Assassin's Creed Shadows: Origami Butterfly Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

Investigation mode won't help either. Origami Butterflies in Assassin's Creed Shadows are hidden the old-fashioned way — you look at trees until you find them — and what starts as a children's scavenger game turns into something considerably darker.

All 10 are included onour Assassin's Creed Shadows interactive map for Japan.

Starting the Origami Butterfly Hunt

Head to Katano in Izumi Settsu, northeast of Osaka. Beside the Ornament Vendor — sandwiched between Katano Castle and Katano Oil Trading — stands a young woman who calls herself the Gamemaker.

She explains that she's hidden ten origami butterflies around western Osaka and invites you to find them. There are no prerequisites; you can start this at any point in the game.

Accepting begins "The Butterfly Collector."

Track the Quest to See the Blue Dots

Here's the practical difference between an hour of searching and twenty minutes. With the quest active and tracked, hold Observe and the butterflies resolve as blue dots within your field of view. Eagle Vision makes them stand out further.

Without the quest tracked, you're genuinely searching tree bark by eye.

They're plastered on trees, almost without exception, and they come in colours — purple near the waterline west of Nishinomaru Garden, green in the back garden of a house in the eastern district (climb to the roof to spot it), and several whites scattered west of there near bridges and waterways.

Some Origami Butterflies Are Letters

This is where the quest turns. A number of the ten aren't butterflies at all — they're letters addressed to named women, and picking one up adds that woman to your Objectives board as a target.

The Butterfly Collector is a group abducting children from wealthy families across Japan and ransoming them back, expanding their reach region by region. The origami trail is how you find them.

Collect all ten before hunting anyone. The letters unlock the target quests, and having the full set open means you can plan a single route through Osaka rather than crossing the city repeatedly.

The Five Butterfly Collector Targets

Mucho is the gentlest introduction. She's at Kojo Ruins, west of the Temple of Osaka, standing beside a small boy. She bolts the moment you approach — assassinate her before she's alerted or run her down in combat, watching for nearby guards.

Afterwards, speak to the child and hold the follow prompt to walk him back to his father. Reward: Hidden Pleat, an uncommon tanto.

Richo drops The Dog-Ear, another uncommon tanto, and her rescued victim hands over the Trinket of Childlike Bravery.

Shucho waits in the Fisherman's District, near a yard.

Kacho doesn't appear at all until the first three are dead. Her objectives then open into two further quests — Paper Trail and Chrysalis.

And the fifth is the woman who sent you looking in the first place. The scavenger hunt was never a game.

Origami Butterflies and the Butterfly Collector Rewards

Working through the full chain pays out Mastery Points, unique gear, and trinkets across each target, closing with the confrontation the whole arc has been building toward.

For a side quest that opens with a stranger asking you to find paper butterflies in trees, it's one of the more memorable threads in the game — and the only one where the collectibles are also the evidence.