The Secret Cow Level Farming Guide

The Secret Cow Level (Moo Moo Farm) is home to The Cow King and hundreds of Hell Bovines swinging mighty Polearms. While this might be stuff for nightmares, it is not as scary as it sounds!

The great thing about The Secret Cow Level is its lack of Immunities. Only The Cow King is naturally Immune to Lightning in all difficulties. This allows virtually every build to farm this area.

After completing Quest 6 in Act 5 (Kill Baal), you can open the red Portal to The Secret Cow Level on that difficulty by cubing Wirt’s Leg and a Tome of Town Portal. It is a great source of Base Items, Charms, high Runes and more.

Why farm The Secret Cow Level?

Normal

It is quite valuable it to farm The Secret Cow Level in Normal difficulty. They drop Crystal Swords and Broad Swords that receive 4 Sockets from Larzuk (Act 5, Quest 1). These are used to create the Spirit Runeword which is godly for almost every class while leveling.

Nightmare

The farming targets in Nightmare are Charms. The Secret Cow Level is a great place to farm for "Skillers" (Grand Charms with +1 to Skill Tree).

You can also farm Resistance and +x to Life Charms to make your transition into Hell easier. In addition to Charms, a decent amount of Flawless Gems, Jewels, Rings, and Amulets can be collected here.

Hell

Hell difficulty is where The Secret Cow Level really starts to shine. With an Area Level of 81, most of the sought after Base Items for Runewords can be farmed such as Monarchs, Berserker Axes, Threshers, and much more.

In addition to Charms, a decent amount of Flawless Gems, Jewels, and every Rune, up to Zod Runes, can drop from Hell Bovines.

Cow King's Leathers

How do I find Wirt's Leg?

Getting into The Secret Cow Level is not about finding it, you really need to find Wirt's Leg in Tristram. Together with a Tome of Town Portal this item needs to be transmuted in the horadriccube after completing the final Quest in Act 5. When done in the Rogue Encampment in Act 1, this transmutation opens a red Portal to The Secret Cow Level.

Finding Tristram

Tristram's red Portal is located in the middle of Cairns Stones within the Stony Field after you have opened it in the 3rd Quest line in Act 1. Cairns Stones are always close to the path that connects the Cold Plains with the Underground Passage. The Waypoint is located randomly in the area. Follow these steps to quickly locate them:

• Enter the Stony Field through the Waypoint.
• Check your map for a yellow cross at all times! It is the location of the red Portal!
• When you find the path, stay close to it.

Tristram

Wirt's Leg is always in the same location within Tristram. Go all the way to the Western corner of the map to find Wirt's Body (marked green).

Tips & Tricks

Reduce Magic Find

This might sound counterintuitive for a farming guide, but The Secret Cow Level is best utilized to farm Base Items, Runes, Flawless Gems, Charms, and Jewels. Charms and Jewels always drop Magical which makes Magic Find obsolete for them.

High Player Count

A high player count increases the amount of items dropping at 3/5/7 players which increases your chance for dropping good Base Items, Runes, Flawless Gems, Charms, and Jewels. Play at the highest count you feel comfortable on!

Keep Your Distance

Hell Bovines only use melee attacks which deal significant Physical Damage. Stay away from them when you lack Damage Reduction and/or Chance to Block. With the Build Recommendations below, you should have no problem keeping your distance.

Kill The Cow King

Unlike Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, you don't need to be scared of killing The Cow King as it doesn't prevent you from opening The Secret Cow Level in the future. When going for a high Magic Find setup, he is the best source of Unique and Set Items. He resides in his little fortress, which is randomly placed within The Secret Cow Level.

Build Recommendations

Because Hell Bovines have no natural Immunities, every build can farm The Secret Cow Level. Builds with large Area of Effect abilities excel at slaughtering cows and are the preferred options. Melee builds require Chance to Block and/or high Damage Reduction to work well.

• Amazon - Lightning Fury
  • The Javazon, aka Cow Blaster 9000, is among the strongest cow-farmers in the game.
    Even on a low budget, she can get through The Secret Cow Level quickly. Make sure to "heard up" a couple of packs of Hell Bovines to make full use of the Lightning Fury and Pierce interaction.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry
  • Corpse Explosion from Death Sentry brings massively satisfying "cow explosions" after the first few Hell Bovines have fallen.
  • The Trapsin benefits from the high mobility of Burst of Speed which makes her very strong even with a low budget (without Enigma.
• Barbarian - War Cry / Whirlwind
  • For the Barbarian The Secret Cow Level is a bad area to farm due to his specialization in Physical Damage.
  • The Singer Barbarian is the best option when running on a low budget. Due to the Stun from War Cry, it is one of the safest builds as long as you don't run out of Mana.
  • With a little more investment, you can start to "spin to win". With as little as the Immortal King Set, this build out scales the Singer because of its Area of Effect.
• Druid - Fissure
  • Druid’s best option is to go Fire when farming The Secret Cow Level. It requires a decent amount of gear to function well in Hell difficulty. It feels a lot better than the can all, do all Wind Druid build.
• Necromancer - Poison Nova
  • Corpse Explosion is a very powerful ability to clear out density very quickly. As it is a native Skill of the Necromancer, all their builds are powerful in The Secret Cow Level. Poison Nova brings all cows to low Life so that Corpse Explosion can instantly blow up large packs as soon as the first one falls.
• Paladin - Blessed Hammer
  • The Hammerdin profits from high mobility from Charge, Vigor, and teleport from Enigma later on. Use the attack pattern of Blessed Hammer to create a "hammer-field" and lure in the cows.
• Sorceress - Blizzard / Lightning
  • The Sorceress is very mobile due to the built-in teleport. This allows her to prepare The Secret Cow Level faster than any other Character.
  • As a starter build, the Blizzard Sorceress is very consistent at killing cows. She only is overtaken by the Lightning Sorceress when she has access to Infinity.

Summary

• The Secret Cow Level is a great spot to farm in all difficulties.
• It is best farmed without x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items for Base Items, Charms, Runes, Jewels, and Gems.
• Crystal Swords and Broad Swords from Normal cows receive 4 Sockets from Larzuk Quest in Act 5. Perfect for your Spirit!
• Nightmare cows are a great place to farm Skill-Charms and prepare your Character for Hell.
• Keep your distance to avoid their heavy Physical Damage.

Credits

Written by Teo1904
Reviewed by Raxxanterax