Diablo 2 Easter Egg - Secret Cow Level

Many of the comments here have incorrect information on the cow level, and the one that does give the correct info has terrible grammar. Here is the full, correct scoop. You be the judge on whether or not the grammar is adequate. :) - After killing Baal (D2:LOD expansion) or Diablo (D2 classic) in each difficulty (normal, nightmare, hell) you may then create the cow level in that difficulty. - A Wirt's leg can be acquired from Tristram, which is accessed by the red portal in Stony Field. (You must have retrieved the scroll of Inifuss from Dark Wood, talked to Akara, and touched the 5 stones in the correct order to open the portal. This is the "Rescue Deckard Cain" quest.) In the upper left corner of Tristram is Wirt's body. Click on it and collect his leg. - Back in the Rogue Encampment transmute the leg and a tome of town portal in your horadric cube to create the red portal leading to the Secret Cow Level. You may ONLY do this if you have not killed the Cow King on that difficulty before (normal, nightmare, hell), and not been partied with someone who got the killing blow after you got a hit in on the king. -Some good detail can be had at Diablo's official D2:LOD site, The Arreat Summit, at http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/quests/cow.shtml . --------------------- Tips for keeping your ability to make the Secret Cow Level: - Do not kill the Cow King. Note: if you get even one hit in on the King, and someone else in your party kills him (whether they've killed him before or not), you may lose the ability to create the portal. - If you have NOT gotten a hit on the King (be it through melee, ranged, magic, or perhaps even cursing or an aura) and someone who HAS killed the King before kills him, YOU'RE TOTALLY FINE, EVEN IF YOU ARE PARTIED with the killer. - I'm not 100% clear on what happens if someone partied with you--who has not killed the King before--kills him (and you haven't gotten a hit in). Anyone want to test it out and post an update? - The best strategy is to immediately have a friend (who's killed the King before) go kill him right away, before you or anyone else who's not killed him gets near. I have personally tested this and done it many times. In fact, since my level 91 Amazon has killed the King in hell before, in public cow games, I usually quietly go waste the King right away. This prevents anyone else from losing their ability to make the cow level since they never had the opportunity to get any kind of 'hit' in on him. The same person who made the portal in those games, goes right ahead and makes it again the next game, no problem. + Catabunga aka E-Squared aka VorpalMage P.S. It is NOT true that the Cow King will always drop a unique. His chances of dropping a unique *are* the best in the game--equal to that of Act Bosses--but he does not have the highest treasure class! You might want to note that Hell Bovines are treasure class 78 like Mephisto, and the Cow King is TC 66, so Hell Bovines can actually drop better items (Nosferatu's coil, Stormshield, Baranar's Star, etc.), even though they have a much lower chance of dropping Uniques and Set items. For those, you're better off killing Mephisto and Pindleskin.

This definatly the real cow level. Since rumors were flying around that if you would cast a Town Portal on a cow in Tristram (Diablo), you would go fight cows that looked like the nutso guy in hellfire. The cows are called Hell Bovine. When you first enter the level, be ready with a good skill like poison nova, meteor, or corpse explosion, because you will be surrounded by 20-30 of them when you first enter. They are very strong and have a fast attack, but their foot speed is very slow. There is only one building, a small stockade area. It has four doors and you can easily be surrounded there. Somewere around the encampment you will eather see Hell Bovine Champions, or the boss. Never both, just one or the other. The boss monster for the level is the Cow King. He looks the same as the other cows, but has a longer name. You get some good stuff from him, like Stamina potions. Go to http://www.diabloii.net/screenshots/act1/act1-007.htm for a good pic of the portal, or http://www.diabloii.net/screenshots/act1/act1-011.htm for a pic of the level. -Khameleon

Yo can do the cow level as much as you want. All you have to do is have one of your characters create the cow level, leave, and come back in with one of your other characters while your buddy stays in the game to keep it open. Just don't go down the portal with the character you opened it with.

You can't believe what satisfaction I got from picking up Wirt's stuff... I hated the guy since I first played Diablo.

Hey Angel, what you're saying is true, but, it's NOT hidden... It takes some time till' the background of the page loads, and when it does, you can easily see te black text upon the gray background. Eliran

The restriction of once per difficulty only appy for patches 1.02 and 1.03, if you run with patch 1.01 or 1.00 (no patch) you can enter the cowlevel once per game (= unlimited times). /Wizax

All of you are wrong. You can only go to the cow level once----AFTER YOU BEAT THE COW KING. When you try to make another portal after you have beaten the cow king, it will do nothing. That is why you constantly have people asking you to make a cow level on b.net. You can still enter the portal and beat the cow king again, but you just can't make another portal.

Starcraft had the code "there is no cow level". I suppose Blizzard wanted to finally have one.

You can actually find out how this can be done from a HIDDEN message in the Blizzard website. Go to this link http://www.battle.net/diablo2/items/cube.shtml and highlight the empty space at the bottom of the page by clicking and holding the mouse button and running it over the space. The text is in black and so's the background, making it "invisible".

