Tales Of Tribute is beyond beyond RIGGED

cagle0614 · September 2025

I work remote.
I take Concerta 54 Mg. (Ritialin)
I have over 16 hours a day when I am not working that I can play Tales Of Tribute.
I am an exchange / active directory admin.
I can play against the NPC and win every single time.
I pay for my account and the account for my wife.
I can login to both accounts on separate routers.
Starlink and T-Mobile
I can play the exact same player example (Other Player) on my account.
That player gets a GOD DECK literally every single card to slaughter me.
5 minutes later I am logged on with her account and character who is low level and only has four patrons.
I am able to slaughter (Other Player) because the system is dealing the cards to her account to let her win.
With this system so incredibly unbalanced it makes it literally almost impossible to play the daily quest and win unless you spend the entire 16 hours or however long literally only playing Tales Of Tribute.
Not to mention when it becomes billing cycle.
I suddenly get a single day where I win entirely every single game I play even against players who I can never beat any other time.

Ive been compiling a list of the players I play on my account and the ones I play on her account.
What is also extremely interesting when playing on the two accounts.
1. I have seen EXACTLY one player in the game turning in the daily quests in.
2. When I play against the other player on her account who beat me like 5 minutes earlier that same player chooses the stupidest cards and makes the dumbest move as if it is a NPC Expert Player.

Another great example.
Just played a hand with the Sorcerer, Druid, Power,
I had several of the Sorcerer Cards
Yet the system drops this player "call on one additional patron nonstop."
When I get a hand that I have Prescience 1 and Prophesy X2 and one Barterer and I am not able to get a single card of call on one extra patron that is crap!
That is an algorithm deciding giving the hand to the other player unfairly!

Additionally
ScriptsOfTribute the AI software is being used by other players. I sit and play this enough that it is very easy to spot when it is AI.
The other player grabs cards so fast that you can hardly see what the card or cards were they grabbed especially if said player has the Druid King Deck and 20+ coins.
There are perhaps a handful of players who can make those kind of moves and that quickly.
It also explains why when I use my wifes account the same player that I just lost to suddenly is making the dumbest moves possible so as to not get caught or attract attention.

My third hand this morning.
The same player X2
The game literally gives this player every single card that is needed to win and I can not get access to any of the cards I need.
I wind up conceding the game because I can't get to a single card and have a score of 6 while the other player has a score of 23
The game hands the player
The Dreaming Cave
The next turn the card Psijic's Insight is available but the game has dealt me 4 gold and 1 power
That means the other player gets the Psijic's Insight card immediately because I have no options.
Those two cards alone make it difficult for an opponent to win.
It literally does no good to wait and let the other player chose because the system has already determined who is going to win.
In his third hand he gets Scrying Globe X2
Yet every time I get an opportunity and I chose a the lowest card nothing that even gives me a single change!
Literally the only possible chance to win is by aligning all four patrons but that is not going to work either when the system has already given him all those cards and drops them so he immediately gets to grab them.

I am simply trying to complete the daily quest.
This is insane to watch the system drop the cards to a player in 2 games with different patrons that guarantees that player wins and I am stuck playing Tales of Tribute NONSTOP losing.
Balance the game more make it possible for a player to complete the daily quest without spending there entire DAY playing Tales of Tribute that is like 1% percent of ESO at best.

Asdara · September 2025

I completely get what you’re saying, I’ve been noticing the same issues myself. It honestly feels like the game is actively working against you sometimes. Cards show up at exactly the wrong time, powerful plays are denied, and opponents consistently seem to get perfect hands. I’m convinced that some players are using third-party add-ons or scripts to manipulate the game in real time.

This isn’t just about tough opponents or bad luck; it’s about a system that can actively prevent you from completing daily quests unless you grind for hours. There's no counter or challenge, it’s basically “you can’t play, I win.” Until there’s better balancing or stricter measures against exploitative tools, it’s hard to see Tales of Tribute as a fair or enjoyable experience.

cagle0614 · September 2025

Asdara wrote: »

I completely get what you’re saying, I’ve been noticing the same issues myself. It honestly feels like the game is actively working against you sometimes. Cards show up at exactly the wrong time, powerful plays are denied, and opponents consistently seem to get perfect hands. I’m convinced that some players are using third-party add-ons or scripts to manipulate the game in real time.

This isn’t just about tough opponents or bad luck; it’s about a system that can actively prevent you from completing daily quests unless you grind for hours. There's no counter or challenge, it’s basically “you can’t play, I win.” Until there’s better balancing or stricter measures against exploitative tools, it’s hard to see Tales of Tribute as a fair or enjoyable experience.

