So, there is no cow level, but you can go to a land of ponies and bears in Diablo 3. However, unlike Diablo 2, the road to whimsyshire is not easy and is very expensive. You require five key ingredients to open the way to this whimsical land of cute creatures, namely:
- Leoric’s Shinbone (Act I) : Found Inside of the fireplace in Leoric’s Manor (Click on the burnt logs)
- The Black Mushroom (Act I) – Found in the cathedral, most commonly floor 1 (Click on the mushroom pile
- Liquid Rainbow (Act II) : Inside of a mysterious cave in act 2 found in Path to Oasis
- Wirt’s Bell (Act II) : Bought for 100,000 gold from Squirt the Peddler in the Act 2 in the middle of Caldeum Bazaar
- Gibbering Gemstone (Act III) : Drops from Chiltara in the Caves of Frost(Found after Bridge of Korsikk)
- Plans: Staff of Herding (Act IV) : The recipe to craft the staff is a drop from Izual (Act 4 Boss)
Leoric’s Shinbone
If you’ve already found the waypoint, take the waypoint to Leoric’s manor in ACT I. The shinbone drops from the burnt logs in the fireplace. While the fireplace always spawns, the burnt logs don’t spawn all the time, so you may have to leave the game and start again. The manor itself is very small so restarting is not painful. This is one of the easiest ones, since you have to deal with only a few mobs before getting to the fireplace.
During my runs through the Leoric’s manor I noticed that the manor map always remained the same in spite of multiple game restarts. The fireplace was in a room to the north of the map.
Black Mushroom
I’ve read multiple reports that the black mushroom can spawn in either levels of the cathedral, but I did multiple runs only through level 1 of the cathedral, since it is small and from reading forums it seemed like it was the most commonly reported location.
To get to this location, you may have to enter the cathedral from the cathedral garden waypoint that leads to Leoric’s passage and up the stairs to cathedral level 1 or use the old ruins waypoint.
The black mushroom pile only spawns in rooms and the pile is pretty big so it will be hard to miss. Again this is not a 100% spawn and hence you may have to leave the game and restart until you find the black mushroom pile.
Liquid Rainbow
Go to Path to Oasis waypoint in Act 2 just before Dahlgur Oasis. Go south east in the map until you find a water clearning. Here, you will have to save Zaven the Alchemist, who is a rare spawn. After saving him, he will open the door to a mysterious cave as a thank you for saving his life. Inside the large mysterious cave, a chest called Mysterious Chest will contain the liquid rainbow. The Mysterious Chest can spawn on either level 1 or 2 of the cave (a friend of mine and I found it on level 1) and from the multiple runs, is a pretty rare spawn again.
This ingredient is very annoying to find. The spawn of the liquid rainbow is determined by two independent factors – rare spawn of Zaven the alchemist who opens the door to the cave and then the mysterious chest itself, so you may spend a lot of time farming for this particular ingredient. however, the path of oasis is small, and I always got the same map (atleast the path leading to the water clearing and the mysterious cave), so restarting and finding Zaven does not take a lot of time.
Gibbering Gemstone
Like the liquid rainbow, this is another ingredient which may cause many to rage. This ingredient is dropped by a boss named Chiltara found inside the caves of the frost after the Bridge of Korsikk.
Take the way point to the Bridge of Korsikk, and search the map for caves. The caves don’t always spawn and you may sometimes find Icefall caves instead. If you find icefall caves, simply leave the game and restart. If you find the caves of frost, explore the frost caves (level 1 and 2 )to find Chiltara, who is a rare spawn and kill him to get the Gibbering Gemstone. I found the boss near the cave exit on level 2. The boss jumped out of the ground when I got close to the exit, so make sure you go close to every corner of the map.
This area is very difficult due to the number of mobs and if you have good survivability, you can just run around the map looking for the caves and the let the mobs run behind you. For Wizards, having teleport with wormhole rune can be very useful here. Once you find the caves, icefall caves or if you are lucky the caves of the frost, enter the caves and the mobs won’t follow you inside. If you find icefall caves, teleport to town, leave game and restart the process.
Plans: Staff of Herding
These plans drop as loot from the boss Izual in Act 4. They are not a hundred percent drop, but from what I’ve heard it shouldn’t take more than 2-3 attempts to get the plans. The fight itself is challenging, especially if you don’t avoid the frost traps.
Creating the Staff
Finally, once you have farmed the above ingredients, buy the writ’s bell for 100K gold from Squirt the Peddler in Caldeum Bazaar in Act 2. You may have to change the quest to an earlier quest in Act 2, since after Belial’s attack, the bazaar changes, and Squirt may or may not be there.
Take all the five ingredients along with 50K gold to your blacksmith Haedrig Eamon. Open the craft window and right click on the plans to teach him the plans for staff of herding. If you haven’t taught him any other crafting recipes, you will also get an achievement here. Craft the Staff of Herding, which will require the 50K gold you brought with you to the blacksmith.
Note that the staff is reusable, and can be upgraded for gold in other playthroughs at higher difficulty. The upgrade costs for nightmare are 200K and the cost of upgrade will increase through hell and inferno.
Getting to Whimsyshire
Now take the crafted Staff of Herding with you to the Old Tristram Road. This is the road to the right of the New Tristram, where you started the main quest. Find the Ghost of the Cow King, who will be standing near the the valley with red mist. I think he appears only when you have the Staff of Herding in your inventory. Talk to the ghost of the cow king, who will be udderly pleased to see you and open the way to WhimsyShire.
General Notes on Farming and Loot in WhimsyShire
The best way to speed up farming is to do it with friends. Search for all the ingredients independently, and when you find them, before clicking on the black mushroom pile, burnt logs, or the mysterious chest, invite your friends to join the game so that everyone gets the ingredient at the same time. Take care that when Chiltara spawns, you will have to avoid killing the boss and port to town to allow all your friends to join, then port back to the caves and kill the boss. All of your friends can click on your banner to port right next to you. If you click on the the items before your friends join, or kill Chiltara before they join, they will not get the loot.
All the ingredients and the Staff of Herding after creation are bound to account and cannot be traded or sold. The Staff of Herding, is very easy to lose by dropping it on the ground as a throw away, since it looks very similar to a normal item. So be careful!
So far I’ve gone to WhimsyShire only on Normal mode, and I did not find any loot that I could use. I found occassional blue items and probably one or two rares. I’ve heard some people getting legendary items here, but these reports have been few. The likelihood of better gear might improve in other difficulty levels and whimsyshire may actually be worth the farm. However, so far after spending a Sunday afternoon farming for ingredients, the run through WhimsyShire was disappointing to say the least. The level itself is not very pleasing and gives an impression that Blizzard has tried too hard on this one. Also, at times while farming, especially while farming liquid rainbow and gibbering gemstone, you may feel that all the fun has been sucked out of a fun level. At least the farming needs to be done only once.
The score so far ... 