This secret is hinted at in the strategy guide. If you look at the area on the quests, you can find in the text that they say that there are more uses for Wirt's leg than a weapon, but they weren't going to "milk" it any farther.

You can go on in single. It's hard as hell, but you can do it.

You get Wirt's leg from Tristam. Go to the western part of town where Wirt used to be and you will find his body. Click on it to get lots of gold and his old peg-leg.

Oltikar: you are absolutely correct. My level 26 Amazon with a 4 points in Strafe took care of the whole level without needing too much healing.

Blizzard: You are correct. I went there not to long ago and it WAS easily seen over the gray stonelike background. There is another way of finding it, too. After the page loads up completly, move the cursor down to the blank spot and it should turn to the text cursor and if you highlight it then you can see it plain as day, just like Blizzard and Angel said.

To Frito: If you beat the game on normal, you have to be in normal to do it. P S. I am really the one who submitted this egg, I just forgot to take credit. :P Too bad I can't prove it.

I suggest you go there when you are past level 35.

Do you have to be on multiplayer to use this, or can it be on single??

in all my experiences with the cow level, once the portal to it is cast it is a permanent fixture in the game; however, there are a finite number of cows to kill so have fun.

Hahaha... That chicken level description is quite amusing. The sad thing is, I bet some people have tried it... :P It's really worth taking a look at, just for kicks. Hmm... CAN you fit an entire set inside the cube...? I don't think so...

The cow level is great. Its really worth the while to go and check this out. The only, BUT, you can only make the portal to it once... so waste it wisly.

This is just old!!! Just check out the way to get to the chicken level. http://www.geocities.com/chickenlevel/index.html

if you do not beleive that cows are not real try going to a cow game on the net

Ha!You should have been here when Azazzel's Chicken Level egg was actually in the archives,P Wolf!We all kept making fun of him until the Easter Egg dudes finally took it off.He even submitted it AGAIN!And it was accepted AGAIN!Though it wasn't back on for long.The E.E. dudes took it off a day or so after it was accepted.

Go to site: http://www.battle.net/diablo2/quests/cow.shtml

This is absolutely true and is incredibly cool!! The description of how to get to the cow level (called the "Moo Moo Farm") is exactly correct. Once there, hundreds of "Hell Bovine" come at you wielding halberds, et. al. They say things like "moo" in very obvious and not the least bit disguised human voices. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much there as I died very quickly. Couldn't get back to my rotting corpse (it was surrounded by cows) and so I saved and exited. Once done, that's it, no more portal. Of course I suppose I could try going back to Tristram, yada yada yada. Anyway, next time through I'll try harder.

The Cow Level is difficult only with certain characters (as far as I have seen). I have a level 28 Sorceress with 3 skill points into Blizzard. Repeated use of this skill makes short work out of even the largest of bovine herds. Please note that this was only the cow level on normal....I am sure that I will be a more suitable grazing area when I reach nightmare or hell.

For those of you who still doubt that the cow level exists, go to http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/filters/products/screens/0,11105,197113-246,00.html and see the pic for yourself.

Fried Chicken > Only if you haven't updated beyond version 1.01. You don't play online, do you?

Ok ok, am I just being completely stupid here. Is there REALLY a Chicken level in Diablo 2?? If there is, what is the whole 'set' (especially green??) you guys are on about?? Have just had a good night making steaks of the Hell Bovine in the Cow level and succeeded without getting killed too many times, and discovered a 'door' in what people call the 'room' in this level. On the map it shows up as orange but I cant seem to enter it anywhere - is there a secret way of getting into it or opening it??? Please help, someone??!!

yeh the cow level worked i got mauled on but i have a level 44 palidin

You may enter the cow portal as many times as you want on any difficulty, the problem is that each person can only create the portal once per difficulty...so you have to find someone who has not created the portal on that difficulty yet if you want to go back there.

For norm cows once you kill king you cannot make. Once you kill king in nightmare same thing happens. Once either you kill king in hell cows or someone who hasnt before kills him then you cant make so my advice which I have done with many chars that reached lvl 80+ is just to avoid him or leave party when they killing the king or to just leave game

The cow level for diablo2 has been known since the stress test, and it is ONLY worthwhile if your a serious player, because beating it by yourself by killing the cow king will give you a unique item on nightmare and hell modes. I have a level 58, 27% life drain, max 800 dmg, and I still can die Cow level and NM and Hell modes. Not an easy area

You can access the secret cow level as long as you kill the cow king if someone else does you cant make anymore. If they are trying to kill him just leave the party before they do. I play in USEAST my account name is drwombatt just /W me if you need help.

It seems some people arent very good if they die in nm cows at that level. I kill hell cows one hit in a full game my sword alone does 1150 damage

The "Chicken level" is BS. I don't know who made it up, but it seems as if he did it during nap time in preschool, because anyone can tell you that there is one item that you cannot get by simply wandering around and killing monsters. The BlackHand Key.

Not a egg, its all documented....

no your wrong fried chiken you may only get wirt leg once i know i tried

To GOLDfinger: Your wrong, you can go to the cow level as many times as you wish. All you have to do is to go and get "Wirt's leg" again!