The take a look at servers for Diablo 4’s huge 2.0 replace have revealed some tantalizing new gadgets that simply is perhaps the important thing to lastly unlocking the key cow stage in Blizzard’s ARPG.
Gamers have been on the hunt for the key stage since Diablo 4’s launch. Regardless of Blizzard insisting it does not exist (as is custom), gamers have continued to go looking each nook and cranny of Sanctuary for the secrets and techniques wanted to unlock it.
Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred growth would possibly lastly give gamers the keys to the cow kingdom. As noticed by the dataminers over at Wowhead, a number of curious gadgets have been discovered within the take a look at construct for the sport’s 2.0 replace, which might be launched alongside Vessel of Hatred in October.
A kind of gadgets, the Rusted Bardiche, will look acquainted to those that have skilled Diablo 2’s secret cow stage, as it’s the weapon wielded by the bi-pedal cow enemies discovered there. In Diablo 3, transmuting the Bovine Bardiche merchandise in Kanai’s Dice granted entry to Diablo 3’s cow stage, the “Not the Cow Level.”
That is not the one datamined merchandise that will result in a secret stage. 4 others–the Uncommon Key, the Rusted Previous Bell, the Jabbering Gemstone, and the Crooked Workers–have additionally been datamined. These things (excluding the important thing) seem to be pretty apparent references to Diablo 3’s Wirt’s Bell, Workers of Herding, and Gibbering Gemstone, which when used collectively opened a portal to Whimsyshire, aka the “pony” stage.
Simply because all this stuff have been datamined, nonetheless, doesn’t suggest gamers know the place to really discover them in-game simply but, or the steps that is perhaps required to place all of the items collectively to lastly acquire entry to the cow stage, Whimsyshire, or one thing totally new. Judging from previous secrets and techniques in Diablo 4, discovering the cow stage will nonetheless require some critical sleuthing and experimentation on the a part of gamers.
The final main cow-level breakthrough got here in October 2023, when a participant collected a trio of secret gadgets, killed precisely 666 cows, and cleansed the gadgets on the mysterious ox statues within the metropolis of Ked Bardu, all to amass a Unusual Key that unlocked a beforehand inaccessible space. That location, the Forlorn Hovel, housed a bunch of cows that when killed, dropped a Stamina Potion–a nod to Diablo 2’s Cow King. Consuming the potion grants a buff that has no apparent impact, and so the hunt for the cow stage has continued.
Diablo 4’s 2.0 replace will carry big adjustments to the ARPG on October 8, together with a whole re-work of the sport’s issue system and a reorganization of its endgame. That might be along with all the brand new options coming as a part of the Vessel of Hatred growth on that very same day, which incorporates the brand new Spiritborn class, Diablo 2-style Runewords, Mercenary companions, and a “first-of-its-kind” endgame dungeon.