These are alternative variants of the original monster. They come in all possible types[wiki.cassettebeasts.com](elements), even the same type as the original. These can be considered the shiny pokémon[bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net] in this world with the caveat that the typing is likely shifted. Here are a few tips below.

Example of a fire icepeck[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] which started me on this guide since I like the bright colors with the very wacky contrasty blue eyes...

• All monster (bootlegs or normal variants) can be recaught if you accidentally kill them. (This include rare ones like averevoir[http//Averevoir], glaistain[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and miss mimic[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. They will show up later on near the end as unidentified.)
  
• Due to each monster having a "fixed" move[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]set that can be used, it is actually advantageous to get these especially if you can cover a weakness of the bootleg type with a proper resistance sticker that can be used with original monster. Unlike using a starting camo sticker, their typing is permanent.
  
• It looks like all bootlegs have the same moveset as the original with access to some, mainly offensive moves of that type. Defensive ones like walls, resistance and related still CANNOT be used.
  
• Growth is identical, in terms of leveling experience, stats and sticker slots when comparing my normal cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] with my bootleg fire cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. My guess is that with a bootleg monster, natural typing changes of the original monster will not occur during remastering and the bootleg typing override will follow said monster. As a consequence, it is recommended to plan accordingly with the final monster in the evolution you intended to get.
  
• The alternative colors do apply with camo but can look weird. A normal ice cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] have a white/light blue color when melted. A bootleg ice version uses a blue/red color to designate this. In this case, both are identical in typing except for their color scheme.
  
• You can always tell when you are fighting a bootleg monster since the name of the monster on the top right is in red, in addition to the wacky color of the sprite. This applies to the rogue fusion as well when you fight them. Please see the sections below for pictures, if you're curious how it works!
  
• The natural spawn rates of these bootleg monsters are rare but still possible. When they do spawn, you can tell them apart since they have a glitchy static white flash but maintain their normal overworld sprite colors. At least from my first 25 hour run, I got about three spawns naturally. As a result, you are better off getting them using the ritual candle below.
  
• When you get a bootleg, moves that are specific to one element are swapped to their matching counterparts. In addition some of the stickers are upgraded to be uncommon or rare types. This may be a way to get more uncommon or rare stickers that can have better moves.

The game gives you one free bootleg. Once you unlock the westside of Harbour Town, go up to the top right house and you'll see this. Talk to the guy you get your bootleg monster. It seems that it is random from comments but is locked to the save itself. (I.E. You cannot save scum and reload the save to try and get a different bootleg. it is "locked in" once you make a new save.)


Video below with more details on the house in question.

A ritual candle is a way to force a bootleg monster to appear when fighting a rogue fusion (This could be normal rogue fusion), swarm rogue fusion or unstable rogue fusion. Anything that spawns a rogue fusion will count!). They can be annoying to fight, due to their typing, but is a guaranteed way to get them. They do have a large cost to acquire one so plan accordingly with these tips below. These are unlocked once you beat all 12 ranger captains and each candle cost 50 fused materials and the intended tape you wish to burn.

• I recommend making a backup save, by copying the file[gameplay.tips] if you want to play around with this due to the cost. I also recommend removing quick save since if you escape from combat and are force to lose some items, you will also lose the candle effect! The game auto saves when entering/exiting buildings/caves and upon a forced escape, you respawn back at the cafe!
  
• You will need to burn a tape to the ritual candle so it is recommended to catch at least one in the wild as you will lose the tape once you burn it to the candle.
  
• A ritual candle will guarantee that the type or monster or both from the burned tape will appear in the rogue fusion. The next "wild" rogue fusion (normal, swarm or unstable) will have a bootleg monster. Once you defeat all ranger captains and do the first set of posts on the noticeboard, you will get a rogue fusion radar making it very easy to see where they are on the map. Rogue fusions will always appear on the overworld but it make take more effort to find them otherwise and without the complete map unlocked, it may be harder to get the intended type/monster pair.[\spoiler]
  
• Swarm rogue fusions have 5 normal monsters before leading up to a fusion monster. Normal rogue fusion has the rogue fusion and one assistant local monster. Unstable rogue fusions are a "fixed" fusion with anathema[/i]. The typing for the other monster is random. All three lead to a rogue fusion fight so pick your poison which one is easier to go for. [wiki.cassettebeasts.com]
• If you use the ritual candle and the monster you wanted to capture is killed, you will waste the candle! I highly recommend restarting right after the kill in case of odd auto save issues.
  
