Sungka

How to Play Sungka — Rules, Captures and Strategy

Sungka is the classic Filipino mancala game for two players, played on a carved wooden board (the sungkaan) with fourteen small houses called bahay and two big heads called ulo. Each player starts with 49 cowrie shells (sigay) — seven in each of seven houses — and sows them counter-clockwise around the board, racing to bank the most shells in their own ulo. This free online version plays the full traditional rules: relay sowing, free turns, cross-board captures and the sudden dead end that hands the turn over. Play a friend on one screen or take on the computer at three difficulty levels — right in your browser, no download needed.

A Filipino classic

Sungka is one of the most cherished traditional games of the Philippines, played from Luzon to Mindanao for centuries — a Spanish missionary, Fr. José Sanchez, already described it in the 1600s. It belongs to the ancient mancala family of sowing games, whose boards have been carved into wood and stone across Asia and Africa for over a thousand years, and it is a close cousin of Malaysia’s congkak and Indonesia’s congklak. Traditionally the sungkaan is a boat-shaped block of hardwood, and the pieces are sigay — small cowrie shells gathered from the shore. Generations of Filipino children have learned counting and planning over a sungkaan on the porch; the game still stars in school programmes and fiestas today.

The goal

Collect more shells than your opponent. There are 98 shells in play, so whoever ends the game holding 50 or more in their ulo wins, and 49 each is a draw. Every move is about steering the final shell of your sowing: into your ulo for a free turn, or into an empty house on your side for a capture.

The board

The sungkaan has two rows of seven houses (bahay). You own the row nearest you and the ulo (head) at your right-hand end; your opponent owns the other row and the other ulo. At the start every house holds seven shells and both ulo are empty. On this screen Player 1 sows the bottom row into the right-hand ulo, Player 2 sows the top row into the left-hand ulo, and Player 1 moves first in a new game.

How to sow

• On your turn, pick up ALL the shells from any one of your seven houses and sow them counter-clockwise, dropping one shell into each following house, one by one.
• When the sowing passes your own ulo, drop one shell into it too. Your opponent’s ulo is always skipped — no shell is ever sown there.
• Relay sowing: if the last shell falls into a house (on either side) that already holds shells, scoop up everything in that house — including the shell you just dropped — and keep sowing from there in the same turn.
• Free turn: if the last shell falls exactly into your own ulo, it is banked and you immediately sow again from any of your houses.
• The turn ends when the last shell falls into an empty house: on your own side it triggers a capture; on the opponent’s side it simply dies there and stays where it fell.

Capturing

When your last shell lands in an empty house on YOUR side of the board, you capture: that shell, plus every shell in the opponent’s house directly opposite, goes straight into your ulo. Timing a long relay so it ends on your side opposite a full enemy house is the signature sungka move — one capture can swing ten or more shells. If the last shell lands in an empty house on the OPPONENT’S side, nothing is captured: the shell stays where it fell and your turn is over.

How the game ends

The game ends when the player who must move has no shells left in any of their seven houses. The other player then adds every shell still sitting on their own side to their ulo, and the fuller ulo wins. This version scores a single round; on a real sungkaan the traditional multi-round game continues with the loser marking houses they can no longer refill as "sunog" (burnt) — a fun variant to know when you play offline with family.

Playing the computer (ranked)

In "Sungka vs Computer" you choose who sows first and a difficulty — Easy, Normal or Expert. The computer plans its relays and captures entirely on your device, so it works offline. Beat it to earn ranking points: Easy +10, Normal +30, Expert +100. Sign in and your best results appear on the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Count before you sow. A house whose shells reach exactly your ulo earns a free turn — chain several free turns in a row to pull far ahead.
• Watch the empty houses on your side: any sowing that ends in one captures the enemy house opposite. Groom a fat enemy house by keeping its mirror empty.
• Deny captures. When an enemy sowing could end opposite one of your full houses, either empty the threatened house or drop a shell into the enemy’s landing spot first.
• Long relays are powerful early but risky late — they can die deep in enemy territory. Near the end, prefer short moves you have counted exactly.

Frequently asked questions