Hello, I am making this thread with the intention of discussing the current available information on how to unlock the Secret Cow Level. This post will be updated if any changes or new information pertaining to unlocking the Secret Cow Level becomes available. I hope to keep this post up to date as more information becomes available, even after the launch of Diablo 3 on May 15th. This is all meant to bring the community together and help get the information out to people as fast as possible allowing the fastest possible access to the Secret Cow Level to those who are interested in pursuing it. Please bookmark this thread and post any new information, drop locations, and screenshots as you discover them.
The only information I have so far comes from DiabloNut’s database. In the database you can find an item called the Staff of Herding with the description, “Only one bovine in all of Sanctuary could possibly have a use for this.”
This item will be crafted using the Blacksmith, Haedrig, after finding the plan to create the staff. This plan only requires your Blacksmith to be level one, so you will not have to level him to create the staff. There are 4 versions of the staff, each one pertaining to a separate difficulty.
To obtain the first version of the Staff of Herding you must obtain several items. Each of these items has no value to vendors, and are account bound, and cannot be traded or sold on the AH.
The first item, which can already be obtained in the beta, is the Black Mushroom
Description: "The witch Adria seeks a black mushroom? I know as much about black mushrooms as I do about red herrings." —Deckard Cain
Location: This item can be found in Act 1. I have already heard of multiple locations in which this item has been found. My assumption is that it can be found in only one spot per game, if it happens to spawn at all. It can be found sprouting from the ground in several possible locations. I originally found this item sprouting out of the rock floor in the cathedral. Any information on additional spawn locations, along with accompanying screenshots is welcome.
The second item is Wirt’s Bell
Description: "When the demons come, close your eyes and ring this... it takes you far, far away..." —Unknown
Location: Unknown.
The third item is Liquid Rainbow
Description: The colors swirl and twist in hypnotic patterns.
Location: Unknown.
The fourth item is Gibbering Gemstone
Description: It seems to be active but it's difficult to tell.
Location: Unknown.
The fifth item is Leoric’s Shinbone
Description: This charred piece of Leoric was clearly once connected to his ankle and knee.
Location: Unknown.
Then you of course need the Plan: Staff of Herding
Location: Unknown. It is my assumption that the plan may only be found after completing the game in that difficulty, such as it was in Diablo II where you had to beat the difficulty before you could open the Secret Cow Level. Of course this could be different in Diablo 3, or they may allow you to create the staff, but not have access to opening the secret level until you beat the difficulty. It all remains to be seen.
Once you have all the materials and the plans you can have Haedrig create the staff at a 10,000 gold crafting cost. To open the cow levels in later difficulties all you need is to find the corresponding pattern, and use the previous level of the staff plus an additional crafting cost to create the upgraded versions. Here is a list of the materials for each staff.
Staff of Herding: Requires Black Mushroom, Wirt’s Bell, Liquid Rainbow, Gibbering Gemstone, Leoric’s Shinbone, and a 50,000 gold crafting cost Nightmarish Staff of Herding: Requires the Staff of Herding and a 200,000 gold crafting cost Hellish Staff of Herding: Requires the Nightmarish Staff of Herding and a 500,000 gold crafting cost Infernal Staff of Herding: Requires the Hellish Staff of Herding and a 1,000,000 gold crafting cost
The total cost to craft the final version, the Infernal Staff of Herding, is 1,750,000 gold.
Also note that each of the staff plans beyond the first has a resale value. This means that these patterns will probably be able to be found more than once, allowing you to vendor, and/or possibly trade and sell them on the AH.
Plans: Staff of Herding has no gold value Plans: Nightmarish Staff of Herding sells for 1000 gold Plans: Hellish Staff of Herding sells for 2500 gold Plans: Infernal Staff of Herding sells for 5000 gold
It is also unlikely that the staff will be sellable on the AH, or allowed to be traded to friends.
