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Secret Cow Level

5,661 bytes removed, 11:00, 11 September 2021
Rewrite page, streamline, add level data, add notes about D2R's lack of restrictions
{{quests}}The "'''Secret Cow Level'''," a favorite joke/and absurd rumor from [[Diablo I]], packed full of [[Hell Bovine]]s, is a reality in [[Diablo II]] -- — an Easter Egg/joke area that's actually quite fun and profitable. It was so profitable that the Cow Level was the most popular area to "run" in v1.09, thanks to the huge cow herds, good experience, and low danger to players. In v1.10 and later the experience was nerfed and the area is no longer so popular, but can still provide players with some fun and profitable play experiences.
It's also an amusing area to visit, if only for the sight gag of walking cows with polearms, and to hear the voices of the cows. They were recorded by various {{iw|Blizzard_North Blizzard North}} employees, and must have required many takes to edit out the laughter.
  ==From a joke to realityGetting There and Exploring==
{{Levelbox
|game= Diablo II
|name= Secret Cow Level
|patch= v1.10+
<!--|norm-lvl= -->28<!--|night-lvl= -->64<!--|hell-lvl= -->81
|monsters= [[Hell Bovine]]
|norm-monster= 1
|nearby= [[Rogue Encampment]]
|quests= [[Secret Cow Level]]
}}[[Image:Quest-cowscow-earlyrecipe.jpg|thumb|300px|left|First look at Cows, April Fools, 1999.frame]]There were player-created rumors/jokes about a In order to open the portal to the Secret Cow Level in [[Diablo I]], based on the cows in the pasture in [[Tristram]] that would moo, or cause your character to say something amusing, if you clicked must first finish the bovines long enoughcurrent difficulty. There is no secret level or anything related to the cows other than an Easter Egg style joke in Expansion characters must have killed [[Diablo HellfireBaal]], and Blizzard repeatedly denied its existence in both serious and humorous ways, such as the {{iw|StarCraft StarCraft}} cheat code "there is no cow level." However, the while classic characters must have killed [[Diablo]] II team apparently drew upon the rumor for inspiration, and worked the whole level into Diablo II.  The first hint of a secret cow level came on April 1, 1999, over a year before Diablo II was released, when [[:Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|this screenshot]] was released. It was taken as simply an April Fools' Joke at the time, but the joke was clearly on us, as things turned out. The cow level in the final game does not take place in the Act One caves, nor are any of the cows brown in coloration, so clearly there were some changes made during development. 
==How to get there==[[Image:Quest-cow-recipe.jpg|frame]]You must finish While standing in the game first (Kill [[DiabloRogue Encampment]] in D2, Kill [[Baal]] in D2X), and then go back to [[Act I1]] on the same difficulty level, and execute the cube recipe of combine a [[Wirt's Leg]] + a [[Tome of Town Portal|Town Portal Tome]], while your character is standing in the [[Rogue EncampmentHoradric Cube]]. You do not need to carry around Wirt's Leg forever; just go back to [[Tristram]] any time and click his corpse to get a new one.
Prior to v1.02 * '''[[Diablo 2]] / [[Lord of Destruction]]:''' If you could go to have been previously present in the Secret Cow Level as many times as when the Cow King was slain, you wanted will be unable to, so if you really love it craft this recipe yourself in single player, you could uninstall, reinstall Diablo II, and then play do the Cow Level with your current difficulty. Someone else must open or single player characters as many times as the portal for you want to, as long as you don. This restriction does not apply in '''[[Diablo 2: Resurrected]]'''t upgrade past v1.01* [[Wirt's Leg]] can always be re-obtained from his body in [[Tristram]]. In The Leg you use must have been obtained on the current versiondifficulty, you may repeat Legs from other difficulties will not work.* The number of scrolls inside the Cow Level as often as you like, providing you do Tome does not matter and it will not receive quest credit for killing affect the [[Cow King]]"quality" of your portal or loot.
