One of gaming's most infamous secret levels is the hidden cow level in Diablo 2, which Blizzard added to the game after fans of the first game searched high and low for one to no avail. Ever since, Blizzard has made the occasional nod to the joke by adding secret levels to titles such as Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, which has people wondering if the recently released Diablo 4 also has one tucked away somewhere as well.
If you were keeping up to date with the development of the game before release, you'll know that Blizzard attempted to shut down any chance of there being a secret cow level in Diablo 4. Series general manager Rod Fergusson explained in an interview with Kinda Funny a couple of weeks ago that the team wanted to keep the game "as grounded as possible", spelling it out pretty clearly that "there's no secret level in Diablo 4 that people might be looking for."
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You probably won't be too surprised to find out that this statement hasn't stopped Diablo fans en masse from searching for one now Diablo 4 is in their hands, with a massive thread full of potential clues having recently turned up on the game's official Reddit page (thanks PC Gamer). The mastermind behind the thread is u/Altnob, who has been collecting images of certain items and events across Diablo 4's world as evidence that Blizzard is telling porkies and that there's actually a hidden cow level somewhere in the game.
Right now, the most compelling piece of evidence has come from a datamine, as two unknown quest items have been discovered, each with rather mysterious descriptions. These items are the Musty Tome and a Bloody Wooden Shard with a W carved into it, both of which have the ID Quest_World_SecretCellar. These items are very remiscient of the Tome of Town Portal and Wirt's Wooden Leg, which are required to access the secret cow level in Diablo 2, and now it's all hands on deck to try and find the secret cellar that holds these items.
On top of u/Altnob's efforts, there's even a Discord channel that's been set up to help aid the hunt, rather jokingly called D4 - Not Finding A Cow Level. It's obvious that quite a lot of players aren't expecting to find any actual cow level right now, judging from the title of the Discord channel, but sometimes the chase can be more fun than the end results.
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