Yes, I've noticed this before as well (also, if your tool inventory is full, you will receive your "mail" containing the reward before your flip. This would be visible even for people with fast internet, as the mail counter is not blocked by the blackness fog of lie)
I made the exact same post 2 month or so ago, it was deleted and the mod promised to "look into it" and does not want to cause chaos/panic. Never heard back from him.

In a lot of these types of games, the pick a card thing is just an animation and your reward is already predetermined behind the scenes. Since it's digital and not an actual physical card you're flipping, it makes more sense to do it this way since even if the card you picked did matter, it would be the same as giving you a random card, since there is no element of skill involved (it's not like you can try to follow the cards being shuffled to try and pick the one you want). I'm pretty sure the survival breakthrough cards work the same way as well (predetermined rewards in order of flip, so no matter which cards you pick the rewards will be the same for each pick).

Now I don't know if this is how it works, but I'd expect it is because it would be a lot more (unnecessary) work to make your choice actually matter vs giving you a random drop. The card thing is probably to motivate players ("look at what else you COULD win"), but like you said it probably just makes most people salty. I just ignore the other stuff now when I get my rewards to avoid getting frustrated.

Which is why I said, in my deleted post, that it probably doesn't REALLY matter. But it's one thing to come out and be honest say "yeah, it's to make things easier to code, sorry" and another to try and hide the fact.

But in any case, here is food for thought about THIS kind of "random"

How are the cards generated?

Specifically, is it:
Generate 5 cards, assign you one randomly, do the animation
Or
Generate your reward, generate the other stuff that you won't be getting, do the animation.

Note that those two would have pretty much the same difficulty in coding, but they could have very different results. Why? Because in the latter case, the "your reward" can be generated from a different "pool" than the "other stuff". And therefore, the game can present you with the appearance of better drop rate for the good stuff that you can actually get.

This latter method, by the way, is what many people feel what the survival breakthrough card flip are doing. It makes perfect sense for that to be pre-determined as well and assigned order 1-7 (with 7 being unreachable). There is a strong feeling in the community that #7 is better than others to make it appear like it have better reward yield than it actually does. While thus far, no one properly collected data to prove or disprove this notion, this IS possible.

And that is why, pre-determined picks are bad, not because it have any ACTUAL difference on the result itself, but the problem of potentially displaying a different prize pool than what is possible/likely and the impossibility of assuring the player that that is not the case.

Still, even if there WERE fishy stuff going on and they change it so our picks actually matter, what would happen is that we'd SEE less good stuff in the pool while getting the same stuff on our end. No ACTUAL difference in prize. So it doesn't really matter much. It's merely a case of we not knowing HOW MUCH we are being lied to.

If I had to speculate (for TI), it would be pull random stuff 5 times, assign you the first one, and then randomly display them.

I agree that it's a bit shady, but both of these features are free things that players do anyway, so even if they're showing you rewards you can't get, you're still going to do survival breakthrough. If they did this card picking thing with something you had to actually pay for, that would be a much bigger problem. It would be nice to know how it works, but I'm not holding my breath lol.

Wah did u guys noticed the new ninja tools we get from TI are no longer gold texts... Gold ninja tools are now purple texts. even the highest level ninja tool which is the gourd are now mixed with gold and purple texts!

Well, survival have gotten easy in my "old age", the fact that I'm one of the top player of my server helps too. But it won't suprise me if some players struggle with the breakthrough and, seeing the potential daily rewards, decide to spend a little to full clear it. Alternatively, the exp boot from the medal could help them unlock an extra breakthrough a day early, that might motivate them too.

So there is a TINY incentive to spend from displaying overly-good reward.
But it is perhaps also a tool to get free player to * around more, if there is a "hope" of progressing faster and keeping up with the ptws. And as we know, free players are needed to keep the ptws entertained.

I agree there aren't much reason to be deceitful with (mostly) fully free stuff, but, nothing is certain.


@Clazsic: you haven't been on the forum the last 4 days have you?

ye is fixed. like everything.

This is essentially correct.

When it comes to Survival and Team Instance. That is absolutely true.
It's in a sense like Gasha games. The moment you open up a pack, it's already determined what's inside, the rest are aesthetics. However, the moment you close the app (Client in our case), the reward is already established within your inventory/box.


Hopefully, this example sheds some light towards any confusion one may have.