• When exploring your tape storage, all bootleg monster go into the bootleg category, before seeing each element.
  
• For unidentified signals, they don't use a rogue candle and are thus not impacted by the item. This does mean that it may be harder but not impossible to get these monsters in their bootleg variants.

Here are a few examples since I wanted an alternative cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com].

• I burned a normal ice cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and went to Mt. Wirral and got bootleg ice cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and bootleg ice spooki-onna[wiki.cassettebeasts.com].
  
• I burned a normal electric boltam[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and went to Mt. Wirral and got a bootleg ice boltam[wiki.cassettebeasts.com].
  
• I burned a normal ice cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and went to New Wirral Park and got a bootleg earth cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. My other runs got me a bootleg ice springheel[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and dominoth[wiki.cassettebeasts.com].

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Below are images of how the bootlegs and the original compare.

Example of what a fight would look like.


Here is a rogue unstable fusion fight.

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Here is an unleveled cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and icepeck[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] for comparision.



I've used both of these cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] a lot and their sticker/moves you get when leveling are not the default but the stats line is identical. It should be noted that I leveled up the bootleg fire cryoshear from icepeck[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] so I sadly don't have a new bootleg fire cryoshear to compare to with the group of pictures below.


Here's the list of all types[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] of cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]

[Beast/Air]


[Astral/Earth]


[Fire/Ice]* As mentioned before, I leveled up the cryoshear from icepeck[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] so I sadly don't have a new bootleg fire cryoshear to compare to.


[Lightning/Metal]


[Plant/Plastic]


[Poison/Water]


[Glass/Glitter]

From experimentation it seems that there's no guaranteed way to get a bootleg of a specific monster! From trying to get every possible bootleg type[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] of cryoshear[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] I observed the following in the my small data set.

Important note: I highly recommend NOT doing any 5 heart events or any event that would automatically move you as those will RESET all rogue fusions on the map. It also resets the townfolks to give a default prompt like this, below.

• It seems that whenever you go into combat, the game selects one attribute (type[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] or monster[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]) and then rolls the missing attribute. The second monster selected is usually a local normal monster that could spawn in the area.
  
• It is recommended to always burn a type with the monster you want OVER the element you want the monster to be in. This is because with a monster in mind, you can potentially visit any rogue fusion in the overworld. If you burn an element, you MUST farm rogue fusions, swarm rogue fusions or unstable rogue fusions in the normal area where the monster would normally appear. Also note that there is no natural glitter[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] monster and only one rare glass[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] monster.
  
• It is always possible get a bootleg of the "default" type the monster would normally come in. It is more of a novelty and the main benefit here is the different look and perhaps stickers if they are aligned to your usage/taste.
  
• The only way to increase the odds of a bootleg of a specific monster is via a rogue unstable fusion. Here one of the monsters is always anathema[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. This implies that the other monster must be what you burned and typing looks to be fixed of where you're fighting. This if of course not guaranteed as I had one that spawned a completely different monster but odds are higher from local testing.
  
• Related there is a faster way to "reset" the rogue fusion without save scumming by finding a fusion with Miss Mimic Chest[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. Please see the bottom for more details.
  
• You could make a strong educated guess of what the type, of the fused monster is, by looking at the parts of the fusion that are from the original monster. The color of those parts should reflect (assuming no coating) the type. You can view the full palette of cryoshear to get a feel of it. The ones that are very obvious would be glass[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and glitter[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] as very few monsters normally have that type and the parts will stand out a lot.
  
• Assuming you burn the tape you want, you can easily reset IF you see the fusion monster with a type from your normal monster tape you burned. This is because it usually means the type is selected over the monster AND on the off-chance it has parts of your target monster, is a bootleg of the default type.

Each run takes about 1-6 minutes. If you can quickly tell the node type and if they are near a station, the node "testing" can be quick. If you need to beat them down to break the fusion,it can take a few minutes (mainly due to animations and status effects). It took me roughly 5 hours to get all types of cryoshear if you plan to get all types of one monster you like. Most likely if you're aiming for the achievement this time would be much less as odds are generally better for typing vs monster. (On average it takes about 22 minutes per type but these vary per individual typing as I had a gap of about 50 minutes between new ones so your mileage will vary. Conversely my last 3 came within 20 minutes.) This assumes you have a 14 ritual candles and 14 tapes of the target monsters and are ok with constantly resetting a run doesn't pan out.

