tales of tribute
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ByArzyeL

Tales of Tribute

Tales of Tribute is a Collectible Card Game(CCG) in The Elder Scrolls Online, focusing on resources building! It offers a PVE story line but also PVP ranked matches with their own seasonal leader boards.

The game features a shared pool of cards, which players can use to enhance their decks and win the match! To access and enjoy the game you must own the High Isle Chapter! By completing Tales of Tribute matches you can earn Gold, consumables, materials, cosmetics, motifs, Transmute crystals and more!

Table of Contents

What is Tales of Tribute ESO

Tales of Tribute is an interesting CCG, since it features a shared pool of cards. Players must use their starting hand to buy more cards from this shared pool and enhance/upgrade their decks. To begin the tutorial and become familiar with this new feature, find Brahgas in Gonfalon Bay and follow his instructions. You can find him outside the Gonfalon Bay Gaming Hall, at the Southern part of the city.

Follow his instructions to complete the tutorial and earn your first four Patron Decks. After that you can play the game in Inns or challenge NPC and other players. You can even queue for a Ranked or Unranked Match through the Group and Activity Finder, in the new Tales of Tribute Tab.

Marunji the Broker and Kishka the Broker NPC will also offer Tales of Tribute related Daily Quests. You can find both inside the Gonfalon Bay Gaming Hall.

How to Play Tales of Tribute

The gameplay of Tales of Tribute is rather simple. Each player starts the game with a few cards and their goal is to buy more from the shared pool in the middle to enhance it. This shared pool is called “The Tavern“.

You draw up to five cards each turn and can play them all in any order. Cards you play reward you with Gold, Power and also offer a few more actions, like remove certain cards from your hand or the Tavern to gain benefits.

By amassing Gold you can buy cards from the Tavern and put them on your cooldown pile. You cannot use a card in your cooldown pile yet. Each player has three “Currencies“. Gold, Prestige and Power.

  • Gold is used to buy more Cards from the Tavern and perform other actions(Interact with the Treasury or Patrons for example. More on that below). At the end of your turn any Gold you have not used is lost.
  • Prestige are basically your winning points.
  • Power is used to interact with Patrons or fight Agent cards of the opponent. Use Power to get the enemy’s Agents out of the game! At the end of your turn any power you have not used converts into Prestige!

When a turn ends all your cards go to the Cooldown pile. Once you run out of Cards to draw, the cards in your Cooldown pile go back to your Draw pile, including the cards you have bought from the Tavern. So like this you now have a bigger deck with more and better cards to play in the next turns.

As you can understand, the main loop of Tales of Tribute is use Gold to Buy new Cards, use your Cards to gain Power, use power to interact with Patrons and gain benefits or let it convert to Prestige points to win the match!

What types of Cards there are in Tales of Tribute

Cards are divided in three categories. Action, Agent and Contract.

Action Cards allow you to perform specific actions. Agent cards are used for combat. Contract cards are like action cards that you play immediately when you get them.

Agent Cards are basically troops with their own Health and effects. Some have special abilities like Taunt. Agent Cards remain in play and do not go into the Cooldown pile when a turn ends. You can attack them with other Agent Cards or use special card and Patron effects to remove them.

You can use their effect in every turn. So for example if an Agent Card has a “Gain three(3) Power” effect, you can activate it in every turn and earn the power.

tales of tribute

Each card has a Cost, Suit and Effect.

Cost represents the gold you have to spend in order to buy a card. So if you have five gold available, you can buy a card that has a cost of five or one card with a cost of two and another with a cost of three gold.

Suit is the color of the card that also allows you to create combos with cards of the same suit. Cards will tell you how many other cards of the same suit you need to play in order to trigger a combo and what you can earn from it.

Finally the Effect is what you earn by playing a card. Gold, Power or something else.

Patrons

The Patrons represent the available Decks you can play! These are the available Patrons in Tales of Tribute:

  • Saint Pelin
  • Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu
  • Duke of Crows
  • Psijic Loremaster Celarus
  • Red Eagle, King of the Reach
  • Sorcerer-King Orgnum
  • Ansei Frandar Hunding
  • Rahjin, the Purring Liar
  • Druid King
  • Almalexia
  • Hermaeus Mora

Each is the central figure of a specific Deck with different cards and gameplay. When you complete the tutorial, you will earn your first four Patron Decks(Saint Pelin, Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu, Duke of Crows,Psijic Loremaster Celarus).

Every game begins with the selection of two Patrons from each player. This determines the type of cards you can find and buy in “The Tavern“. It also determines the strategies you and your opponent can follow.

The four Patrons are placed in the right part of the screen and have three states. Neutral, Favored and Unfavored. Each Patron has a certain cost you can pay in order to gain their Favor and their benefit. For example if you pay three Gold to Sorcerer-King Orgnum, you will earn six Power and the Patron will also favor you.

Earning a Patron’s Favor is not permanent. Your opponent can pay their cost later to turn them back into Neutral status. If they pay them again after that, they will earn their Favor and you will be Unfavored from them. Of course you can do the same.

Along with the Patrons in the right side of the screen, you can also find the Treasury. The Treasury is always Neutral and allows you to earn Cards that give you more Gold at the cost of sacrificing a Card and paying two Gold. This is a great way to replace your starter Gold Cards(that only give you one Gold) with better Gold paying Cards(that will help you buy more expensive cards from the tavern).

How to Get more Patron Decks in Tales of Tribute

By playing ESO you can discover and collect the other Patron Decks:

To unlock each one of them you will have to meet specific requirements and complete certain tasks. Advancing in Ranks in Tales of Tribute is necessary. Some will require you to defeat specific enemies or complete Quests, while other will ask you to find Tales of Tribute Masters and defeat them in the Card game.

tales of tribute

Victory Conditions – How to Win Tales of Tribute

There are two ways to win a Tales of Tribute Match.

  • Reach forty(40) Prestige Points first.
  • Earn the Favor of all Four Patrons.

By earning power during a match and converting it into Prestige, you can reach the required forty points and win the match. Be careful though. You have to hold the lead until the end of your opponent’s turn. Reaching forty prestige points first does not guarantee a victory by itself.

If you manage to earn the favor of all four Patrons, you win the match automatically. It does not matter how many prestige points you have in this case. This is harder to achieve against other players, since they will be countering this strategy.

Beginner Strategy – Getting Started with Tales of Tribute

There is a very clear strategy you can follow as a beginner that will help you understand the game better.

First play your gold Cards and try to buy better Cards from the Tavern. Focus on getting Cards of the same Suit(color) so you can trigger strong combos. Always play your Power Cards to interact with Patrons or convert into Prestige.

Focus on replacing your starter Gold Cards with better ones from the Treasury. This will allow you to buy more expensive and stronger Cards from the Tavern.

Try to earn the favor of Patrons if possible but you should prioritize on getting better cards first and enhancing your Deck!

Competitive Ranks & What Rewards can you get in Tales of Tribute

By playing Ranked Competitive, you can climb up the ranks of Tales of Tribute! In total there are six season tiers:

  • Unranked(lower)
  • Orichalcum
  • Ebony
  • Quicksilver
  • Voidsteel
  • Rubedite(Higher)

Each tier rewards Tribute Tokens and Transmutation Crystals. The higher your rank, the better your rewards! If you continue winning matches you can even enter the Top 10% and eventually Top 2% of the Leaderboards!

These Tiers reward Veteran and Elite Tribute Tokens as well as more transmutation Crystals! These Rewards are extra to the ones you get after every match, which include Gold, consumables, materials, cosmetics, motifs, Transmute crystals and more!

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