Shortly after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched, one player discovered a glitch that gives players a steady influx of cash. Players could use the glitch immediately – all they had to do was slay a few cows, collect the hides, meditate to replenish the herd, and repeat.

While the glitch didn’t provide a massive amount of money, Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red noticed the exploit and created a clever response. According to The Witcher 3’s most recent patch notes, the game now includes a “Bovine Defense Force Initiative.” As the above video shows, the Bovine Defense Force comes in the form of a high-level, fast-moving creature that can quickly and easily destroy players who kill off high numbers of cows.

It seems that CD Project Red took a page out of Rockstar Games’ book of how to react to player-discovered exploits. The latter company recently introduced a patch that explodes cars that players hack into Grand Theft Auto Online. Similarly, rather than remove the cow-hide exploit, CD Projekt Red decided to handle the situation in a very Witcher 3 way: with a giant monster.

In the above video, it looks like the monster is mostly meant to dissuade low-level players from using the exploit, as even the level four character puts up a decent fight. A higher-level player should be able to take down the cow monster without too much trouble.

However, the Bovine Defense Force seems like an effort to keep players from using cow hides to gather too much money early on. Once players reach a higher level, the small amount of money hides yield isn’t worth the effort, especially when treasure hunts and side quests offer a much better source of income. Plus, there’s also a seashell exploit in the city of Novigrad that’s proven to be much more profitable. It’ll be interesting to see if the Witcher 3 developer creates a similar “fix” for this other moneymaking activity.

Maybe CD Projekt Red will introduce a new Witcher Contract in one of its free DLC releases that requires players to find and kill the Bovine Defense Force monster. Of course, that would mean that the developer is encouraging players kill herds of cows, so that idea may just be wishful thinking.

What do you think about CD Projekt Red’s response to the Witcher 3 cowhide exploit? Are you planning to take on the new monster? Let us know in the comments.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: YouTube