I knew I was not the only player who was experiencing this issue!
I play the game far far far to much!
My daily job is about fact finding and looking for solutions.
Another great example today
Ceporah's Insight X1
Prophesy X1
Psijic's Insight X1
Scrying Globe X2
The Dreaming Cave X2 or 3 not sure
Time Mastery all in my deck of cards and very very carefully grabbed
The patrons included
Rajhin, the Purring Liar
Duke of Crows
Red Eagle King
Im not entirely sure what the 4th patron was.

When both of us reach 40.
The system drops me a hand where the player is like 6 points above me and I have deleted individual coins and hit the player hard with bewilderment cards.
I lose that hand which in no way shape or form should be possible with that much power from psijic order.

cagle0614 · September 2025

THIS IS SO COMPLETELY UNBALANCED!
I won again almost all day long yesterday!
Today I have lost again almost the entire day!
A game by definition should be fun and enjoyable.
When you have this incredibly unbalanced situation it is not fun or fair at all!

UNREAL!

Calastir · January 13

Same here.

Turns out when the game refuses you funds, good draws or choice of cards round after round...your opponent wins no matter what.

Some bought cards straight up disappear and never turn up.

Beyond beyond rigged.

Personofsecrets · January 13

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom

In all seriousness, I've been keeping more advanced data since August and it indicates large discrepancies in who get's to go first. For example, one specifc player I've had 32 games against since august and they have gone first 21 of those games.

I only win 43% of the games when I go second against them. When I go first, I win 73% of the games. So there is a large discrepancy that seems to be built into the game, not only by balance, but by the RNG system which decides who goes first and second.

There are all kinds of players that I go second against way more than I go first. There are players who I go first against more than I go second. This probably evens out, but it should even out on a per-player basis. It shouldn't be that some players are just destined to go first against other ones a strong majority of games. It's tiring and especially a poor dynamic in ToT since there are wildly unbalanced game pieces that player one get's the first shot at finding and taking advantage of.

Other than that RNG issue, I'd like to point out that the card seeding, which was reported as an issue last year, is still a major pain point of ToT. It's just so obvious at this point that once a card comes out, then the cards that are similar to it will show up. Have some of the ToT people in the office observe this issue with the Crow patron. If Plunder, Pilfer, or Squawking Orratory show up, there are always multiples that will show up in the tavern either back to back or within a few cards. Obviously, this RNG seeding issue unfairly skews games in poor directions and makes certain strategies overperform within different game contexts.

Thank you for looking into this one. It sort of feels like ToT has been largely forgotten about.

Also, there is a visual bug that impacts Agents that have been retrieved from the cooldown pile with Mother's Mercy. When an opponent has been playing those agents, they become put into play upside down and tilted. What I mean is that I only see the back of the card and it comes into play sort of diagnally rather than parallel to it's zone like it should. This was an issue a while ago, but I've noticed this happening 2 times within the past couple of weeks. It would be nice for card balance to be worked on to, but I don't really want to play around with the monkey's paw after seeing the recent DK changes.

Altera0x · January 14

Personofsecrets wrote: »

It's just so obvious at this point that once a card comes out, then the cards that are similar to it will show up. Have some of the ToT people in the office observe this issue with the Crow patron. If Plunder, Pilfer, or Squawking Orratory show up, there are always multiples that will show up in the tavern either back to back or within a few cards. Obviously, this RNG seeding issue unfairly skews games in poor directions and makes certain strategies overperform within different game contexts.

Are you sure you're not “birthday paradox”-ing yourself? The probability of seeing any duplicated card draw even in a small sample is quite high naturally. Especially if you start lumping “similar” cards together: the chance to draw ”Plunder, Pilfer, or Squawking” after drawing Squawking is triple of the chance to draw two Squawking in a row. Given that ToT starts with 100 cards in the Tavern, these chances aren't astronomically low.

There's also a lot of selection biases in play. I've seen a table filled with nothing but Scrying Globes/Time Masteries several times in recent weeks, far more often than some abstract probability calculations would suggest. That's not because Psijic is “rigged”, that's because in the absence of DK no sane player wants to buy these cards after turn 5 or so, and they just accumulate on the table. Also, I remember games like that much more vividly than boring ordinary games, and I need to forcefully remind myself that the hundreds of other games also happened.

Personofsecrets · January 14

Altera0x wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

It's just so obvious at this point that once a card comes out, then the cards that are similar to it will show up. Have some of the ToT people in the office observe this issue with the Crow patron. If Plunder, Pilfer, or Squawking Orratory show up, there are always multiples that will show up in the tavern either back to back or within a few cards. Obviously, this RNG seeding issue unfairly skews games in poor directions and makes certain strategies overperform within different game contexts.

