Minecraft Dungeons is a Minecraft-style dungeon exploration RPG and action minecraft cow game, hence the title. We said in our recent look at the game that it feels closer to games like Castle Crashers, or even Overcooked, but the most obvious comparison is to the king of the genre: Diablo. It came out today, and it turns out the connection to Diablo is more than superficial – Minecraft Dungeons has a secret cow level.

Lords of Gaming

Lords of Gaming has a good breakdown of how to get there, but the short version is that once you’ve finished Minecraft Dungeons once, you’ll have to find your way to a giant church near your camp. Once inside, you will interact with a painting of a dog, which will reveal locations in other levels of the game that you will have to revisit to discover hidden runes. Get them all, go back, press the big shiny button and the front door to the secret level, called Moo ?, will open.

If you are not familiar with the history of Diablo’s secret cow levels, you started with a rumor about the first game, which was in fact false: there is no secret cow level in Diablo. But it was persistent and silly enough that Blizzard put one in Diablo 2 – it’s an open field full of Hell Bovines, literally bipedal cows with polearms, surrounding the King of Cows, who you really shouldn’t kill. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, you can see it in all its ridiculous glory here.

Diablo 3 also has a secret cow level, filled with Infernal Bovines and ruled by the Queen of Cows, although for some reason it is called Not the Level of Cows.

Minecraft Dungeons cow level seems like a lot of work to access, although I suppose that’s true for the original as well, but it’s a fun (and perfectly appropriate) tribute to the games that inspired it. If you’re just getting started with Minecraft Dungeons, be sure to check out our roundup of tips and tricks to help you crawl and fight your way through it.