As for the Cow Level itselfThe area is a single outdoor zone, it's about what you would expectwith no sub-levels or dungeons. Cows It resembles [[Blood Moor]] but with wide-open spaces and more cows, called the occasional wooden fencing. [[Hell Bovine]]s, appear in huge, almost never-ending herds. By far densely populate the most tightly-packed monsters you see anywhere in the game can be found in the Cow Levelwhole zone. Every cow looks the sameSomewhere inside is a wooden "fort" with higher walls, there is no variation in coloration or weaponry at all. They all have massive polearmsopen corners, and do quite heavy damage when they strike you with their very fast attacksthe [[Cow King]].
[[Image:Quest-cow-portal.jpg|thumb|122px|right]]
The level is all on the surface, there aren't any sub levels or dungeon or cave areas, but there is a main wooden stockade sort of area, with walls just like those in the [[Rogue Encampment]]. It is square in shape, with openings on all sides, and a number of dead Rogues lying around, and others tied to stakes, as you often see them in Act I. It's not a real good place to fight in, since the approaching cows can easily fill every exit and you do not want to be cornered by them. Being cornered or too surrounded will get you scenes like this, and as you can imagine, body-retrieval can be a challenge.
Somewhere inside or just outside of the "fort" as it's called, you'll find the [[Cow King]]. He is always [[Lightning Enchanted]], and should be avoided if you wish to retain the ability to open the portal to the level.
==Cow King and Multiple visitsVisits==You can open the [[Red Portal]] to the cow level as many times as you like, providing you don't get credit for killing the king. Credit is given if you kill him yourself, or he dies at the hand of another player who has never killed him before, while you are in the Cow Level. Being partied or not has no effect on the credit for the quest, it only matters who actually gets '''the last hit''' on King.
If they have previously gotten credit for completing the [[Image:Quest-cow quest (which means they can '''not''' open the red portal) then nothing will change-king. If the character who gets the last hit on the [[Cow Kingjpg|frame]] can open the red portal, then they will receive credit for completing the quest and no longer be able to open the red portal. Worse yet, everyone else in the Cow Level, whether they are partied or not, will also receive credit for completing the quest (if they didn't have it already) and will no longer be able to open the Red Portal.
The Secret Cow Level always contains a single super-unique monster, the [[Image:Quest-cow-king.jpg|frameCow King]]If that's not clear enough. It can be hard to distingush the King in a crowd of other cows, see but he is always [[http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=341175 this forum threadLightning Enchanted]] for the facts presented here, laid out in more detailed and grammatically-creative fashion.
If In '''[[Diablo 2]]''' and '''[[Lord of Destruction]]''', a hidden quest tracks whether or not you've already killed have defeated the Cow King in the current difficulty. Whenever the Cow King dies, anyone currently inside the king or gotten Secret Cow Level will receive credit for killing him when someone else didthe quest, you canand '''t be unable to open the red portal anymore, but you can still enter to the level again in the red portal when someone else opens it upcurrent difficulty'''.
==Bosses==The boss monster for * Whether or not you are in a party does not matter, if you are inside the Secret Cow Level when the level is The Cow Kingdies, and he's there every gameyou will receive credit.* You can still re-visit the Secret Cow Level in the current difficulty, but someone else will need to open the portal for you. Many players earmark some of their characters to always spawning somewhere inside or very near be portal-openers, but never have them visit the wooden fortlevel itself. He has minions * These restrictions were fully removed in '''[[Diablo 2: Resurrected]]''', the Cow King can be killed as well, just much as you like any random boss in and it will not block anyone from creating the gameportal again.
You can see full stats for Having the [[Cow King]] here. He doesn't differ in appearance from the other cows in any way; no crown or different coloration or longer horns, though portal restriction placed on hell he often your character is [[Aura Enchanted]], so you'll spot him by thatalmost always considered undesirable. There are often random Joining public Cow Bosses and champions scattered throughout the areaLevel games is therefore extreemly risky, and with them all identical in appearance it's hard to tell if a monster is the king as other players may accidentally or not until you intentionally kill some to clear out the mob. The Cow King is always [[Lightning Enchanted]], so that's one way to tell even if you avoid him immediately.
