The secret cow level, or simply the cow level, is a level featured in the action role-playing hack and slash video game series Diablo, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It first appears as postgame content in 2000's Diablo II, where it is officially known as the "Moo Moo Farm". Players may access the level after collecting a special combination of items to conjure a portal leading to the level. The player character is confronted upon arrival by a large horde of armed anthropomorphic cows led by a boss character called the "Cow King". The cow level originated as a hoax about a secret level perpetrated by players of 1997's Diablo, and has been described as one of the most famous and well-known urban legends related to video gaming by publications. The attention surrounding the hoax influenced developers to acknowledge it as an inside joke by seeding easter egg references in related games during the late 1990s: the Diablo expansion pack Diablo: Hellfire, and 1998's StarCraft. The level's appearance in Diablo II marked the first instance of the hoax being developed into actual in-game content. Fan appeal for the cow level affected later Blizzard titles, which led to similarly themed levels appearing in Diablo III and World of Warcraft, as well as several imitations and recreations in other video games. History The cow level originated as a player rumor about a herd of cattle in the town hub area of 1997's Diablo. Clicking on one of the cows numerous times is supposedly capable of summoning a portal to a secret level. Screenshots of the purported level, which were created with Photoshop to show a red-hued portal and demonic enemies lifted from unused game assets, emerged and circulated online. The hoax was first acknowledged by the Synergistic Software-developed expansion pack, Hellfire, as a quest which features a non-player character dressed in a cow suit with cow-themed dialogue. The character was voiced by Jim Edwards, a programmer who worked on Hellfire. According to Edwards, the developers wanted to include a quest that references the hoax in a tongue-in-cheek manner, with the rationale that the inclusion of content that pandered to fan expectations at the time would generate positive feedback and reviews for Hellfire. The quest cannot be accessed through conventional means, as the developers intentionally wrote code which required players to type special keywords into a text file located within the game's