The "Bovine Defense Force Initiative" or "Bovine Defense Force" is a game mechanic implemented into the game with Patch 1.05 in response to an exploit which allowed players in White Orchard to quickly gain crowns by killing cows, looting their hides, meditating for the cows to respawn, and repeating the process an indefinite number of times.
This meant that players could accumulate large amounts of cow hides and sell them for large gain with relatively little effort. However, in Patch 1.05, and all game versions since, a level 27 chort was made to recurrently spawn a short distance away from the cow pen in White Orchard village after the player had killed six cows. If the player managed to kill a chort, a new one would spawn, and this process continued indefinitely.
Ironically, for higher level characters who are able to handle the barrage of chorts, this turned out to be a more efficient crown farming method as the base value of a chort hide is more than double that of cowhide. However, this has since been partially patched out and only one chort will appear at a time. Once killed, it may not respawn until Geralt leaves White Orchard and returns again.
Notes[]
- In Hearts of Stone expansion, the Bovine Defense Force Initiative was referenced by the addition of two new gwent cards: Cow and Bovine Defense Force. Whenever the 0-strength Cow card is removed from the battlefield, the 8-strength BDF card is summoned to take its place.
- The exploit that led to the implementation of this mechanic is also referenced in The Taxman Cometh quest, in which Geralt is asked by taxman Walthemor Mitty whether he engaged in the wholesale trade of rawhide in the White Orchard area.
- Oddly, the card art depicts it as a fiend, but in game it's actually a chort.
Trivia[]
- The chort being represented as a stronger bovine in this regard bears some resemblance to and may be inspired by The Cow King in Diablo II. Ironically, the Cow King's domain has also been nerfed due to excessive farming.
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