The first task I ask the community to do is to find and take screenshots of all the different locations for the Black Mushroom in Beta.
Update: Crafting costs have increased to 1.75 million total gold. I have confirmed that the Black Mushroom can be obtained by more than one person in a single game. This gives the ability to invite friends to your game to pick it up from the same location. Also found out that the Black Mushroom is account bound and cannot be traded and if dropped will not allow other players to pick it up.
Sorry, I removed the old thread to create this much more thought out one. I'm hoping to get some discussion from people on what they think and asking anyone to please contribute by finding and posting new information and screenshots of item locations.
Sorry, I removed the old thread to create this much more thought out one. I'm hoping to get some discussion from people on what they think and asking anyone to please contribute by finding and posting new information and screenshots of item locations.
Aww :(...How did you remove it? I thought only mods could do that. And yeah...I think there's a cow level...Although I don't know how it would work if we have staves...We obviously couldn't lose the staff. Once per game still? That could be a limit....I don't know. It seems harder to wrap my head around due to the nature of DIII.
Hey guys, just wanted to bump this thread and let you guys know that the black mushroom and the other items cannot be sold or traded to other players and if you try dropping it to let a friend pick it up they will get a message saying that they cannot pickup that item.
I also wanted to let you guys know that if you do find a black mushroom in a game you can invite your friends to it and everyone should be able to pick it up from the original spawning location.
Hey guys, just wanted to bump this thread and let you guys know that the black mushroom and the other items cannot be sold or traded to other players and if you try dropping it to let a friend pick it up they will get a message saying that they cannot pickup that item.
I also wanted to let you guys know that if you do find a black mushroom in a game you can invite your friends to it and everyone should be able to pick it up from the original spawning location.
I have found the black mushroom twice- I had one and was able to move it around my toons vis the shared stash... last week i found the shroom patch again (in catherdral somewhere) and was unable to harvest it- I figured it was a bug.
This is intriguing. Seems like a lot of work putting all that lore and item information in the game to ultimately lead to nothing. I guess well see.
Though, I think it might be a while. If what they say about inferno is true, then your average player may not make their way through it for some time. That coupled with the fact that at least in D2 you had to complete Hell before you could open the portal... Long wait possibly?
I know some players will finish Inferno in no time, but this could still be a bottleneck.
This is intriguing. Seems like a lot of work putting all that lore and item information in the game to ultimately lead to nothing. I guess well see.
Though, I think it might be a while. If what they say about inferno is true, then your average player may not make their way through it for some time. That coupled with the fact that at least in D2 you had to complete Hell before you could open the portal... Long wait possibly?
I know some players will finish Inferno in no time, but this could still be a bottleneck.
You didn't have to beat hell. You only had to beat the difficulty you wanted to use the portal on. So If you wanted to use the portal in normal mode you had to beat normal.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
I said a prayer last night that the cow level would exist in d3.
Don't worry, there will be. One of the starting game tips says, rather sarcastically 'There is no secret cow level'. Which blatently means
there is... a secret unicorn level.
The only information I have so far comes from DiabloNut’s database. In the database you can find an item called the Staff of Herding with the description, “Only one bovine in all of Sanctuary could possibly have a use for this.”
This item will be crafted using the Blacksmith, Haedrig, after finding the plan to create the staff. This plan only requires your Blacksmith to be level one, so you will not have to level him to create the staff. There are 4 versions of the staff, each one pertaining to a separate difficulty.
To obtain the first version of the Staff of Herding you must obtain several items. Each of these items has no value to vendors, and are account bound, and cannot be traded or sold on the AH.
The first item, which can already be obtained in the beta, is the Black Mushroom
Description: "The witch Adria seeks a black mushroom? I know as much about black mushrooms as I do about red herrings." —Deckard Cain
Location: This item can be found in Act 1. I have already heard of multiple locations in which this item has been found. My assumption is that it can be found in only one spot per game, if it happens to spawn at all. It can be found sprouting from the ground in several possible locations. I originally found this item sprouting out of the rock floor in the cathedral. Any information on additional spawn locations, along with accompanying screenshots is welcome.
