Diablo 4: Is there a cow level? Diablo 4 guide
The cow level is one of the most famous mechanics in the Diablo series. On this guide page, you'll find out if it appears in the latest installment of the series.
Last update: 22 March 2023
The Cow level is a secret, hidden level that has appeared in almost every Diablo game, so it is reasonable to wonder if the level will appear in Diablo 4 as well. In this guide, we provide you with all the information about cow level in Diablo 4.
- What is a cow level?
- Is there a cow level in Diablo 4?
- Cow level in Diablo 1
- Cow level in Diablo 2
- Cow level in Diablo 3
What is a cow level?
Cow Level is a secret level that was born out of a joke and a myth. In fact, the cow level first appeared in Diablo 2 in 2000. The fun of the idea was to meet a number of conditions to open a portal to the cow level. Once we did it and went through the portal, it turned out that we were fighting with hordes of mad cows, which ran on two legs and held halberds in their hands. Interestingly, the cows were quite demanding opponents and dropped a lot of valuable loot. So it was a way to get some pretty good gear for our characters.
Is there a cow level in Diablo 4?
The Blizzard developers answer unequivocally: there is no cow level in Diablo 4. However, cow level is based on a secret and a joke, so don't trust the devs - maybe, and there's a good chance, they just didn't tell us the truth so that we can discover the cow level portal in Diablo 4 ourselves. Blizzard developers have repeatedly claimed that "there is no cow level" - this exact sentence is even shown on one of the loading screens in Diablo 3. In the case of Diablo 2, it was a lie (the cow level was there), and in Diablo 3 it was somewhat true, because while there was no cow level, there was another, secret level. Let's see how it looked in the past.
Cow level in Diablo 1
While you can find a lot of theories about cow level in Diablo 1 on the internet, this is the only game where there is no cow level. Interestingly, the myth about a cow level in Blizzard games was born after the release of this game. For example, one theory was that in order to open a secret portal to a level filled with cows, you had to click endlessly on 3 cows in Tristram. Of course, it was nonsense, but the joke took over the gaming community (and later the still-new internet) and became a kind of myth. The joke was so well received that it reached the creators of Diablo and they decided to make a joke in the second game.
Cow level in Diablo 2
Yes, there is indeed a cow level in Diablo 2. To reach it, you need to get Wirt's Leg (this is the leg of an NPC from Diablo 1, which you get after returning to Tristram in Diablo 2) and the Tome of Town Portal, then place the items in the Horadric Cube. Then a portal to a secret cow level will appear, where we will encounter a lot of strange cows (the cows were voiced by the game's developers themselves).
Cow level in Diablo 3
There are two secret levels in Diablo 3 that rely on a similar joke.
- The first is Whimsyshire, a secret level filled with teddy bears, rainbows, clouds, flowers and unicorns. To get to Whimsyshire, you need to find Black Mushroom, Leoric's Shinbone, Liquid Rainbow, Wirt's Bell, Gibberting Gemstone and Plan: Staff of Herding.
- The second level was added later and is called Not the Cow Level. However, in "NTCL" you will come across cows, including the Cow Queen, so it's basically an actual cow level in Diablo 3. There are several ways to get to the Not the Cow Level, but the simplest is to simply kill the Treasure Goblin. There is a small chance that the goblin will open a portal when it dies.