Difference between revisions of "Secret Cow Level"

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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 area that's actually quite fun and profitable.
  
[[Image:Monster-hellbovine.gif|frame|center]]
 
  
[[Image:Quest-cow-recipe.jpg|frame]]
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==Getting There and Exploring==
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{{Levelbox
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|game= Diablo II
 +
|portrait= Quest-cow-death.jpg
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|portrait-width=230px
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|name= Secret Cow Level
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|patch= v1.10+
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|norm-lvl=28
 +
|night-lvl=64
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|hell-lvl=81
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|monsters= [[Hell Bovine]]
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|norm-monster= 1
 +
|night-monster= 1
 +
|hell-monster= 1
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|norm-rand-boss= Yes
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|night-rand-boss= Yes
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|hell-rand-boss= Yes
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|norm-su= [[Cow King]]
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|night-su= [[Cow King]]
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|hell-su= [[Cow King]]
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|chest= No
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|nearby= [[Rogue Encampment]]
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|quests= [[Secret Cow Level]]
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}}[[Image:Quest-cow-recipe.jpg|frame]]In order to open the portal to the Secret Cow Level, you must first finish the current difficulty. Expansion characters must have killed [[Baal]], while classic characters must have killed [[Diablo]].
  
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While standing in the [[Rogue Encampment]] in [[Act 1]], combine a [[Wirt's Leg]] +  [[Tome of Town Portal]] in the [[Horadric Cube]].
  
[[Image:Quest-cow-portal.jpg|frame]]
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* '''[[Diablo 2]] / [[Lord of Destruction]]:''' If you have been previously present in the Secret Cow Level when the Cow King was slain, you will be unable to craft this recipe yourself in the current difficulty. Someone else must open the portal for you. This restriction does not apply in '''[[Diablo 2: Resurrected]]'''.
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* [[Wirt's Leg]] can always be re-obtained from his body in [[Tristram]]. The Leg you use must have been obtained on the current difficulty, Legs from other difficulties will not work.
 +
* The number of scrolls inside the Tome does not matter and it will not affect the "quality" of your portal or loot.
  
[[Image:Quest-cow-death.jpg|thumb|300px|Don't get swarmed.]]
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The area is a single outdoor zone, with no sub-levels or dungeons. It resembles [[Blood Moor]] but with wide-open spaces and the occasional wooden fencing. [[Hell Bovine]]s densely populate the whole zone. Somewhere inside is a wooden "fort" with higher walls, open corners, and the [[Cow King]].
  
[[Image:Quest-cow-king.jpg|frame]]
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[[Image:Quest-cow-portal.jpg|thumb|122px|right]]
  
[[Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|thumb|300px|First look at Cows, April Fools, 1999.]]
 
  
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==Cow King and Multiple Visits==
  
favorite joke/absurd rumor from Diablo I, the "Secret Cow Level" is a reality in Diablo II, and it a lot of fun to check out when you get a character through the game once and have a chance.  The funniest part of the area, especially the first time you arrive, is the sounds of the cows.  They are all quite funny, giving forth these deadpan "Moo's", sounding just like a person saying it.  Obviously some of the Blizzard North crew had some fun doing their worst cow impressions, and when you hear it in the game you will be cracking up immediately.
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[[Image:Quest-cow-king.jpg|frame]]
 
 
After all, what's a Secret Cow Level without some laughs?
 
 
 
Expansion Changes
 
 
 
Very few things changed for the Expansion.  Really the only difference is that in the Expansion you now must kill Baal before you can enter the Secret Cow Level.  This makes sense, he is the end boss now, rather than Diablo.  Other than that everything is just the same.  You can apply Druid and Assassin strategy just the same as other characters.  The Cows will be more difficult on Hell now with the 50% physical resistance, but if you are playing Hell you'll be used to that.
 
 
 
 
Leg + TP Book = Red Portal
 
 
 
How to Get There
 
 
 
You must finish the game first (Kill Diablo in D2, Kill Baal in D2X), and then go back to Act One on the same difficulty level, and execute the recipe, which is to transmute Wirt's Leg and a Town Portal tome in the Horadric Cube while your character is standing in the Rogue Encampment.
 
 
 
So once you beat Baal in Normal Difficulty in the Expansion, create a normal-difficulty game, go back to Act One (use the waypoint to move between acts) and you can open up the Cow Level portal.  You don't need to carry around Wirt's Leg forever for this; just go back to Tristram any time and click his corpse to get a new one.
 
