Bethesda has announced "Tales of Tribute", a card game built in their MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online. All the details that we know about the game can be found below, and come from today's livestream.

Note that information is still fairly sparse about this game, so we don't have a full picture of it yet. Everything we know so far though can be found below.

Quick Facts

  • Tales of Tribute releases alongside The Elder Scrolls Online's High Isle expansion
    • Launches on June 6, 2022 (PC/Mac).
    • Launches on June 22, 2022 (PS/Xbox).
  • The card game is a game within a game. To play, you need to have The Elder Scrolls Online.
    • The latest chapter/expansion of the game requires payment.
    • Pre-purchases are available for the High Isle chapter/expansion.
  • The game will be available to try on the Public Test Server on Monday, April 18.
  • Tales of Tribute is a Two-player, strategic, turn-based, deckbuilding game.
  • There are no booster packs to purchase.

Tales of Tribute?

  • The team wanted to give players an alternate activity to do inside the game to experience Tamriel.
  • They decided to explore what would happen at Taverns instead of just the usual drinking.
  • The game has been played by folks in Tamriel for over 100 years, it is well-grounded in the universe.
  • This is probably the biggest alternative activity they have added to the game.

Types of Cards in Tales of Tribute

These are the different types of cards Tales of Tribute will be launching with that we know about.

  • Action Cards
    • Give you gold, combat, force opponent to discard, draw cards.
  • Contract Cards
    • One-shot cards that you play right away after being purchased from the Tavern.
    • These can be Actions or Agents.
    • There are golden accents on these cards so you know they are immediately played.
  • Agent Cards
    • Stay in play until your opponent deals with them.

The top left icon on cards indicate which Patron they are from. Here are some example cards where you can see their different card types and layouts. You can also see that different effects are shown quickly by icons on each card, allowing experienced players to quickly identify what is going on without needing to read text.

Tales of Tribute Card Anatomy

Here's the anatomy of the Banneret card seen above.

  • Cost: 9
  • Health: 5 (This also indicates that the card must be attacked (Taunt), otherwise, opponent cannot convert power to prestige.
  • Effects: Gain 3 Power.
  • Patron Emblem: Indicates which Patron the card is from.
  • Combo Effects: This card does not have any but they look like the same effects icons.

 

Starting a Game of Tales of Tribute

  1. Queue against players through matchmaking or challenge someone in the world directly.
  2. Each play takes turns to pick 2 decks that will be used in the game.
  3. Once 4 decks are selected in total, 2 per player, the game begins.
  4. You will start the game with a 10 card deck, and a share Deck in the center of the field called the Tavern Deck.
    • The 10 card deck contains 6 Gold cards and 4 Patron-specific cards (1 for each Patreon deck chosen in the game).
  5. The 4 chosen decks are all shuffled together to form the basis for the Tavern Deck.
    • Each player gets to buy cards using their resources from the Tavern.
    • You can view the remaining cards in the Tavern Deck at any time by interacting with it.
  6. The player that goes first is randomly selected.
    • The player that goes second will start off with one extra Gold.

How Does a Turn Work in Tales of Tribute?

  1. Players start with 5 cards in their hand.
  2. The "Main Phase" of the game can be done in any order. You can:
    1. You'll get to play your cards, generally starting with currency cards and then your actions.
      • Any gold spent must be used in the same turn otherwise it goes to waste.
    2. You can buy cards from the Tavern that you have the correct currency for to purchase.
      • Cards purchased go to your Cooldown Pile and are available the next time your deck depletes.
      • This is the deckbuilding aspect of the game!
    3. You can upgrade your cards by using the Treasury.
    4. You can activate a Patron effect (one effect per turn).
    5. Combat wasn't seen during the live stream due to the way the developers were playing.
  3. Any cards that are leftover in your hand at the end of your turn are discards.
  4. You have 90 seconds to complete your turn.
  5. When your turn ends, you'll get your next turn's cards so you can plan your next turn.
  6. Any Power that remains on your board converts into Prestige.

How Do You Win in Tales of Tribute?

Tales of Tribute has different win conditions. Here are the ones we know about:

  • You win when all 4 Patrons favor you.
    • This type of victory is an immediate win condition.
  • You win when you earn 40 Prestige.
    • Your opponent has one more turn to try and defeat you.
    • Prestige is earned at the end of each turn. Your current Power is added to your Prestige before being zeroed out.


Your resources in the middle of the game board - Gold, Prestige, and Power.

PVE in Tales of Tribute

Tales of Tribute has a PVE mode in addition to PVP.

  • The goal of PVE is to learn the storyline and hook into the game world.
  • You can challenge different masters around Tamriel.
  • You have longer than the PVP 90 seconds to take your turn - NPCs don't care how long you take to play.

PVP in Tales of Tribute

  • Players can challenge each other by walking up to them in-game.
  • You can also queue against other players in ranked matchmaking.
  • There are seasonal leaderboards available.
  • You want to play to 
  • Playing the game gets you cool rewards.

Types of Rewards in Tales of Tribute

We don't have all the details yet, but here's what we know about the rewards in Tales of Tribute.

  • You can earn Emotes, and Furniture Crafting Materials for use in-game by playing Tales of Tribute.
  • Transmute Crystals can also be earned by playing and they are used to create items in the sticker book or configure traits on items.
  • You get rewards win or lose, more for winning.
  • There are no rewards for friendly matches, only through matchmaking.

That's everything we know about the game right now. Here are all the screenshots we took from the livestream.