To catch Chien-Pao, however, you first need to pull the eight yellow stakes hidden across Paldea. Below you’ll find all of the yellow stake locations and the location of the Icecrend Shrine itself, along with how to catch Chien-Pao in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. On this page: If you’d like to learn more about your adventure in Paldea, then visit our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet walkthrough. First, however, we recommend unlocking all of Koraidon / Miraidon’s abilities. While you can find all of the stakes by simply defeating the Open Sky Titan to unlock swimming and the False Dragon Titan to unlock climbing, completing this side quest will be a lot easier with all of your legendary mount’s abilities. If you’d like to know the story behind the shrines and have them placed on your overworld map, then complete the history lessons at the Academy. Taking these lessons, though, is not a requirement for this side-quest. Below you’ll find the eight yellow stake locations in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
Yellow Stake 1 location
This stake is in Cascarrafa and found by looking behind the tree, which, itself, sits behind the Gym on its left-hand side. You can easily see this tree when standing in front of the Gym.
Yellow Stake 2 location
This stake stands south-east of the West Province (Area One) Watchtower and directly south of the Team Star Dark Crew base. To reach it, fly to the Watchtower, climb the cliffs directly south-east of the tower and from there follow the path until you reach the stake. It can be easily spotted from the top of the Watchtower, so try climbing it if you’re having trouble locating the stake.
Yellow Stake 3 location
We recommend finding this stake after locating the one described above. To reach it, head south-east from Stake 2 and drop down once you reach a ledge. Here you’ll find Stake 3 hidden in a nook in the cliffline.
Yellow Stake 4 location
To find this stake, fly to the West Province (Area One) Pokémon Center and head up the hill to where the windmills are located. Now all you have to do is turn west and you’ll see a gorge. In the middle of this gorge is a small hill and, atop it, is the stake.
Yellow Stake 5 location
This stake is hidden on a ledge directly south-east from the West Province (Area One) Pokémon Center. We recommend flying to this location, climbing the hill south-east of the Pokémon Center and dropping down to the other side where you’ll find the stake.
Yellow Stake 6 location
For this stake, you’ll want to take the southern path leading from the West Province (Area One) Pokémon Center to Alfornada Cavern. Along the way, you’ll see a hill to your left which you need to climb. Go along this hill until you reach a mountain, which you will want to climb until you reach the ledge with the stake.
Yellow Stake 7 location
This stake can be quite hard to find due to it being hidden inside a tunnel, which is south-west of Cortondo and quite easy to miss. To reach the tunnel, fly to Cortondo (West) before heading south, over the river, past a pond and, eventually, jumping down to the field below where you’ll find the entrance to the cave. Now all you have to do is travel through the cave and pull the stake, which, now you’re in the right place, is very easy to spot.
Yellow Stake 8 location
The final stake is located in South Province (Area Four) at the top of the middle waterfall, which lies directly south of Cortondo.
It can be reached by going south from Cortondo until you reach the mountain or, if you’ve visited it before, flying to the South Province (Area Four) Watchtower and heading west.
Either way, climb the mountain until the middle waterfall when you reach it and then jump across the gap to the stake.
Once you’ve pulled the final stake, a roar will echo across Paldea. Now it’s time to head to the shrine, but we recommend stocking up on Ultra Balls and healing items.
Our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet walkthrough can take you through the entire game - including The First Day of School, Victory Road, Starfall Street, Path of Legends and when you’re ready, The Way Home and the final boss.
Elsewhere, we can help with the Normal Gym test Secret Item menu, version differences, the best Scarlet and Violet starter, EXP farming, shiny Pokémon and learning how to fly, swim, climb and dash.
When it comes to individual Pokémon, we can help with Gimmighoul, Ditto, Bellibolt, Pawmot, Scovillain, Frigibax, Sinistea, Brambleghast, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dudunsparce, Lycanrock forms, Armarouge and Ceruledge.
By completing the history lessons at the Academy and following Raifort’s storyline, the shrines will be placed on your overworld map. This will also allow you to fast-travel to them.
The easiest way to reach the shrine by foot is to fly to the West Province (Area One) Pokémon Center. From there, head north to the Open Sky Titan’s mountain. When you reach the mountain itself, go up the path and, when the ground turns brown, take the left-hand path.
You’ll then want to follow this path until it reaches an end and, once there, drop down to the ledge below, which is directly behind the trainer.
This means it’s weak to Bug, Fairy, Fighting, Fire, Rock and Steel-types. Psychic-type attacks will have no effect on Chien-Pao.
It’s a good idea to stock up on Ultra Balls and healing items, like Max Potions, before attempting to catch Chien-Pao.
We recommend starting the battle with a Pokémon which has both an advantage over Chien-Pao and has a similar level to it. This ensures you can easily take down its health to make it easier to catch without the worry of knocking it out completely.
Paralysing and putting Chien-Pao to sleep will also allow you to focus on catching it, rather than keeping your team alive. Avoid poisoning Chien-Pao though or else it could be knocked out!
After knocking Chien-Pao’s health into the red, it’s also a good idea to switch to a Pokémon that will either take little damage from its attacks or has a large amount of HP, so, again, you can focus on catching it.
We quickly caught Chien-Pao in an Ultra Ball, but, if your battle grows long, then try using a Timer Ball; the more turns that are taken in a battle, the more effective this Poké Ball will become at catching Pokémon.
Chien-Pao has the Sword of Ruin ability, which will lower the Defense stat of every Pokémon in the battle except for itself.
It will also have the following moveset when you catch it:
After adding Chien-Pao to your Pokédex, why not try catching the other Ruinous Pokémon - Wo-Chien, Ting-Lu and Chi-Yu?
If you’d like to learn more about the Ruinous Pokémon and their story, we recommend completing the history lessons. If you have been following this storyline, then visit Raifort after catching all of the Ruinous Pokémon for an extra reward.
Good luck catching Chien-Pao!