 
 
Prior to v1.02 you could go to the Cow Level as many times as you wanted to, so if you really love it in single player, you could uninstall, reinstall Diablo II, and then play do the Cow Level with your open or single player characters as many times as you want to, as long as you don't upgrade past v1.01.
 
 
 
As for the Cow Level itself, it's about what you would expect.  Cows and more cows, called Hell Bovines, appear in huge, almost never-ending herds. Full stats for them can be seen here, on our hosted monster site, Darkness.  By far the most tightly-packed monsters you see anywhere in the game can be found in the Cow Level. Every cow looks the same, there is no variation in coloration or weaponry at all.  They all have massive polearms, and do quite heavy damage when they strike you with their very fast attacks.  However their foot speed is very slow, and for that reason they aren't especially difficult to deal with one on one.
 
 
 
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 One.  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 hits like a truck.  More on him further down this page.
 
 
 
Multiple Visits
 
 
 
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 kills the King.
 
 
 
Read this portion of our MF Javazon Guide for more details. To recap, you will be unable to open the red portal if you:
 
 
 
    * Kill the Cow King yourself.
 
    * Are in the Cow Level, when some other player who has never killed the king before (on that difficulty level) kills the Cow King.
 
 
 
If you've already killed the king or gotten credit for killing him when someone else did, you can't open the red portal anymore, but you can still enter the red portal when someone else opens it up.
 
 
 
This is how the game works now, in v1.09d, as of March 5, 2002.  This will probably be changed in v1.10, since repeated Cow Level clears are such a cheesy way to get big exp that Blizzard is planning on making some changes, either to the exp gained there, or how often a character can enter the Cow Level.
 
  
Cow Level Bosses
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The Secret Cow Level always contains a single super-unique monster, the [[Cow King]]. It can be hard to distingush the King in a crowd of other cows, but he is always [[Lightning Enchanted]].
 
  
Cow King and his treasure.
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In '''[[Diablo 2]]''' and '''[[Lord of Destruction]]''', a hidden quest tracks whether or not you have defeated the Cow King in the current difficulty. Whenever the Cow King dies, anyone currently inside the Secret Cow Level will receive credit for the quest, and '''be unable to open the portal to the level again in the current difficulty'''.
  
The boss monster for the level is The Cow King, and he's there every game, always spawning somewhere inside or very near the wooden fort. He has minions as well, just like any random boss in the game.
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* Whether or not you are in a party does not matter, if you are inside the Secret Cow Level when the Cow King dies, you will receive credit.
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* 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 be portal-openers, but never have them visit the level itself.
 +
* These restrictions were fully removed in '''[[Diablo 2: Resurrected]]''', the Cow King can be killed as much as you like and it will not block anyone from creating the portal again.
  
You can see full stats for the Cow King right here.  He doesn't differ in appearance from the other cows in any way; no crown or different coloration or longer horns, though on hell he often is Aura Enchanted, so you'll spot him by that. There are often other Cow Bosses in the area though, and with them all identical it's often hard to tell if a monster is the king or not until you kill some to clear out the mob.  The King is always Lightning Enchanted, so that's one way to tell him immediately.
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Having the portal restriction placed on your character is almost always considered undesirable. Joining public Cow Level games is therefore extreemly risky, as other players may accidentally or intentionally kill the Cow King even if you avoid him.
  
Prior to v1.08 the Cow King was a guaranteed special drop, like the Act Bosses, though only two items.  Uniques and Sets were almost guaranteed from him with some MF.  In v1.09 he's been toned down, and he only drops at about the level of a SuperUnique now.  On Hell his Treasure Class is much lower than that of the normal cows, so he can drop at best the lowest quality Elite items such as Bramble Mitts, Dusk Shroud, Shako, etc.
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The Cow King drops his own unique set items, the [[Cow King's Leathers]].
  
Besides the random Cow bosses and the King, there are often some Champions.  These are the same color as normal cows also, unlike champions of other monster types, which are always a different color.  Ghostly Cow Champions are transparent, however.
 
 
  
A couple of random Bovine Bosses.
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==Strategy==
  
One mystery/complaint about the cow level is this:  Why didn't Blizzard put in palette shifts for the cows?  It wouldn't seem very hard to do, every other monster in the game has 3 or more excellent color combinations, and it would make it a lot more fun if the cow bosses and champions looked different, and also they could be a new color on nightmare and hell difficulty.  Be sure and tackle a Blizzard North employee when next you meet one and sit on him or her until we get an answer this question.
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The portal to the level does not always spawn in a safe location, so be ready to run whenever you first enter, in case you arrive in the middle of a swarm.
  
