The Acquisitions Incorporated campaign was introduced with Neverwinter’s Module 15. It’s one of only two campaigns that accompanies players while leveling up (the other being Tyranny of Dragons). We already covered a lot of stuff in our campaign preview. So I’d advise you to go read that article, because this one is based on what’s been written there. Actually, I wasn’t too sure whether a full guide even makes sense. A few weeks into the module however I believe it can’t hurt to go through some basics, especially since it is the campaign new players will experience first.
Becoming an Underpaid Intern
You start the campaign at level 15 by picking up one of the “AI” posters that are scattered around Protector’s Enclave. You then have to
use the overworld map to travel to the introductory quest line. Don’t get confused by the way. The quest description might indicate it’s the Blacklake adventure zone, but it’s a
private instance. After completing the introductory story you get all further quests in the AI shop located at the Auction House in PE. It’s kinda hard to miss, because an effing air-ship is
parking outside.
All story and repeatable quests come from Omin Dran and Jim Darkmagic in the shop. After picking them up you either enter quest instances through the basement or by boarding the air ship outside the shop. The currency you can earn is called “Acorns” and the campaign uses the Weekly Haul progression system. It means that you can freely complete quests until your Acorns reach a certain cap (you start with 100). After the Haul is filled, you need to wait til reset day (Monday) to be able to continue the campaign. In case you start early, you have another limiting factor in character level. New progression quests are only handed out every ten levels (15, 25, 35, etc.). So you can’t fully complete the campaign until you’re 70.
How To Progress
Talking about completing the campaign: As mentioned it’s as easy as running the campaign quests for Acorns until until the Weekly Haul is filled. It’s not terribly difficult to understand what you’re supposed to do. There are however two paths you can go. You can either invest Acorns in the progression path or the boons.
The general advise is to progress through the story first before buying boons, but you can obviously also choose to do it the other way round. There are three distinct advantages from progressing though. The first is that it’s simply faster. Some tasks along the way will unlock more weeklies and extend the Weekly Haul. Being able to amass more Acorns will allow you to grab the boons more conveniently later.
But more than that you want to unlock the skirmish (the last task in the campaign) as additional source of Acorns. Since the weeklies won’t quite get you to the cap, you have to go through countless additional “Basement Investigations” each week. It’s the only quest that’s on a one-hour (and not weekly) cooldown and nets five Acorns. Especially on multiple characters that can get quite annoying. So adding the Manycoins Bank Heist as second option makes a world of difference. Especially early on when the skirmish still feels fresh, has new rewards, and is generally fun.
Last but not least, the K-Team challenge. The sooner you complete the progression the sooner you can get your hands on the item level 600 gear sets that drop from a weekly “hardcore mode” dungeon quest. We’ve done a pretty good job previewing the K-Team challenge and Gallant Gear. So I’ll just link the articles below:
Campaign Store
Acorns is no the only currency you can earn. With the second one, “Wooden Tokens”, you can buy stuff from the campaign store. Just like
Ravenloft players can get a level 70 Artifact set there. It’s serviceable especially for defensive minded toons, but certainly a low-budget option. But that’s only fair because it’s
relatively easy to obtain. On the contrary, I’m not a huge fan of the “Wand of Wonders” and the other bags that contain random effect consumables (the “Wands”, “Gems”, and “Wondrous Items”).
They mostly dish out minor damage or control effects. Other than being fun however, they serve no real purpose in PVE and can’t be used in PVP. But if you have currency to spare, that’s the
stuff you can buy for it.
You also have keys for additional dungeons chests for the Manycoins Bank skirmish and some of the older dungeons that didn’t feature an extra chest before Mod 15. Since those cost Acorns, players normally farm and buy them after they’ve completed the full campaign. It’s good to see them not being on a daily cooldown like in other campaigns. You are still limited by your Weekly Haul, but at least can decide to buy and use all keys whenever.
Campaign Length and Difficulty
Overall this campaign should take level 70 characters about five weeks (without currency from Head-Start ZEN or promo packs) and an additional four for the boons. New characters of course level through the campaign more naturally. Like I said above, you can only continue with the story every ten levels, so the Weekly Haul as limiting factor might not be much of a factor. It probably depends on the speed of your leveling in that case. Don’t discount the difficulty while still leveling up by the way. Generally the story is more about fun and having a good time however and you shouldn’t have that much trouble. 70s are getting scaled back and shouldn’t run into any challenge anyway.
Available Campaign Boosts
Last but not least, let’s talk about taking shortcuts. There are currently three boosts available directly related to the Acquisitions Incorporated campaign. All Acorns generated by them do not count against the Weekly Haul cap. The first one is the Neverwinter Consult Expedition Pack. As so-called “Founder’s Pack” it’s available before the release at an early-bird discount and then stays in the ZEN store for 10,000. The pack comes with 100 Acorns and you can buy as many as you want. Theoretically you can grab five and complete the campaign on day one, but 50,000 is obviously a steep price.
The devs usually also make a promo pack available for a limited period of time after launch that contains 50 Acorns. Each account gets one. The last one is the “Undead Intern” companions for 2,500, whose Active Bonus adds 10% Acorns. I personally like it on my mains because it really makes running the campaign much less of a pain. Please note that all bonus Acorns get rounded up. A quest handing out five Acorns will net six instead. 15 turn into 17 and 25 into 28. It might not sound like a lot, but over the course of a couple weeks it’s noticeable.
Conclusion
The Module 15 campaign is not terribly hard to understand. You run quests for Acorns, fill your Weekly Haul, and might also have some fun with Omin and company. The only real advise I would give you is to go down the progression path first and getting the boons later. It’s the optimal way to get through the campaign and also unlocks the skirmish and K-Team challenge as fast as possible. If you have a few ZEN, I’d also grab the Undead Intern on mains, but I can’t fully recommend the Consult Expedition Pack, at least not for the full price of 10,000. It’s up to you, but I think it’s one of the weaker Module Founder Packs so far and the amount of progression is not worth the ZEN either.