Anybody who has played Diablo 2 in their lifetime knows all about the secret Cow Level, a part of the game that definitely exists, but has never explicitly been explained to you.
A loading screen in Diablo 3 jokes that there’s no Cow Level in the game, even though there is one. The way to open the level in D2 is a complex one, but it’s easy to do once you know exactly what you’re doing.
The level returns in Diablo 2: Resurrected, and if you knew how to open it in the original D2, then you’ll feel right at home here.
Here’s how to open up the portal, and how it’s different from the original version versus Resurrected.
How to Open the Portal
Blizzard
For starters, you’ll need to progress through about half of Act 2 in order to have the necessary tools to get the portal opened.
You’ll need to have a Tome of Town Portal, Wirt’s Leg and the Horadric Cube. The Town Portal Tome can be bought from a vendor, so that’s definitely the easiest one to come across.
Wirt’s Leg is found in Tristram on Wirt’s corpse, and this can be accessed by interacting with the Cairn Stones and taking the portal.
There are a lot of tough enemies in Tristram, but if you’re here for the leg itself, then chances are good that you can deal with anybody you come across. Grab the leg, and now all you need is the Horadric Cube.
Blizzard
You can find this item in the Halls of the Dead in Act 2, and you need to get it to complete a quest, so you should be coming across in naturally.
The first time you use the cube, you’ll be doing it to rebuilt the Horadric Staff, and that shows you how to use it.
To open the Cow Portal, you’ll want to put in Wirt’s Leg along with the Tome of Town Portal. Use the cube and it will pop open a portal to the Cow Level at the Rogue Encampment in Act 1.
You won’t be able to open up the portal until you beat the game on your respective difficulty. This means that you’ll need to complete Act 5 before you can open it on Normal difficulty, and the same goes for Nightmare and Hell.
There Are Some Changes
Blizzard
The big thing you needed to know in the original Diablo 2 is to not kill the Cow King or else you weren’t able to open the portal again on that difficulty level.
This meant to ignore the king when you saw it on the map, but that’s no longer the case in Resurrected.
On Reddit, a Blizzard community manager confirmed you’re able to kill the king and keep on opening the portal in the future. This means you won’t have to worry about anybody joining your public game and killing the king.
This is a nice place to level up fast for players, and it also gives some very good loot, so losing access to the portal is a big blow. It’s nice to see that change made in D2: Resurrected.
Now, get out there and kill some cows!
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How to Open the Secret Cow Level Portal in Diablo 2: Resurrected