Strategy
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The [[Hell Bovine]]s all wield polearms and move slowly. They attempt to defeat players with their sheer numbers and can stunlock and kill you quite quickly if you get surrounded. Ranged characters will want to kite cows into tighter groups to better manage them.
  
The Cow Level is best cleared by Javazons or Nova Sorcs, though any character can do well there with proper equipment and strategy.  Attacks this hit multiple targets at once are the best, since there are always dozens of cows on the screen. Corpse Explosion Necros, Death Sentry Assassins, WW Barbs, etc.
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The level is densely populated, so area-of-effect attacks or skills that hit multiple enemies at once work best. Bovines have no immunities and low resistances, so they can be farmed by most builds.
  
The basic strategy for the level varies a lot. If you have a powerful area attack, you want to run wildly, getting as many cows following you as possible. This is known as "herding".  Run around the mobs, "knitting" them into bigger packs, so you can attack huge mobs at once.  This is especially effective with Javazons, as described in the strategy guide linked to above.
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Because of the 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 cows. The Cow Level is a level 81 zone in Hell, so it does not drop the best items (level 85+), but it does drop a high ''number'' of items, making cows also ideal for farming [[runes]].
  
Characters with less powerful skills will probably want to take on the cows a few at a time, and should advance slowly and carefully.
 
  
Area effect skills are a good choice.
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==History==
  
The cows have a fast swing with their halberds, and they do big damage, so you want to not get hit much, if you can help it. If your character has a nice ranged attack, especially with some area effect, this level won't be too hard, and you can run around freely, attracting the largest herds possible, and hitting dozens of them with each attack.
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[[Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|thumb|300px|left|First look at Cows, April Fools, 1999.]]There were player-created rumors/jokes about a 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 the bovines long enough.
  
The difficulty in the Cow Level comes from the sheer numbers.  The level is set outdoors, and looks like anywhere else outdoors in Act One.  A few trees and some rocks and chests scattered about, but no houses or anything else that would give you a bottleneck where you could take on the cows just a few at a time.
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There is no secret level or anything related to the cows other than an Easter Egg style joke in [[Diablo Hellfire]], 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."
  
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.
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However, the [[Diablo]] II team apparently drew upon the rumor for inspiration, and worked the whole level into Diablo II. [[Blizzard North]] employees provided voice-acting for the cows.
  
An alternative is to run for it.  You can dodge through and around the clumps of cows pretty easily, since they all move at zombie-speed. Usually some corners of the level will be devoid of cows, and you can reach a somewhat clear spot and drop a town portal, or fight there and run again when they threaten to swarm you.
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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.
  
It's always a good idea to not die near the red portal, and ideally 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 town portal, will probably be required a number of times, either to get a mana refill or more red potions, or arrows/javelins if you are using a projectile attack.
 
  
The best equipment for the cow level is magic find gear, or else defensive stuff.  Especially useful is a high defense, and equipment with -% damage.  Shaftstop, Rockstopper, Stormshield, etc.  If you can cut the physical damage you take, you'll be much more likely to survive attacks.  A high blocking percentage is very useful as well, as are Dodge and Evade for Amazons.
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==Trivia==
  
 +
* There was no truth behind the 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 rumor. 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.
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* {{iw|World_of_WarCraft World of WarCraft}} features an item called Cow King's Hide to reference the secret level.
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* 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.
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* 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!"
  
The fun of the level for items is that there are such huge numbers of cows that doing the Cow Level gets you more kills in a small area than you will ever get anywhere else in the game.
 
  
First look at Cows. April 1st, 1999
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==Reference==
  
All in all it's a fun level, and it's very cool of the Blizzard North design team to put it into the game, after all the rumors and jokes about it in Diablo I.  We first had a hint that there might be something like that over a year ago, when the shot you see to the right was posted as a Screen Shot of the Week, on April 1st, 1999.
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* [http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=341175 Cow Level Forum thread]
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* [https://www.diabloii.net/forums/threads/urliks-rune-finders-guide-v2-0-released.178289/ Rune Finder's Guide]
  
Given the date it was posted, it was taken to be a joke.  Little did we know.  The Cow Level in the final game isn't the same as that shot, since you get only cows, and there isn't any Cave portion to the level, but the cows are just the same, and no doubt the decision to include the SCL in the final game had been made by then, and they had already done the art work and rendering to create the cow's in-game sprites.
 
