A breakthrough in the hunt for Diablo 4's cow level has players racing to perform a secret cleansing ritual for the Oxen Gods

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Diablo 4's cow level isn't real according to Blizzard, but a group of players has discovered the existence of a ritual that they believe will lead to the fabled, supposedly non-existent level, and their evidence is convincing. The problem now is actually performing the ritual, which, if the level really doesn't exist, may be impossible. 

Cow-themed joke levels have been synonymous with the Diablo series after persistent rumors that one existed in the first game (it didn't). Since then, Blizzard snuck cow levels in Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and World of Warcraft.

According to Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson in an interview with Kinda Funny, Diablo 4 doesn't have a cow level because of its serious tone. But players have found a handful of strange items and locations in the game's files that suggest Fergusson's comment might not be totally true.

Everything hinges on a fountain surrounded by ox statues in the Ked Bardu location in Diablo 4. A message about cleansing offerings to «The Oxen Gods» appears when you click one of them. And now players are on the hunt to find items for the ritual.

Over on the D4 — Not Finding A Cow Level Discord server, which amusingly includes channel names like «secretcellar» and «all-cow-locations», there's a summary of the items players have found through datamining so far. The list includes the Metallic Fragment, the Bloody Wooden Shard and the Musty Tome. The Bloody Wooden Shard and the Musty Tome are both a reference to the Diablo 2 items used to access its cow level: Wirt's Leg and Tome of Town Portal.

Nobody has found the three ritual items in the