The Cloaked Ascendancy Console Primer: River District and Campaign

It’s that time again console folks! Release week is here and you’re merely 24 hours away from entering the River District and enjoying the latest Neverwinter module “The Cloaked Ascendancy”. As you know we do not let you walk out in the dark alone! Today and tomorrow we are going to deliver everything you need to know when fighting Gyrion and his minions! Have fun with it!

The River District

Before we’ll look at the group content and new gear, let’s go through the general setup of the new module and the campaign first. The Protector himself brings players to the River District, a once wealthy and long abandoned part of the city. As the story progresses a fight with powerful wizards emerges over the resources that still lie beneath the area. Both the campaign and the story fully take place on the new adventure map.

At first the setup might look familiar. Just like in other campaigns there’s a daily to earn currency, which players then can spend for various campaign tasks. There is one definite difference though and that is choices.

The grind is different and unique

The River District grind is not split up in many different and rotating dailies. Instead players find themselves in the dynamic environment of an ongoing fight between the Protector’s forces and the Cloaked Ascendancy. Adventurer’s and the city want to loot the valuable resources of the district while the opposition constantly interferes.  To progress towards the daily, you can contribute to this fight in many ways. The easiest, but also slowest, is to just slay mobs on the map. But players can also strengthen and defend the Protector’s Guard Posts that help fend off minions or raid the vaults beneath the city and reclaim their riches. Last but not least, several Heroic Encounter contribute to the progress as well. A percentage in the quest log shows how much players have already accomplished towards their daily goal.

The daily is not really shorter than in other campaigns, but the fact that players can freely choose how to participate makes it a unique and different setup. The weekly lairs that will unlock later in the campaign are also more than just a boring walk-through. Players need to follow a few mechanics and there’s some parkouring and platforming involved. And the fact that you can acquire some Salvage and a chance at a unique Companion on every run adds a minor, yet valuable incentive. These so-called “demiplanes” of the main antagonists can be repeated indefinitely even outside the weekly quest. The required Portal Stones drop either from campaign quests or randomly from Heroic Encounters. There’s also a new Mage Slayer ZEN companion that enhances the drop rate, but we can’t really recommend it. It’s not as significant as the purple Trowel for example.

The campaign is all about choices

The pattern of choices continues in the campaign tree. Depending on what you want to achieve first, you can specifically work towards that goal. There are basically three “sub trees” to explore:

  • New Artifact Weapons (slightly inferior to Relic)
  • New Boons
  • The master version of the Spellplague Caverns dungeon

None of these require all campaign tasks to be unlocked. Players will achieve everything eventually, but can focus on the most important thing first without losing progress somewhere else. You already have an endgame geared toon and want to get to the Spellplague Caverns as soon as possible? Fine! You didn’t get the Relic weapons in Module 10 for some alts and want the latest tier of equipment for them? Ok!

The choices come with a slight downside though as the campaign overall is considerably longer than previous ones. Module 11b will however not feature an extension like Sea of Moving Ice was for Storm Kings Thunder. So this one needs to keep players busy a little longer.

Treasure Map hunt a complementary mechanic

The treasure hunt is back as well, but it’s much less mandatory than in the Sea of Moving Ice, if at all. Hunting for treasure is a complementary mechanic this time and really an exploratory feature. You can get some minor campaign currency, but actually farming is not the most effective way to progress.


A bunch of information available

This preview of course cannot touch and discuss all aspects of the new additions in-depth. In our module hub however you’ll find more than 20 articles covering the Cloaked Ascendancy. For your convenience we have listed the most relevant ones below. So click through for guides and more information about the stuff we’ve previewed today!

We hope you feel properly prepared to face Gyrion and his minions now! In case you’re also interested in the new gear and group content, make sure to visit the second post of our primer! Do you have any questions or additions? Share them in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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2 thoughts on “The Cloaked Ascendancy Console Primer: River District and Campaign

  • April 10, 2017 at 8:28 am
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    Are we able to start the new skirmish (master) immediately, or do we need to unlock it in the campaign like it was in SOMI with msva?

    • April 10, 2017 at 12:34 pm
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      Skirmish = immediately. Spellplague Caverns = about four weeks

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