Sheng Ji (Tractor)

How to play Sheng Ji (升级 / Tractor / 拖拉机)

Sheng Ji — literally "climbing levels", and also known as Tractor (拖拉机) or Finding Friends — is one of the most popular card games in China, played by four people in two fixed partnerships. It fuses trick-taking with a running campaign: instead of scoring a single deal, your team tries to climb the ranks from 2 all the way up to Ace, one round at a time. This app gives you a clean, self-contained version against three levels of computer opponents. You sit South, your partner sits North across the table, and two bots (West and East) form the other side. Because every hand except your own is hidden, the game is offered only against the computer — there is no same-screen two-player mode. The full traditional game is famously deep; this version keeps an authentic core and clearly documents every rule it simplifies so you always know exactly what you are playing.

The goal

Each round, one partnership is the declaring team and the other is the attacking team. The attacking team tries to capture point cards in the tricks it wins; the declaring team tries to stop them. How many points the attackers gather decides who advances — and by how much — on the ladder of ranks 2, 3, 4 … 10, J, Q, K, A. The first partnership to climb past Ace wins the whole game. Beat the computer and you earn ranking points: Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100.

The cards

This version is played with TWO standard 54-card decks shuffled together — 108 cards in all, including four jokers (two big/red jokers and two small/black jokers). Using two decks is what makes identical PAIRS possible, and pairs are the heart of Tractor. All 108 cards are dealt out, 27 to each player, and there is no kitty or bottom set of cards. There is also no bidding or trump-declaration phase: the trump suit is fixed for each round and shown to everyone from the start. These are deliberate simplifications of the traditional game, chosen so the rules stay clear and fair.

Trumps: the trump rank and the trump suit

Every round has both a trump RANK and a trump SUIT. The trump rank is the current level of the declaring team (it starts at 2, so the first round is "played at 2"). The trump suit is fixed for the round and displayed at the top of the screen. A card is a trump if it belongs to the trump suit, OR it is a card of the trump rank in any suit, OR it is a joker. Everything else is a "plain" card of its own suit. The trumps form one big suit of their own, ordered from strongest to weakest like this:

• Big (red) jokers are the highest, then small (black) jokers.
• Next comes the trump-rank card that is IN the trump suit (for example, if the trump suit is spades and the rank is 2, that is the 2 of spades).
• Then the trump-rank cards of the other three suits — these are all equal to one another, and when two of them clash the one played first wins the tie.
• Finally the rest of the trump suit in normal order: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 … down to 3. A plain suit runs Ace (high) down to 2, minus its trump-rank card, which has been promoted into the trump group.

Playing a trick

• The leader plays first, laying down a single card, a pair, or a tractor. Everyone else, going clockwise, must play the same number of cards.
• You must follow the led suit while you can. If a plain suit is led you must play cards of that suit; if trumps are led you must play trumps. Only when you have none of the led suit may you play anything else.
• The trick is won by the highest trump played, or — if no trump is played — by the highest card of the led suit. A card that is neither trump nor the led suit can never win.
• The winner of a trick collects any point cards in it and leads the next trick.
• Play continues until every hand is empty, which ends the round.

Singles, pairs and tractors

A lead is exactly one of three shapes, and everyone must answer with the same shape and number of cards:

• A single is one card. A pair is two identical cards — the same rank AND suit, such as two 7♥, or two big jokers (the two decks make this possible).
• A tractor is two or more consecutive pairs in one plain suit — for example 7♥7♥8♥8♥, or 9♦9♦10♦10♦J♦J♦. A pair or tractor can only be beaten by a higher pair or tractor of the same shape; two odd cards can never beat a pair.
• When a pair (or a tractor) is led and you hold pairs of the led suit, you must reveal them: you cannot break a pair to hide it while a pair is being asked for.

Point cards

Point cards are the reason to fight for tricks. Every 5 is worth 5 points, and every 10 and every King is worth 10 points; all other cards are worth nothing. With two decks there are 200 points in play. Whenever your team wins a trick, the points inside it are yours. Only the points captured by the attacking team count toward the round result — the declaring team is simply trying to keep that number down. The threshold in this version is 80 points.

Levelling up (升级)

At the end of the round, count the points the attacking team captured, then apply this table:

• Under 80 points, the declaring team holds and levels up: capturing 0 points sends the declarers up 3 levels, 1–39 points is up 2 levels, and 40–79 points is up 1 level. The declarers keep the deal.
• 80 points or more, the attacking team wins the round, takes over as the new declaring team, and levels up by one for every 40 points beyond 80 (80–119 = up 0, 120–159 = up 1, 160–199 = up 2, and so on).
• The trump rank of the next round is always the new declaring team's level, so the game naturally "climbs" as strong teams advance.

Winning the game

Levels run 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. The first partnership to advance PAST Ace wins the game. Because your side and the opponents both climb their own ladders, a game is a small campaign of several rounds rather than a single deal. When your partnership wins the whole game against the computer, you earn ranking points for that difficulty.

What this version simplifies (read me)

Traditional Sheng Ji is large and varies from table to table. To keep this edition correct, quick and fair, it fixes the following clearly:

• No bidding, no trump declaration and no kitty/bottom: the trump suit is fixed each round and all 108 cards are dealt (27 each).
• Tractors exist only in plain suits and use strict consecutive ranks (the gap left by the trump rank does not merge two ranks). There are no trump tractors, so a plain tractor can only be beaten by a higher tractor of the same suit — trumps cannot ruff a tractor.
• When following a tractor you must contribute as many pairs of the led suit as you hold, but those pairs need not themselves be consecutive — a small easing of the strict tractor-following rule.
• There are no "throw" (甩牌) multi-combo leads, and the last trick carries no bottom bonus, since there is no kitty.

Playing the computer (ranked)

Choose a difficulty and start. Easy plays loose, legal cards and is meant to be beaten by newcomers. Normal follows suit sensibly, grabs point-rich tricks when it can, feeds points to a winning partner and keeps them from opponents. Expert does all of that more sharply and spends its trumps more carefully. The computer thinks entirely on your device, so the game works offline. Beat it to earn ranking points — Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100 — and sign in to place your best result on the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Track the trump rank and suit at all times. A humble 2 can be a top trump this round, and the off-suit rank cards are stronger than the whole plain suits they came from.
• Keep your pairs together. Leading a pair or a tractor forces opponents to follow in kind and is the surest way to drag out their high cards — and to win big point tricks safely.
• Feed the points, deny the points. When your partner is winning a trick, throw your 10s, Kings and 5s onto it. When an opponent is winning and you cannot beat them, dump worthless cards, never point cards.
• Save trumps for point tricks. Ruffing an empty trick wastes a trump; hold them to capture Kings and Tens or to stop the opponents' big cards.
• As attackers, hunt the 80-point threshold; as declarers, smother it. Late in a round, count the points still out and decide whether you are chasing a takeover or protecting a level-up.

Frequently asked questions