Diablo 4 sleuths are getting close to the RPG's secret cow level, and it only took 1,998 dead cows

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

The search for Diablo 4's secret but inevitable cow level is heating up now that players have uncovered three mysterious relics obtained by killing 666 cows apiece.

As Wowhead spotted, YouTube user and Diablo 4 player Grampa Joe recently uploaded a new video chronicling the discovery and use of three relics tied to the cow level. This followed some updated data mining efforts after the launch of Diablo 4 Season 2, which has seemingly added new pieces to the cow level puzzle. Those are: a Musty Tome, Bloody Wooden Shard, and Intricate Metallic Fragment. 

All three relics are listed as quest items and are obtained in the same way: killing 666 cows. Not only that, you have to kill these cows in specific areas. As Vulkk's recap notes, the Musty Tome is believed to drop from cows in Scosglen or Fractured Peaks. The fragment drops in Dry Steppes, while the shard comes from Kehjistan or Hawezar cows. Technically, you only have to get the final cow kill in the right area, freeing you up to farm denser cow herds to save time on the climb to 666 – which can still take hours, according to players who've taken up the quest. 

As Grampa Joe shows, once you have all three relics, you'll need to take them to Ked Bardu in the northwest. By using all three relics at the city altar guarded by ox statues, you can obtain a strange key. This key opens the door to the Forlorn Hovel located far to the east of Cerrigar, near the waypoint for the Highland Wilds ritual. The hovel is filled to the brim with cows – who rather eerily watch you as you move around – and dead villagers, who may or may not have been killed by the cows. 

The trail ends there for now. With how the Diablo 3 cow level worked, some players suspect that Diablo 4 players will end up opening a portal of some kind in the cellar of the Forlorn Hovel, but the next step in the hidden quest is still a mystery. Killing the cows doesn't seem to do anything for the time being, though the last one will drop a potion – seemingly powdered milk – with no known use. Killing stuff is the solution to almost everything in Diablo 4, so it looks like investigators will have to think outside the box. 

Diablo 4 is raffling off a PC "infused with real human blood" in its most unhinged PR stunt yet, which is also a genuinely good blood drive. 

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.