Tales of Tribute exploit?

Jacozilla · January 23

This has happened too many times to be random glitch - the scenario is -always- the same -->

1. I am winning quite obviously, we all know when we're in juggernaut position but not won by 40 points or patron victory yet. Repeat - neither party has anywhere close to 40, nor patron victory possible.

2. Suddenly, on opponents turn, game suddenly ends - and I get loss points on leaderboard position.

^^ Not ToT pro, only started ~month ago to earn achievements, but have played my way into leaderboard rank after all lower tiers climbed. But just in last couple weeks, have had the above scenario happen at least 7-8 times. It's almost every other day or so. (I play ~5-6 games per day)

Example of actual game stats where above instant game stop and loss points given to me:

a) game starts with Druid, Psijic, Crow, and Pelin decks
b) score is 17 - 10 in my favor, and I've laid out 6-7 druid agents, have more good cards coming - both my opponent and I know with this juggernaut, unless some 1% miracle happens, I will win.
c) At start of opponent turn, suddenly game stops, I am back at in-game screen, and my leaderboard position is dropped with negative loss points.

^^ I am not saying every game has this happen. Lots of naturally concluded, with 'good game' or other congrats tells, good sportsmanship conduct, etc. Overall nice community of Tot regular players. But - every single time this instant loss has happened, it was when I was winning by quite obvious margin and had overwhelming position.

There has never, not once, been a time when I was on way to a loss that this sudden game stoppage happened in my favor. If this was just some random glitch where the game bugs out, pure chance would favor me sometimes as well. But no - it is 100% only when I am in overwhelming advantage position, that this instant game stop and loss to my points happens.

So what is this? Some bug where it's just massive coincidence that it always favors my opponents and never happens to me when I'm losing for real? Or an exploit by some ToT players that can somehow force quit a game and have it won in their favor?

Question 2 - I didn't even know a ToT game could be halted now? I've googled old posts, and I know way in the past, there was some sort of concede or resign button/mechanics, but all elements of conceding or forfeiting seems to now be removed from the game. So question -> Is there some untold way a player can quit the game early? (in Jan 2026 as of this post)

ESO_player123 · January 23

Do I understand correctly that you do not get the "Defeat" screen in these situations?

Calastir · January 23

Patron victory perhaps?

And you can concede by pushing 'Escape' but then you lose leaderboard position, get a 10 minute penalty and no reward.

JeroenB · January 23

I can't say I've noticed this.

When you say "at start of opponent turn", do you mean immediately, without them playing any cards at all?

Did you have the concession penalty or did you receive a normal loss reward? It somewhat sounds like there is something at your end that is inadvertently forcing a concession.

As ESO_player123 asked, do you get the Defeat screen? That should tell you why you lost (points or patron). I'm not sure if it mentions anything specific if you concede, though.

DragonRacer · January 23

Defeat screen or kicked back to main menu? I have had issues where sometimes after ESO updates, my Internet connectivity to their servers is pretty okay, but I also have had stints after updates where their server dumps me back to main screen like a hot potato with great frequency. I will say it's a strange shared experience that when I was playing ToT very regularly, I also encountered great frequency in kicks back to the main menu almost always when I was leading a game and felt good/happy about it.

After the latest few updates, my connectivity seems better but I also play ToT a lot less now because the described above experience was starting to drive me away from the whole game entirely.

I do not know if there is some actual glitch/exploit or if it's just incredibly oddly specific bad timing for a server dump, but every time I have been dumped during ToT, 9 times out of 10 it's during a good match I am leading rather than one I could already tell I was destined to lose anyway.

What's super fab is the server considering that a conscious disconnect and giving you the deserter penalty afterwards and not even a loser box. I didn't desert - your game kicked me off your servers. LOL

Jacozilla · January 24

Noted this in OP, but just to reiterate in shorter bullets -

- No, zero chance of opponent winning patron victory. Example - game was me 17 - 10 opponent score, had huge lead in druid agent cards played (5-6 active), and 3 patrons neutral, 1 in favor for opponent.

^^ in this game I lost by instant loss, concluded my turn, then on opponent turn (w/ no use patron again card available, no action to play cards, gold, etc), game just suddenly ended and end game screen showed 17 - 10 (score in my favor) and then returned to normal adventure-overland game screen.

I looked and knew my leaderboard score before play, and after this instant loss, I definitely was credited with negative loss points (I dropped several dozen LB position rank), AND the daily quest did -not- update this game as a win. So in two feedback systems manner, I was essentially awarded a loss (LB rank lost + daily quest did not trigger an update as a win for me).

Again, I can't rule out 100% this isn't some bug, but if so, the chances of it are massively coincidental that it has never favored me, and always been to my detriment (e.g I've never been awarded an instant win despite being in severe losing position, before 40 points, before patron victory. It's -ALWAYS- been when my opponent has been losing by obvious margin.

Also to restate - this scenario is not every game or so common it's like I'm saying happens all the time. I've played at least 5-6 games/day for last month, so call it ~180 competitive ranked games. I've had this instant loss before any victory condition was achieved ~7-8x in last couple weeks, and a few more early on when I had no idea what this even was. So call it 10x over 180 games.

It seems some sort of exploit, but I've no way to prove it, so am not 100% saying it is. Just pointing out the quite obvious, hard to believe coincidence that this issue has never, not once, favored me but only some opponent who was severely losing before somehow gaining an instant win pre-victory conditions fulfilled.

Personofsecrets · January 24

Install impressive stats addon so you can tell if it's the same player where this issue happens.

JeroenB · January 24

The ranking is relative to every other player, so other players' matches should also have an effect on your position. I've certainly noticed my rank shown after a match where I won to go either up or down. So I wouldn't take dropping a few dozen spots after a match as a definitive indicator of a match counted as a loss. (Admittedly this experience is from the 500~1500 range -- perhaps such swings are less likely at the more competitive end of the table.)

One thought that comes to mind: As far as I can tell you don't actually know that your opponent won; technically you don't even know that you lost -- only that the game ended without you winning. The game could in theory have just been cancelled for some weird reason with neither player winning (or losing). Admittedly I have never encountered that and have no idea whether it's possible (though it seems to be what DragonRacer described earlier). And your point about the statistical weirdness of it only happening when you were winning holds.

Did you receive the 'loss' reward pouch, or did you receive none? As I understand your comment you did not receive the 'win' reward pouch, and you did not mention receiving the deserter penalty for conceding.