Experience and difficulty progression
Secret Cow Level bases and density
The Cow Level’s dense monster groups make it a strong repeatable search for runeword bases, runes, and experience.
WHERE & HOW TO FARM
Secret Cow Level bases and density
Secret Cow Level, opened from Act I Rogue Encampment with the Horadric Cube.
Before you go
- Complete Baal in the difficulty you want to farm.
- Obtain Wirt’s Leg from Tristram and keep a Tome of Town Portal.
- Bring an area-clear build and enough space for candidate bases and runes.
Farming steps
- Place Wirt’s Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Cube while in the Rogue Encampment.
- Transmute to open the red Cow Level portal.
- Enter and clear dense groups, prioritizing safe routes through packs.
- Pick up runes and plain weapon or armor bases that suit your runeword plans.
- Avoid killing the Cow King if you want to preserve the traditional restriction in modes where it applies; D2R allows future portals after the King is killed.
- Return to town, store useful finds, and save and exit to reset.
- Only one Cow portal can exist in a game; open another after resetting if needed.
- The large number of kills is useful for bases and rune searches, but does not guarantee a high rune.
Repeat, collect and use
Repeat any time after the difficulty’s Baal completion when you have the ingredients; you can open another portal in a later game.
Common mistakes
- Trying the recipe before completing Baal in the same difficulty; finish that progression first.
- Expecting multiple portals in one game; use one portal and reset before the next run.
- Picking up every low-value item and losing space for bases; decide which base types matter before entering.
When to stop or switch
Stop when you have the base or material supply you need, or switch to a boss route for targeted unique and set searches.
Sources & fact checks
What you can get here
Open a guide to find other locations and see what the item is used for.