  
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{{Quest navbox}}
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{{Level navbox}}
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{{Act I navbox}}
  
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[[Category:Act I levels]]
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[[Category:Quests Act I (Diablo II)]]
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[[Category:Levels]]
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[[Category:Easter Eggs]]
  
[[category:quests]]
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__NOTOC__

Latest revision as of 11:00, 11 September 2021

The Secret Cow Level, a favorite joke and absurd rumor from Diablo I, packed full of Hell Bovines, is a reality in Diablo II — an Easter Egg area that's actually quite fun and profitable.


Getting There and Exploring[edit]

Diablo II Level Info [e]
Quest-cow-death.jpg
Secret Cow Level
(v1.10+)
Norm Night Hell
Area lvl 28 64 81
Possible
monsters
Hell Bovine
Monster
Variants
1 1 1
Random
Bosses
Yes Yes Yes
Super-
uniques
Cow King Cow King Cow King
Gold-chest No
Waypoint No
Nearby
levels
Rogue Encampment
Quests Secret Cow Level
Quest-cow-recipe.jpg
In order to open the portal to the Secret Cow Level, you must first finish the current difficulty. Expansion characters must have killed Baal, while classic characters must have killed Diablo.

While standing in the Rogue Encampment in Act 1, combine a Wirt's Leg + Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube.

  • Diablo 2 / Lord of Destruction: If you have been previously present in the Secret Cow Level when the Cow King was slain, you will be unable to craft this recipe yourself in the current difficulty. Someone else must open the portal for you. This restriction does not apply in Diablo 2: Resurrected.
  • Wirt's Leg can always be re-obtained from his body in Tristram. The Leg you use must have been obtained on the current difficulty, Legs from other difficulties will not work.
  • The number of scrolls inside the Tome does not matter and it will not affect the "quality" of your portal or loot.

The area is a single outdoor zone, with no sub-levels or dungeons. It resembles Blood Moor but with wide-open spaces and the occasional wooden fencing. Hell Bovines densely populate the whole zone. Somewhere inside is a wooden "fort" with higher walls, open corners, and the Cow King.

Quest-cow-portal.jpg


Cow King and Multiple Visits[edit]

Quest-cow-king.jpg

The Secret Cow Level always contains a single super-unique monster, the Cow King. It can be hard to distingush the King in a crowd of other cows, but he is always Lightning Enchanted.

In Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction, a hidden quest tracks whether or not you have defeated the Cow King in the current difficulty. Whenever the Cow King dies, anyone currently inside the Secret Cow Level will receive credit for the quest, and be unable to open the portal to the level again in the current difficulty.

  • Whether or not you are in a party does not matter, if you are inside the Secret Cow Level when the Cow King dies, you 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 be portal-openers, but never have them visit the level itself.
  • These restrictions were fully removed in Diablo 2: Resurrected, the Cow King can be killed as much as you like and it will not block anyone from creating the portal again.

Having the portal restriction placed on your character is almost always considered undesirable. Joining public Cow Level games is therefore extreemly risky, as other players may accidentally or intentionally kill the Cow King even if you avoid him.

The Cow King drops his own unique set items, the Cow King's Leathers.


Strategy[edit]

The portal to the level does not always spawn in a safe location, so be ready to run whenever you first enter, in case you arrive in the middle of a swarm.

The Hell Bovines all wield polearms and move slowly. They attempt to defeat players with their sheer numbers and can stunlock and kill you quite quickly if you get surrounded. Ranged characters will want to kite cows into tighter groups to better manage them.

The level is densely populated, so area-of-effect attacks or skills that hit multiple enemies at once work best. Bovines have no immunities and low resistances, so they can be farmed by most builds.

Because of the extreme number of enemies, Hell Bovines 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 cows. The Cow Level is a level 81 zone in Hell, so it does not drop the best items (level 85+), but it does drop a high number of items, making cows also ideal for farming runes.


History[edit]

First look at Cows, April Fools, 1999.
There were player-created rumors/jokes about a 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 the bovines long enough.

There is no secret level or anything related to the cows other than an Easter Egg style joke in Diablo Hellfire, and Blizzard repeatedly denied its existence in both serious and humorous ways, such as the StarCraft cheat code "there is no cow level."

However, the Diablo II team apparently drew upon the rumor for inspiration, and worked the whole level into Diablo II. Blizzard North employees provided voice-acting for the cows.

The first hint of a secret cow level came on April 1, 1999, over a year before Diablo II was released, when 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.


Trivia[edit]

  • There was no truth behind the 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 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 rumor. In order to skip a level, the player has to write "There Is No Cow Level" (obviously, it does exist in Diablo II).
  • In 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.
  • World of WarCraft features an item called Cow King's Hide to reference the secret level.
  • A free web enhancement to To Hell and Back and Diablerie called 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[edit]