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The Secret Cow Level can be found in Diablo II (with or without the expansion). To create a portal to the secret level, combine Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube while standing in the Rogue Encampment. A red portal will appear if the player has also killed the final boss on that difficulty. If playing classic, that means killing Diablo, but if the expansion is installed, the player will have to kill Baal before the portal can be opened.
The Secret Cow Level is a small area, full of Hell Bovines, bipedal cattle with polearms. A rather special cow, named The Cow King, always appears in the level. If someone kills the Cow King for the first time on the current difficulty, all players within the Cow Level will forever be unable to create another portal to the Secret Cow Level on the same difficulty again. They will still be able to enter the portal if another player creates it.
SPOILER NOTE: The following video shows actual game footage of the secret cow level (at 2:10 in). When you move onto nightmare or later you can upgrade the staff to get better loot and tougher challenges, this involves buying the recipe in act 4 final quest and paying 200k to upgrade to nightmare, 500k for hell and 1 mill for inferno. You need these things to activate the Cow Level 1. Diablo dead on chosen difficulty level 2. 'Horadric Cube' - Obtained from storyline quests 3. 'Wirt's Leg' - Looted from Tristram 4. 'Tome of Town Portal' - Bought from vendors / Looted from creatures Then do the following. Go to the Rogue Encampment 2. Open the 'Horadric Cube' 3. The cow level can be reached by combining Wirt's Leg (found in old Tristram, where you rescued Cain) with a Tome of Town Portal (Purchasable from Akara) in the Hordric Cube. This must be done in the Act 1 Rogue Encampment, and can be done once per difficulty. If you have a high lvl sorc enchant you, and kill the cows yourself with a Ravenclaw bow in the full-house game, you can go from level 20-25+ in just one normal cow run. You have to be the only one down there.
The cow level was the most popular place to level up in Patch 1.09, due to the huge numbers of cows and the fact that their slow speed, low resistances, and clumping behavior made them very easy to kill in bunches. The experience and item gains possible in the level were nerfed in Patch 1.10, and the level returned to its intended purpose as a novelty and a treat and not a place to endlessly exploit for massive experience gain.
Monsters
| Monster | Immunity | Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Nightmare | Hell | ||
Hell Bovine | - | - | - | |
The Cow King | - | - | - | |
Trivia
This section contains facts and trivia relevant to this article
- Blizzard constantly states that, 'there is no Cow Level'.
- One item set, the Cow King's Leathers, can only be found in the Secret Cow Level.
- There were many rumors that there was a Secret Cow Level in the original Diablo I. These rumors were false and it is believed that the reason the Secret Cow Level was made was to appeal to fans.
- A free web enhancement called To Hell and Back, available at the Wizards of the Coast site, contains the Secret Cow Level with statistics for the enemy cows.
- One of the cheat codes on StarCraft, 'There Is No Cow Level', was made to confirm there was no cow level made. Later on it was still added.
- There is a leather chest armor item in World of Warcraft called Cow King's Hide, an obvious reference to the secret level.
- In Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, chapter: Curse of the Blood Elves, there is a secret level that could be accessed to unlock Blizzard's version of a Tower Defense. In the course of unlocking, many sheep are involved, which brought up the 'Secret Sheep level', a reference to the Secret Cow Level.
- In Matthew Reilly's novel, The Six Sacred Stones, a pair of twins (who aid the main characters) frequently sport shirts that say 'I have seen the Cow level!' and subsequently 'There is no cow level!'
| Act I | ||
|---|---|---|
| Town | Rogue Encampment | |
| Surface | Blood Moor • Cold Plains • Burial Grounds • Stony Field • Tristram • Dark Wood • Black Marsh • Tamoe Highland • Monastery Gate • Outer Cloister • Barracks • Inner Cloister • Cathedral • Secret Cow Level | |
| Dungeons | Den of Evil • Cave • Crypt • Mausoleum • Underground Passage • Forgotten Tower • Hole • Pit • Jail • Catacombs | |
Diablo 2 Cow Level
The 'Secret Cow Level,' a favorite joke/absurd rumor from Diablo I, packed full of Hell Bovines, is a reality in Diablo II -- an Easter Egg/joke 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 Blizzard North employees, and must have required many takes to edit out the laughter.
From a joke to reality[edit]
| [e] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Secret Cow Level | |||
| Norm | Night | Hell | |
| Area lvl | # | # | # |
| 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 | ||
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.
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 in coloration, so clearly there were some changes made during development.
How to get there[edit]
You must finish the game first (Kill Diablo in D2, Kill Baal in D2X), and then go back to Act I on the same difficulty level, and execute the cube recipe of Wirt's Leg + a Town Portal Tome, while your character is standing in the Rogue Encampment. 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 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. In the current version, you may repeat the Cow Level as often as you like, providing you do not receive quest credit for killing the Cow King.
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. 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.
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.
Multiple visits[edit]
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 cow quest (which means they can not open the red portal) then nothing will change. If the character who gets the last hit on the Cow King 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.
If that's not clear enough, see this forum thread for the facts presented here, laid out in more detailed and grammatically-creative fashion.
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.
Bosses[edit]
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.
You can see full stats for 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 on hell he often is Aura Enchanted, so you'll spot him by that. There are often random Cow Bosses and champions scattered throughout the area, and with them all identical in appearance it's 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.
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 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 items such as Bramble Mitts, Dusk Shrouds, Shakos, etc.
Strategy[edit]
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.
The best characters for the cow level have ranged attacks that can strike multiple targets at the same time. Javazons might as well have been designed specifically 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, and Death Sentry. Anything that hits many targets per use will come into its own against the cows.
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 packs, so you can attack huge mobs at once. Characters with less powerful skills will probably want to take on the cows a few at a time, and should advance slowly and carefully.
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.
Run[edit]
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. 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.
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. Cheat engine rotmg item hack. 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.
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.
Expansion changes[edit]
Very few things changed for the Expansion. A character must kill Baal to be eligible to enter, rather than Diablo, but that's about it. The value and difficulty of the cows has fluctuated from patch to patch, and may yet change again in future versions of 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.
Diablo 2 Cow Level Cheat
Trivia[edit]
- There was no truth behind the rumours of a cow level in Diablo I.
- 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 rumour. 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]
| Quests of Diablo II - Quest Items[e] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diablo II | Lord of Destruction | ||||
Act I | Act II | Act III | Act IV | Act V | Special |
Special | |||||
| Diablo II Levels[e] | |
|---|---|
Diablo 2 Cow Level Farming
| Act I - Quests[e] | ||
|---|---|---|
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