Prior to v1.08 the The Cow King was a guaranteed special drop, like the [[Act Boss]]es, though only two drops his own unique set items. [[Uniques]] and [[Set]]s were almost guaranteed from him with some [[Magic Find]]. In v1.09 he was toned down a bit, but he still has the ability to drop a random array of up to five magical, rare, set, and/or unique class items as well as a half-dozen stamina potions (milk anyone?). On Hell his [[Treasure Class]] is much lower than that of the normal cows, so while he will never drop top level items, he can drop quite a few low level [[Elite item]]Cow King's such as [[Bramble Mitts]], [[Dusk ShroudsLeathers]], [[Shakos]], etc.
==Strategy==
The Cow Level requires some unusual strategy. First of all, the only way in is through the red portal, which does not always spawn in a safe location. It's a good idea to get away from it as quickly as possible, since if it gets swarmed and you leave the level through it, or die, you will not be able to return safely.
[[Image:Quest-cow-death.jpg|thumb|300px|Don't get swarmed.]]The [[Hell Bovine]]s are very slow of foot, but they hit hard and have fairly rapid attacksportal to the level does not always spawn in a safe location, so caution must be used when tanking them. Their greatest strength comes from their numbersready to run whenever you first enter, simply because 10 cows swinging at your character, at once, is in case you arrive in the middle of a bad situation for almost anyoneswarm.
The best characters for the cow level have ranged attacks that can strike multiple targets at the same time. [[JavazonHell Bovine]]s might as well have been designed specifically all wield polearms and move slowly. They attempt to excel in the Cow Level, thanks to [[Lightning Fury]], which is more effective the more targets there are in range. Other highly useful skills against the Cows include [[Nova]], [[Corpse Explosion]], [[Multishot]], defeat players with their sheer numbers and can stunlock and [[Death Sentry]]kill you quite quickly if you get surrounded. Anything that hits many targets per use Ranged characters will come want to kite cows into its own against the cowstighter groups to better manage them.
The basic strategy for the level varies a lot. If your character has a powerful area attack, you want to run around with a purpose, getting as many cows following you as possible. This is known as "herding". Run around the mobs, "knitting" them into bigger packsdensely populated, so you can attack huge mobs area-of-effect attacks or skills that hit multiple enemies at oncework best. Characters with less powerful skills will probably want to take on the cows a few at a timeBovines have no immunities and low resistances, and should advance slowly and carefullyso they can be farmed by most builds.
The difficulty in Because of the Cow Level comes extreme number of enemies, [[Hell Bovine]]s are often farmed both with and without [[Magic Find]]. Characters that have low Magic Find will be able to find socketed items and white base items more easily from the sheer numberscows. The Cow Level is a level is set outdoors81 zone in Hell, and looks like anywhere else outdoors in Act One. A few trees and some rocks and chests scattered aboutso it does not drop the best items (level 85+), but no houses or anything else that would give you it does drop a bottleneck where you could take on the high ''number'' of items, making cows just a few at a timealso ideal for farming [[runes]].
==RunHistory==The hardest part is when you first arrive: The [[Red Portal]] appears in some random location, usually against one of the outer stone walls. Sometimes you are in a safe spot, but other times there will be cows galore right away. As many as 30 or 40 coming at you immediately, from all directions. You need to try and kill them without moving too far in any direction, since if you do you'll get into sight of more cows, and another 20 or 30 will move in. The cows can see farther than the edges of your visible screen, so get used to them moving deliberately towards you, "moo-moo'ing" all the time.
An alternative is to run for it[[Image:Quest-cows-early. You can dodge through and around the clumps of cows pretty easilyjpg|thumb|300px|left|First look at Cows, April Fools, since they all move at zombie1999.]]There were player-speed. Usually some corners of created rumors/jokes about a Secret Cow Level in [[Diablo I]], based on the level will be devoid of cows, and you can reach a somewhat clear spot and drop a town portalin the pasture in [[Tristram]] that would moo, or fight there and run again when they threaten cause your character to swarm say something amusing, if youclicked the bovines long enough.
