Multiple Questions

I have a lot of questions. Instead of making a new topic for each one, I'll post them all here. First of all, a friend told me that you don't need to be ascended to go to UW. I don't know if that's true, but I'd like to know. Also, I've been trying to beat Thirsty River for a while, but a someone always screws up. Is there a fail safe way to beat it? Can someone tell me the amount of missions there are total?

For the record, I'm a level 20 R/Mo. I'm infused. Not yet ascended.

1. no. You need to be ascended to reach bother FoW & UW.
2. do a search for "thristy River" or skim through the forums, there are posted ways of beating it.
3. 24 missions iirc...

Thanks a lot. I'll try a search. I want to go to UW.