Are you sure you're not “birthday paradox”-ing yourself? The probability of seeing any duplicated card draw even in a small sample is quite high naturally. Especially if you start lumping “similar” cards together: the chance to draw ”Plunder, Pilfer, or Squawking” after drawing Squawking is triple of the chance to draw two Squawking in a row. Given that ToT starts with 100 cards in the Tavern, these chances aren't astronomically low.

There's also a lot of selection biases in play. I've seen a table filled with nothing but Scrying Globes/Time Masteries several times in recent weeks, far more often than some abstract probability calculations would suggest. That's not because Psijic is “rigged”, that's because in the absence of DK no sane player wants to buy these cards after turn 5 or so, and they just accumulate on the table. Also, I remember games like that much more vividly than boring ordinary games, and I need to forcefully remind myself that the hundreds of other games also happened.

I'm quite sure that there is an issue with the RNG seeding of the game.

For 1st vs 2nd player I have data. It's also a long standing issue.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/638738/proven-rng-of-starting-position-is-broken

For the repeat cards, I have a pretty long experience in thinking about the issue. Another player has shown some videos of the issue in action.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/655051/the-rng-seeding-issue-is-grotesque-grotesque-seeding-issue-issue-seeding-issue#latest

If this were poker, then the chance of a pair in the first set of cards would be about 50%

Although there are 100 cards in the ToT deck and some cards do seem to be part of a "class," there also cards that don't seem to be part of a class or only have a few copies in the deck. Although some games don't seem to be impacted by the repeat issue, sure, enough games, more than 50%, do seem to be impacted by the repeat card seeding. Hoping for a card to reappear, on a short timeline, is sound strategy.

Class Theory - I believe that it was found that certain parts of the game, let's use staves as an example, form a class. So if the loot pool has bows and all 3 staves, even though the overall pool of items is 4 items, the chance of getting any specific stave is less than 25%.

Although the way that I group up cards like squaking, plunder, and pilfer would bias the results in favor of my idea, I believe the truth is that similar cards and especially cards that have morphed from a different cards, are built into the game as classes or categories. I wish we knew more about how the game is built to confirm the concept of classes, but I think that game development tends to be all about the formation of such classes for ease of coding.

Although there are some games that have expensive cards sitting on the table that build up in copies, because people don't buy them, and I have seen such taverns, my general idea is that these types of taverns happen more often than they should under a true RNG condition due to the games tendency toward repeating cards. More often, the card repeat issue is noticed because it allows players to build powerful combos, like with tripple Philanthropy by their 4 turn.

I'd also like to add, since biases are mentioned and a real possibility, that the concept of the idea of human bias can also play a role in undermining the detection of patterns that may actually exist. That is to say that the bias caused by this popular idea about bias should also be carefully considered.

Ultimately, we can never know about this issue for sure due to the propietary nature of the game, but I am very comfortable using these observations as part of my winning strategy. I ended December, 2025 as the number 1 ranked player on NA.

JHartEllis · January 16

I'd guess everything is completely random and that it's easy to imagine patterns because that's how people operate.

Personofsecrets · January 17

JHartEllis wrote: »

I'd guess everything is completely random and that it's easy to imagine patterns because that's how people operate.

One consideration is that random isn't always "random." In Elder Scrolls Legends there is a card called Desperate Conjuring which summons a "random creature," but how it ends out working is that it rolls creature cost first and then rolls for the creature name. So the chance of rolling a high cost creature is the same as rolling a low cost creature even though there are many more low cost creatures.

In that case, the RNG cranks and fuddy duddies have an advantage compared to the statisticians and those priviliging human psychological theory.

This type of thing has been found in other games too. There was a strong data driven case of the MTGA shuffler being messed up. Slay the Spire is known to have "correlated" RNG. And, quite honestly, with humans being the failures prone to mistakes that they are, there just isn't a reason to think that there aren't issues with ESOs various RNG systems due to use of categories in coding or even just less good code being built upon.

SeaGtGruff · January 17

There was a thread about opponents who generate insane amounts of gold every turn, who get tons of cards seemingly "out of nowhere," and who more or less cannot be stopped-- a bit like standing in the path of an avalanche while brandishing a papier-mache shield (my words, not any quotes from the thread). Well, I just went through one of those kinds of matches-- against an NPC. It was with The Druid King, and the NPC was able to snatch up one of the 6-coin Druid agents very early on, bought with the 4-coin Hlaalu card that lets you buy a 6-coin card from the Tavern. Within a few turns they became a totally unstoppable force. I'm betting that some of those "highly suspicious" matches others were complaining about in the other thread probably involved The Druid King patron.