temptation to keep spinning is enormous because "I'm in the zone." The math doesn't care. Each spin is independent.
Practical advice for first-timers:
- Set a session loss limit in the casino's responsible-gambling tools before you start.
- Set a session win cap — when you double your starting balance, stop.
- Use auto-spin's stop-on-win feature for the same reason.
Optional features to know about
Bonus Buy / Free Spins Buy. In regions where it's permitted, 5 Lions Megaways offers a Free Spins Buy that lets you skip the natural trigger and enter free spins directly. The cost is approximately 100× stake. Availability varies by casino — three of our four featured brands support it.
For most players, Bonus Buy is roughly equivalent value to the natural trigger over a long session — but if you have 30 minutes to play and want to skip the grind, it works.
Demo mode. Every reputable AU casino offers 5 Lions Megaways in demo mode for free. Try it before depositing real money. The math is identical to real-money play.
Common beginner mistakes
- Betting too high to start. A A$5 bet on a A$50 bankroll will end your session before you see a bonus.
- Auto-spinning without stop conditions. If you lose half your bankroll on auto, you can't say later "I would have stopped earlier."
- Turning Ante Bet off mid-session and on again. It works long-run; flipping it mid-session just adds noise without changing the variance.
- Treating Tumble Feature as a "bonus." It's a base-game mechanic — don't expect chains to trigger free spins.
- Buying the Free Spins on a tiny bankroll. A 100× buy with no remaining cushion if the round busts is poor session planning.
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Quick FAQ
How long does a session last? A A$50 bankroll at A$0.40 per spin lasts roughly 100-150 spins on average. With a bonus trigger and decent Tumble runs, it can stretch much further.
Do I need to enable Ante Bet? No — but for sessions longer than 100 spins, it usually pays off.
What's the difference between Free Spins and Money Respin? Free Spins are the multiplier-wild chase round triggered by scatters. Money Respin is a separate fixed-jackpot round triggered by Money symbols.
Is the demo the same as real money? Yes — same math, same RTP, same RNG. Only difference is the balance is play money.
Can I lose more than my deposit? No — slot games can't withdraw more than your balance.
Will the game show me my session history? Some casinos do (in account history). The game itself doesn't track session-level stats.
About this walkthrough
Tested across all four featured casinos in April-May 2026. Spins played: 300+. Free Spins triggered: 8 (Ante Bet on for ~200 of the 300 spins). Money Respin triggered: 1. Demo and real-money behaviour verified identical.
Gambling responsibly. Pokies are entertainment. They're not income, not a way out of debt, not a system to beat. Set limits, stick to them. AU support: gamblinghelponline.org.au · BetStop · 18+ only.
18+ · BetStop · gamblinghelponline.org.au · T&Cs apply
Further Reading
Related reading in this guide: