How to complete the Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector quest

The Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector side quest tasks you with finding origami butterflies before it takes a darker turn. While the 10 paper butterflies are scattered around a relatively small area of Osaka, making them quite easy to find in Assassin's Creed Shadows, you'll soon become caught up in a mysterious kidnapping plot where you must rescue missing children and assassinate the four women taking them. What seems like a simple collectable quest quickly becomes a lot more complicated, so to help you get through it easily, here are the locations for all origami butterflies and how to find all targets for the Butterfly Collector quest in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

All Assassin's Creed Shadows Origami Butterfly locations

The 10 origami butterflies in Assassin's Creed Shadows are all hidden on trees across Osaka town, seven of which are normal, colored butterflies for the Butterfly Collector, while three of them are white origami butterflies containing secret messages that will help you unmask those involved in the kidnapping gang and where they are (more on that further down).

The map above and descriptions below should guide you to each butterfly location, but I also recommend using the Observe mechanic by holding L2/LT and searching for blue dots to mark their precise locations. Here’s where you need to look for all 10 AC Shadows origami butterflies:

1. Purple Butterfly: On the riverbank roughly west of Nishinomaru Garden.
2. Green Butterfly: In someone's garden on the east side of town.
3. Yellow Butterfly: Roughly north of the town's gear vendor.
4. Red Butterfly: North of the Temple of Osaka.
5. Blue Butterfly: Behind the prayer shrine just outside the west entrance to the Temple of Osaka.
6. Orange Butterfly: On the riverbank roughly east of the Fishermen's District.
7. Pink Butterfly: Just beyond the bridge southwest of the Fishermen's District.
8. White Butterfly 1: On the riverbank northwest of the Temple of Osaka.
9. White Butterfly 2: On the riverbank roughly south of the Osaka Kakurega
10. White Butterfly 3: Next to the central canal bridge.

All Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector targets

Now that you've got all the origami butterflies for the Butterfly Collector in AC Shadows, you can go about easily rescuing all the kidnapped children and start eliminating everyone involved in the gang. Each kill will bag you 1 Assassin's Creed Shadows Mastery Points, some mon, and a gear item. Here's how to kill all the Butterfly Collector targets:

Mucho location

1. Find and assassinate her on the island west of Osaka on the south end of Kojo Ruins and assassinate her. Follow the sake merchant's son into town to reunite him with his father.
2. Speak with the Osaka paper merchant to learn that the leader of the kidnapping ring lives in Nishinomaru Garden.

Richo location

1. Go to the burnt-out well in the north part of Osaka and listen to the two gardeners talking about a woman coming from a bamboo grove.
2. Head to the bamboo grove northeast of Noda Village, which is just north of Osaka Castle. You'll find Richo at the grove and can assassinate her.
3. Finally, escort the girl back to her mother and you'll also get the Trinket and Amulet of Childlike Bravery in return.

Shucho location

1. Find the escaped child near a stable southwest of the Fishermen's District – she's very close to where the pink origami butterfly was.
2. Find and assassinate Shucho as she wanders around the Fishermen's District.
3. Find the girl's diary page in a secret hideout in the middle of town, southwest of the gear vendor.

Kacho location

1. Sneak into Nishinomaru Garden on the west side of Osaka Castle. It's a restricted area, so avoid gaining Assassin's Creed Shadows Wanted status.
2. Head to the northern end of the garden to find a small, enclosed area with lots of butterflies flying around.
3. Speak to Kacho then kill her in a boss fight.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector choices

With all 10 origami butterflies found, all the children safe and sound, and all four targets dead, return to the gamemaker woman in Katano to confront her about her role in this kidnapping ring, leading you into three dialogue choices to end the AC Shadows Butterfly Collector questline:

• "What you did was wrong" or "Kacho was to blame": Your response here doesn't matter as the conversation is the same, with the woman revealing that Kacho took her as a baby, so she never knew her own name.
• Choose a name for the woman: The woman appreciates whichever name you give her, so choose any of them.
• Kill or spare the Butterfly Collector woman:
  • "You must pay for your actions" (kill her): You must assassinate the woman, getting you the Ebisu's Gamble common bow, 225 Mon, and 1 Mastery Point.
  • "You must start anew" (spare her): You leave the woman alive and get an uncommon version of the Ebisu's Gamble bow, 225 Mon, 5000 XP, and the Butterfly of Benevolence trinket/amulet for both Naoe and Yasuke.

Sparing the gamemaker to end the Butterfly Collector quest is the best option thanks to its marginally superior rewards (and avoidance of unnecessary bloodshed). While you miss out on a Mastery Point, the amount of XP gained will contribute nicely towards your next level, effectively getting you a Mastery Point anyway, and this is also the only way to get the Butterfly of Benevolence trinket, even if it isn't great.

There are also a few Assassin's Creed Shadows Kabukimono targets to assassinate in and around Osaka, and you'll eventually need to visit the Assassin's Creed Shadows Noshinomiya Shrine for that quest too.

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