Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred will introduce a number of new features to Blizzard’s ARPG when it officially launches globally April 28, and one of them just might be a secret players have been hunting for since 2023–the cow level.
Blizzard blew the doors off Lord of Hatred with a livestream last week, revealing all the new details players need to know going into the expansion. During that livestream, Blizzard explicitly stated there were new secrets to be uncovered in Lord of Hatred. In an interview with Diablo content creator Rhykker, associate game director Zaven Haroutunian said there is a new secret to be found specifically in the Pit, one of Diablo 4’s endgame activities.
That alone doesn’t mean the cow level is a certainty, but a few other details that have emerged do make for a compelling case. As spotlighted by another content creator, Raxxanterax, those who received early press copies of Lord of Hatred found two cow-related items in the expansion. One of them is an old cowbell that can be acquired through fishing, a new activity being added in the expansion. Another new item, the Crown of the Cow King, can also be seen in the game’s transmog list.
The fact Lord of Hatred is adding the Horadric Cube adds another interesting wrinkle to the theory that the cow level is, in fact, in the new expansion. In Diablo 2 and 3, players used the cube to combine specific items in order to create portals to the secret cow and pony levels. Players have been accumulating items believed to be related to the cow level since Diablo 4’s launch, and with the arrival of the Horadric Cube, there may now be a proper use for them.
When combined with the fact that multiple Blizzard developers during the recent Diablo 4 livestream were wearing cow-related shirts, it seems like the cow level could finally become real in Lord of Hatred.
The cow level is a bit of a Diablo tradition. It first appeared in Diablo 2, where it was one of the game’s best farming locations. It appeared in Diablo 3 in the form of the Not The Cow Level. Diablo 3 also contains another secret level, the “pony” level Whimsyshire.
When Diablo 4 launched, Blizzard insisted there was no cow level. At the time, that looks to have been true. Despite the community’s best efforts and forward progress, secret hunters eventually hit a dead end after slaughtering cows and unlocking a hidden, cow-filled cellar that rewarded a seemingly useless stamina potion, a callback to one of the most common items dropped by cows in Diablo 2’s cow level. The trail picked back up with the release of Diablo 4’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, eventually leading to another secret cow-filled cellar that granted the rusted bardiche, a weapon wielded by the cows in Diablo 2.
Will combining the cowbell, bardiche, and stamina potion open a portal to Diablo 4’s version of the cow level, or are there still more steps to discover? It’s likely there is still plenty of legwork to do before the path to the cow level is revealed, but with the expansion’s release immenient, players won’t have to wait long to find out.
Regardless if Diablo 4 does receive its cow level or not, Lord of Hatred is bringing major changes to the ARPG worth paying attention to. The expansion adds two new classes, the Warlock and Paladin, introduces 12 Torment difficulty tiers, and completely reworks the skill trees of every class. It also brings major changes to Diablo 4’s endgame in the form of War Plans, a customizable playlist of activities players can use to grind for gear and resources, as well as a huge shakeup to how Unique items work.
In GameSpot’s Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred review, writer Jessica Cogswell called the expansion a “new high point for the series” that “amplifies all of Diablo 4’s best qualities.”