It's always a good idea to not die near the Red Portal, and ideally There is no secret level or anything related to have a blue and the red available, so you can always get back there without cows hitting you the instant you appear. Retreating through the Red Portal, or a other than an Easter Egg style joke in [[Town PortalDiablo Hellfire]], will probably be required a number of timesand Blizzard repeatedly denied its existence in both serious and humorous ways, either to get a mana refill or more red potions, or arrows/javelins if you are using a projectile attacksuch as the {{iw|StarCraft StarCraft}} cheat code "there is no cow level."
The best equipment for However, the cow level is [[Magic FindDiablo]] gear, or else defensive stuff. Especially useful is a high defenseII team apparently drew upon the rumor for inspiration, and equipment with -% damage. [[Shaftstop]], [[Rockstopper]], [[Stormshield]], etc. If you can cut worked the physical damage you take, you'll be much more likely to survive attackswhole level into Diablo II. A high blocking percentage is very useful as well, as are [[Dodge]] and [[EvadeBlizzard North]] employees provided voice-acting for Amazonsthe cows.
The fun first hint of the a secret cow level for items is that there are such huge numbers of cows that doing the Cow Level gets you more kills in came on April 1, 1999, over a small area than you will ever get anywhere else in the game.  ==Expansion changes==Very few things changed for the Expansion. A character must kill [[Baal]] to be eligible to enteryear before Diablo II was released, rather than when [[Diablo:Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|this screenshot]]was released. It was taken as simply an April Fools' Joke at the time, but that's about itthe joke was clearly on us, as things turned out. The value and difficulty of the cows has fluctuated from patch to patch, and may yet change again cow level in future versions of the final game. In v1.09 the Cow Level was among the most profitable areas does not take place in the gameAct One caves, and was the most popular since it was so easy to rack up huge experience quickly. It became less valuable in v1.10, when the experience given by nor are any of the cows was cut and their item dropping loweredbrown.
==Trivia==
==Trivia==* There was no truth behind the rumours rumors of a cow level in Diablo I.* Prior to v1.02, single player characters could circumvent the restrictions on the portal recipie by uninstalling and re-installing the game.* In v1.09 the Cow Level was among the most profitable areas in the game, and was the most popular since it was so easy to rack up huge experience quickly. It became less valuable in v1.10, when the experience given by the cows was cut and their item dropping lowered.
* Even though this level exists, the aforementioned jokes on the topic is still referred to by {{iw|Blizzard_Entertainment Blizzard}}, saying "there is no Cow Level".
* The item set named [[Cow King's Leathers]], can only be found in the Secret Cow Level.
* The cheat code to skip a level in StarCraft refers to the Diablo I rumourrumor. In order to skip a level, the player has to write "There Is No Cow Level" (obviously, it does exist in Diablo II).
* In {{iw|WarCraft_III WarCraft III: Frozen Throne}} playing the chapter "Curse of the Blood Elves", there is a 'Secret Sheep Level' that can be accessed. It's basically Blizzard's version of a Tower Defense. In the course of unlocking, many sheep are involved, giving it's name, referencing the Secret Cow Level.
* {{iw|World_of_WarCraft World of WarCraft}} features an item called Cow King's Hide to reference the secret level.
* A free web enhancement to {{Iw|To_Hell_and_Back To Hell and Back}} and {{iw|Diablerie Diablerie}} called {{iw|Secret_Cow_Level_(DnD) the Secret Cow Level}} emulates the cow level in the RPG with statistics for the enemy cows.
* In The Six Sacred Stones, a novel by Matthew Reilly's, a pair of supporting character twins frequently sport shirts saying "I have seen the Cow level!" and subsequently "There is no cow level!"
 
==Reference==
 
* [http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=341175 Cow Level Forum thread]
* [https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/urliks-rune-finders-guide-v2-0-released.178289/ Rune Finder's Guide]
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