Tales of Tribute

Overview

Tales of Tribute is a two-player collectible card game that provides a fresh challenge for the heroes of Tamriel. Over the course of a Tribute match, players assemble decks from a shared pool of cards and attempt to "tell the greater tale" by combining those cards into a winning strategy. Although players can participate in Tales of Tribute strictly for fun, ample rewards await those who relish a challenge! Find renown with Roister's Club daily quests, seek out hidden founders, and climb the Tales of Tribute leaderboard to become a Tales of Tribute master!

How to Access

Although any player can collect Tales of Tribute decks and card upgrades, only players who have access to the High Isle Chapter can access Tales of Tribute matches.

To begin your journey toward becoming a Tales of Tribute master, visit the Gonfalon Gaming Hall located in Gonfalon Bay on High Isle. There you can find Brahgas and Master Razhamad—friendly Tales of Tribute enthusiasts who guide your training and furnish you with four starting decks.

Tales of Tribute progress and unlocks are shared among all characters on your account, and you can complete the tutorial with only one character to unlock matches on any other character. The full Tales of Tribute questline, however, remains accessible to all characters individually.

How to Play

At the start of a Tales of Tribute match, each player selects two decks they own to play with. The first player picks the first and last decks, while the second player picks the second and third decks. Once combined, these four decks create the Tavern—a shared collection of cards arrayed on the center of the mat.Over the course of a match, players take turns acquiring cards from the Tavern, gaining the favor of deck patrons, and accruing Prestige—the resource that determines victory in the match. The player who reaches forty Prestige or gains the favor of all four patrons wins.

You must visit the Gonfalon Gaming Hall and complete your training with Brahgas and Master Razhamad before you can engage in Tales of Tribute play.

Decks and Cards

You can encounter many decks in the inns and taverns of Tamriel. Every Tales of Tribute deck comprises an array of playing cards and a patron. Although decks initially consist of a starter card and standard cards, some of those cards are upgradeable. Unlocking upgraded cards can substantially improve a deck.

You begin with four decks gifted to you by Master Razhamad. To view which decks and cards you have unlocked, navigate to the Collections menu, then select the Tales of Tribute Patrons tab. This menu allows you to review each card's and patron's ability, and it displays any card discovery clues you've acquired.

You can acquire new decks by taking part in Tales of Tribute activities, earning certain achievements, and completing specific content on High Isle and Galen.

Turn Timer

Normally, in a ranked or casual match started through the Activity Finder, you have 90 seconds to complete a turn. When 20 seconds remain in a turn, the turn timer flips to warn you. If 90 seconds elapse, your turn ends automatically. If you remain idle for a full turn, meaning you do not activate any cards, your next turn is 20 seconds long. Should you remain idle for 3 turns in a row, you automatically forfeit the game.

Turns are not timed in NPC matches or in friendly matches against other players.

Game Modes

You can play Tales of Tribute in several different ways.

In ranked| play, you square off against other players to increase your tier and standing on the Tales of Tribute leaderboard. You receive rewards for winning or losing, and these matches count toward advancing Tribute quests.

In casual| play, you challenge other players without increasing or decreasing your tier or standing on the Tales of Tribute leaderboard. You receive rewards for winning or losing, and these matches count toward advancing Tribute quests.

NPC matches do not affect your tier or standing on the leaderboards, but you can earn rewards for winning or losing based on the challenged NPC's difficulty rating. You can also make progress on quests when playing against NPCs.

Friendly| matches, where you challenge another specific player, are entirely for fun and confer no rewards and do not advance quests.

Starting a Match

You can initiate a Tales of Tribute match in several ways.

Challenge other players through the Activity Finder. Select either ranked| or casual| play in the Tales of Tribute section of the Activity Finder to be paired off with an opponent of similar skill level.

You can also challenge certain NPCs you encounter in world. You can preview an NPC's skill level before confirming the match.

You can challenge any other player you encounter in the world by using the social interaction wheel and choosing the Tales of Tribute Match option. If the invited player accepts, the duel begins immediately.

You can also challenge any player in your Friends list or Guild's roster to a match. If they accept, the duel begins immediately.

NOTE: To offer or accept Tales of Tribute match invitations, both players must have access to the High Isle Chapter and have completed the Tales of Tribute tutorial in Gonfalon Bay. Players who lose access to this Chapter retain their ranks plus card and deck unlocks, but they can't play matches until they regain access.

Leaderboard and Ranked Tiers

Competitive Tales of Tribute features four tiers of play and one leaderboard that resets every month.

At the beginning of each season, you must complete five placement matches. Victories and losses in these initial matches determine your starting tier. You can also benefit from your previous season's tier—potentially earning up to four free placement match wins based on how far you progressed. Each ranked match earns you points that increase your tier and your standing on the leaderboard.