The second item is Wirt’s Bell
Description: "When the demons come, close your eyes and ring this... it takes you far, far away..." —Unknown
Location: Unknown.
The third item is Liquid Rainbow
Description: The colors swirl and twist in hypnotic patterns.
Location: Unknown.
The fourth item is Gibbering Gemstone
Description: It seems to be active but it's difficult to tell.
Location: Unknown.
The fifth item is Leoric’s Shinbone
Description: This charred piece of Leoric was clearly once connected to his ankle and knee.
Location: Unknown.
Then you of course need the Plan: Staff of Herding
Location: Unknown. It is my assumption that the plan may only be found after completing the game in that difficulty, such as it was in Diablo II where you had to beat the difficulty before you could open the Secret Cow Level. Of course this could be different in Diablo 3, or they may allow you to create the staff, but not have access to opening the secret level until you beat the difficulty. It all remains to be seen.
Once you have all the materials and the plans you can have Haedrig create the staff at a 10,000 gold crafting cost. To open the cow levels in later difficulties all you need is to find the corresponding pattern, and use the previous level of the staff plus an additional crafting cost to create the upgraded versions. Here is a list of the materials for each staff.
Staff of Herding: Requires Black Mushroom, Wirt’s Bell, Liquid Rainbow, Gibbering Gemstone, Leoric’s Shinbone, and a 50,000 gold crafting cost
Nightmarish Staff of Herding: Requires the Staff of Herding and a 200,000 gold crafting cost
Hellish Staff of Herding: Requires the Nightmarish Staff of Herding and a 500,000 gold crafting cost
Infernal Staff of Herding: Requires the Hellish Staff of Herding and a 1,000,000 gold crafting cost
The total cost to craft the final version, the Infernal Staff of Herding, is 1,750,000 gold.
Also note that each of the staff plans beyond the first has a resale value. This means that these patterns will probably be able to be found more than once, allowing you to vendor, and/or possibly trade and sell them on the AH.
Plans: Staff of Herding has no gold value
Plans: Nightmarish Staff of Herding sells for 1000 gold
Plans: Hellish Staff of Herding sells for 2500 gold
Plans: Infernal Staff of Herding sells for 5000 gold
It is also unlikely that the staff will be sellable on the AH, or allowed to be traded to friends.
The first task I ask the community to do is to find and take screenshots of all the different locations for the Black Mushroom in Beta.
Update: Crafting costs have increased to 1.75 million total gold. I have confirmed that the Black Mushroom can be obtained by more than one person in a single game. This gives the ability to invite friends to your game to pick it up from the same location. Also found out that the Black Mushroom is account bound and cannot be traded and if dropped will not allow other players to pick it up.
https://www.deviantart.com/aerisot
Aw man! Where'd the other topic go!?? All of my thoughts were saved in that one!
Aww :(...How did you remove it? I thought only mods could do that. And yeah...I think there's a cow level...Although I don't know how it would work if we have staves...We obviously couldn't lose the staff. Once per game still? That could be a limit....I don't know. It seems harder to wrap my head around due to the nature of DIII.
Ps: Vivi is AMAZING. Love your avatar.
https://www.deviantart.com/aerisot
I also wanted to let you guys know that if you do find a black mushroom in a game you can invite your friends to it and everyone should be able to pick it up from the original spawning location.
k
Hell yeah. There's no way Blizzard is going to let something go that's become so important to the Diablo franchise.
But the idea of an undead cow king.. I... can't wait
Though, I think it might be a while. If what they say about inferno is true, then your average player may not make their way through it for some time. That coupled with the fact that at least in D2 you had to complete Hell before you could open the portal... Long wait possibly?
I know some players will finish Inferno in no time, but this could still be a bottleneck.
neooooooooo!