River District Zone Guide: Dig Sites, Heroic Encounters and Demiplanes

We went over the campaign progression on Tuesday and today I’d like to follow up with a guide of the zone mechanics. It’s not extraordinary flashy, but there’s a few hints that are nice to know.

Dig Sites

As I’ve already predicted on my preview of the River District, the battle between players and the AI about Guard Posts and Dig Sites never transpired on live. It’s just too many players. So on most maps all Dig Sites will be already unlocked when you enter it. This means you most likely won’t need to buy extra maps from Quartermaster Kendricks to open them yourself. It can’t hurt however to have a stock of each with you in case you are going to need them.

Simply unlocking the Guard Posts activates an attached Dig Site by the way, you do not actually have to buy any units. Then walk over to the Site Foreman and get yourself a pass to enter. These passes grant access for an hour and then disappear. They do unnecessarily take an inventory spot once completed though and can be discarded in that case.

The map dynamics might change once not everyone and their mother is running the River District any longer, but right now it doesn’t really make sense to go for the first Dig Sites. Guard Posts are chained and unlock the next one in line. And Dig Sites further down the chain return more resources. Normally that would mean weighting the resources spent getting to a better Dig Site vs the ones you are getting. But with everything unlocked, that’s a non-issue. At least if you’re planning to run a limited number of sites, you should aim for the three last ones. It’s the same effort for more rewards.

Reclaimed Overflow

I additionally don’t think you need to pay particular attention to the type of the Dig Site. I’m currently hovering around 200 resources each just running the daily. So it looks like you are going to have enough at all times no matter what you are doing. I do however like to pick up the daily “Riverfront Rumble” quest from Dockhands, which returns a sizeable amount of resources as well.

I’m not so fond about the found quests though. Just like in Storm Kings Thunder they are not worth gunning for on a daily basis. If you happen to complete them while doing other stuff, fine, but do not include them in your daily rotation.

Heroic Encounters

Just like the Dig Sites the Heroic Encounters are part of the map mechanics and dynamics. The Treasure Ship HE can be triggered by defending merchants and donating resources. The Far Realm Ritual and Counterattack HE on the other hand can be delayed by spending Reclaimed Magic at the minor Ritual HEs. But currently nobody cares because nobody has to and just joins Heroics where active.

Farm the demiplanes?

You might have wondered what the active bonus of the Mage Slayer companions actually does. It seems rather useless because Portal Stones drop left and right by playing the campaign. But just like Sharandar or Dread Ring lairs, the demiplane solo instances can be replayed as often as possible. Each completion, even if you don’t have the weekly, grants minor Refining Points, Salvage, Evidence of Evil and a small change at one of the new Companions. So doubling the Portal Stones means you can farm them twice as much.

It’s not a final verdict, but I’m not sold on it. The rewards don’t seem to justify going all in on the instances, much less buying a Companion for it. I would just do one demiplane per day in your rotation in case you happen to snatch a Portal Stone.


That’s my quick look at the River District zone mechanics! In case you have something to add, make sure to post it in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board.

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j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.