A Latch Row round is a stop of five reels and three rows. Matching symbols on a line score virtual credits according to the paytable in the game. That is the whole base round. There is no second grid hiding under the first, and there is no pick-a-box step this desk asks you to learn before you can read the series.
The shape is shared so the art can change without teaching a new rule each time. Norse Vikings and a later mine title can look unrelated and still be the same round. If a guide for another series says the same thing about wilds and scatters, that is accuracy, not a copy-paste accident you should ignore.
Wild
One symbol is a wild and stands in for the regular icons. It completes a line that would otherwise have been one picture short. It does not stand in for the scatter. If a round looks almost finished and the wild is on a neighbouring reel, that is the case the wild is for. If the wild lands and nothing scores, the paytable still wins the argument: the count or the line was not there.
The wild is not a heat meter. Seeing one does not mean the next spin is more likely to show another. The game does not owe you a pair. Treat a wild as a substitute on the spin you are looking at, then let that spin end.
Scatter and the free-spin batch
One symbol is a scatter. Enough scatters start a free-spin round: a short run of spins that play themselves, still in virtual credits, still on the same reels. The pictures on the scatter change with the theme. The job does not. Scatters are counted wherever they stop, not only on a payline.
When the free spins end, the game returns to the ordinary spin button. The batch is not a jackpot, not a cash bonus, and not a sign the next base spin is due. A quiet stretch before the batch is not storage. The game was not saving the scatter for you. If you are spinning because the batch “should” appear, close the frame. The responsible page is the right tab for that feeling, even though no cash is involved.
What the desk adds beside the round
Your XP on the account, if you are signed in, may tick by five points when a play is recorded. That tick is the desk, not the reel. It stops adding after 100 XP from plays on a calendar day. The free-spin batch is not a second grant. It is part of the game you already opened. The daily claim, on its twenty-hour clock, is a different button on the account and does not fire because a scatter landed.
Back to the series. The buttons under the reels are in the field notes.