Hellcows

Hellcows are one type of bad guy you can face in West of Loathing.

Sidequest

• Complete all activities at the circus, including the encounter with Barnaby Bob or Kill the clowns at the Clown Campsite to unlock the location to the Tannery
• Enter Danny's Tannery where the Cows and Clowns are having a showdown.
  • Defeat all of the Cows in the tannery, and the Clowns as well if you are not working with Barnaby Bob.
  • Rescue Grady Tanner from the storage shed behind the tannery. Ask him what cowsbane is. He will give you a a packet of cowsbane seeds.
• Grow the cowsbane seeds.
  • Put them through the Time Tube at the Curious False Mountain to make them older immediately. OR
  • Take them to the Lazy-A Dude Ranch. You'll need to also have found barbed wire (there's a roll in the locked shed at Kellogg Ranch). Take the barbed wire to be plated by The Silver Plater. With the plated barbed wire, one of the people at the ranch can grow it for you. This takes a few days. You can pass time sleeping in your bed at The Jewel Saloon.
  • You can do both, if you start with the Time Tube.
• Become Cowrrupted. Eat a bunch of cow-related items.
  • This can later be undone by purifying yourself at the Kellogg Ranch gymnasium.
• Retrieve an infernal mallet.
  • Wander around Hellstrom.
  • If you are a Cow Puncher, you can craft one from bones and infernal leather. This requires the leathermaking skill.
    • Infernal leather can be collected from Hellcows defeated in battle, or a random encounter in region C. It helps to have the varmint skinnin' knife.
• Take the cowsbane bale to Hellstrom Ranch and sprinkle it there. You will need the infernal mallet to summon Duke Bovicus.
  • NOTE: Do not do this step without the cowsbane. Duke Bovicus will knock you out.
  • Doing this and then cleansing yourself at Kellogg Ranch will prevent the hellcows from coming in the end cutscene. (Note that Duke Bovicus must be trapped at the time of the cutscene for this to take effect.)
  • Optional: Boon of Duke Bovicus perk (+6 all M stats, -20 max HP) by promising to release the Duke. Note that you can lie here, take his boon, and then not free him.
  • If you free him, you can re-summon him into the trap again.