After reaching Rubedite tier, you enter the Tales of Tribute leaderboard where placement is determined by win rate. At the end of the season, you receive rewards based on both tier and placement on the leaderboard, with the top 10% and 2% of the leaderboard earning special rewards.

Tips and Tricks

You can develop many useful skills to improve your Tales of Tribute play. Critical among them is deck management. Effectively optimizing your deck allows you to keep it lean, thus increasing your chances of drawing more powerful cards more often.

A common way to optimize your deck in the early game is to trade your starting cards to the Treasury patron for a Writ of Coin card, which generates two Coin when activated. You can also use cards with the destroy ability to remove cards from your deck, so you are more likely to draw your best cards.

The toss and refresh abilities are also great ways of choosing which cards you draw every turn. Toss lets you look at your upcoming cards, picking which to keep and which to move to your cooldown pile. Refresh pulls cards from your cooldown pile and puts them on top of your draw pile.Another useful skill is understanding the order in which combos are resolved. The order that you activate your cards every turn triggers their effects and combos accordingly. When playing a card, its play effects are resolved first, followed by any combos on the card itself, and then any combos on other cards that were triggered. Combos on other cards are resolved by their play order with cards that were played earlier being triggered first.

Before activating your cards, consider what abilities you wish to trigger first. For example, if you have a toss and draw ability, you may wish to activate the toss ability first so you can choose what cards to send to the cooldown pile before activating your draw ability.

Card and Patron Types

Tales of Tribute cards come in a few types: actions, agents, contract actions, and contract agents. Actions are sent to your cooldown at the end of your turn, while agents remain on the field until they are knocked out, either via your opponent's power or a card effect.

Contract cards are put into play as soon as you acquire them and never go to your cooldown. At the end of your turn, any played contract actions go to the Tavern's discard pile. Contract agents remain on the field until they are knocked out and then go to the Tavern's discard pile.You may interact with patrons once per turn if you meet their requirements. When you meet a patron's requirements and call upon them, their state toward you shifts to Neutral or Favorable. If you're already Favorable, you cannot improve that patron's state further. Having the favor of all patrons immediately results in victory.

Some patron abilities change depending on which state they are in. For example, the Duke of Crows does not let you interact with it when it favors you, but your opponent may still use it.

The Treasury patron favors no one and does not affect patron victory.

Tales of Tribute Glossary I

Acquire: Gain the specified number of cards from the Tavern without paying a cost.

Additional Patron Call: Gain a specified number of additional patron calls for the current turn.

Break: Opponent loses a specified amount of Prestige.

Coin: A resource used to buy cards from the Tavern or to gain favor from a patron. Unused Coins disappear at the end of the turn.

Confine: An agent ability that lets the player take cards from their opponent's cooldown until the agent has been removed from play.

Contract: A single-use card that goes into effect right away.

Create: Creates a new card that is added to your cooldown pile. Destroy: Remove a card from play. Any such cards go into the out-of-play pile.

Discard: Force a player to place the specified number of cards from their hand into their cooldown pile without triggering their effects.

Donate: Allows the player to discard up to the donate value of unplayed cards from their hand to then draw that many cards from their play pile.

Draw: Draw a new card from the top of your draw pile.

Draw Refresh: Take the specified number of cards from your cooldown pile and add them back to the top of your draw pile.

Heal: Removes the specified amount of damage inflicted on an agent, up to its maximum health.

Tales of Tribute Glossary II

Knock Out: Knock out an agent regardless of its health.

Neutral Patron: A patron with the power to convert a discarded card into a Writ of Coin card.

Patron: A deck patron is associated with a set of cards that a player brings to a match. Each match has 4 set-based patrons. During play, each deck patron has a state—Favorable, Neutral, and Unfavorable—that determines what they desire. If given what they desire, they provide a helpful effect. Deck patrons can trigger a game end—if all deck patrons favor one player, that player wins.

Power: A resource used to reduce the health of an agent. At the end of a player's turn, any unspent Power is converted into Prestige unless something prevents it.

Prestige: A resource that players can collect to win the game. Replace: Take the specified number of cards from the Tavern and place them in the Tavern discard pile to reveal the cards below.

Setback: Resources that your opponent will gain if you play this card.

Taunt: This agent card modifier prevents your opponent from converting Power into Prestige while that modified agent is in play.

Toss: Look at the specified number of cards on top of your draw pile and put any number into your cooldown pile.

Trigger: While this card is active on the board, the specified effect will occur.

Knock Out All: Place all of your active agents and your opponent's active agents in their respective cooldown piles.