Ideally the monster you pick can be easily farmed in the overworld. Otherwise you will need to level them all up to the final monster BEFORE burning them! (I generally recommend burning tapes of the final monster form mainly because you'll get better initial stickers with the later evolution forms. Otherwise the result should be the same.)

1. Disable auto save and burn a candle with the monster you have in mind. Then save.
   
2. If you're loading in from a save wait about 30-60 seconds as the fusions do not spawn immediately. If you see folks in the town suddenly give you prompts you will begin to see rogue fusions on the map (assuming you have the radar). I usually pass the time buy using the vending slot machine in the main building and saving if I get something I wanted.
   
3. Do note the ones that are unidentified as those are usually non-fusion monsters are usually rare monsters.
   
4. Go to any node on the map and test and see if it has want you want. If it doesn't reload the save and note this area and don't go again. (The monster will be the same if you repeat the same process so try a new node.)
   
5. You'll notice when loading the save that the same nodes will all appear again (not necessarily in the same order) and will take a few minutes. The rogue fusions will be "fixed" until you sleep to advance the time. Usually you will need to sleep twice to move forward or just do something else. I usually farm additional tapes and save if I get nothing. Advancing the social links (5 hearts) or possibly plot, if there is any, can also reset all the nodes.
   
6. Hopefully with enough tests and day advances you get what you want.

There is a potentially faster alternative way to the above if you have extra tapes of the same monster and extra ritual candles to burn. If you see a fusion encounter from above that has the right monster BUT the wrong typing, you could instead burn another tape and reroll the bootleg. You have a 50% chance of which monster will have the bootleg but also (14-X)/14 chance to getting a type you don't already have, assuming you are getting all of them and X is the number you have already. You may need to burn additional tapes to constantly reroll until you get what you want.


Discovered below by ฅ^•⩊•^ฅ', there is a faster way to farm bootlegs of a specific monster. This only works if you see a rogue fusion in a Miss Mimic[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] chest.

1. Burn the ritual candle
2. Sacrifice the creature you want
3. Start the match with the Miss Mimic[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] rogue fusion chest.
4. If it is not the fusion you want, flee and reset it until it is the typing that you want.

This is a lot faster than save scumming above and is the recommended way to do it.

There are 14 types[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and thus 14 achievements, one for each type. You will need to use at most 14 ritual candles to get all 14. The game by default gives you one and hopefully in your run you will find some naturally which will reduce how many you'll need.

From comments below it may just be faster to capture 14 of the same monster and burn the tapes to get one bootleg of each type since you will usually get a new one, so long as the game picks the monster part of the type and not the element.

Of the 14 types[wiki.cassettebeasts.com], 12 of them are easy to come by as it is not hard to find enemies of that type and work that way. The last two glass[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] and glitter[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] are a lot harder as glass only has one monster, glaistain[wiki.cassettebeasts.com] as mentioned before and glitter naturally has zero.

For both of these, I recommend just burning any tape (if you don't care about the monster it's on) and just retrying constantly using my farm notes above. Glaistain is a powerful monster and I wouldn't recommend burning your only copy unless you're going to dump the save (turn off auto save and retry until you get it and reload your previous save.) Even then you still are relying on RNG for glitter so good luck!

The general odds, from my guess ARE
1/2 chance between the game picking between which attribute to take from the tape burned
1/14 for the right typing if the monster is selected from the tape
1/X for the monster in the local area if typing is fixed

This is likely rolled for any rogue fusion encounter. In the case of glitter, you're relying on the game selecting whatever monster you burned and hoping the game selects the right glitter element.

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Further testing suggest that the random one the game gives you is tied to the save (i.e. you generate a new bootleg monster per save and it's fixed after that point. You don't know what it is until you get it.) That said you could do the trick and get into the west part of town early and "reroll" that way.


You can get a glitter this way if you enter in 1984. Thanks to Shazzamon for this tip!

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For all of these, I used cryoshear since it generally is the fastest monster on the field and with heroic blade and Bish Bash Bosh you can clear out waves of the enemies quickly. (I got heroic blade randomly but it can get gotten with the 3rd star on faerious[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]. I recommend also AP refund and AP starter to snowball and constantly spam damage as needed.

For support I used Barkley but any decent fast monster/partner build can work. I also used chrome tapes as that worked out. I still have not used any of the custom tapes FYI. The main thing is try and out speed the small enemies and ideally the fusion since you can get hits before being debuffed and the tape destroyed on stronger hits. The recommended strategy is be at level 70+ and before the final kill use the tape. Do note that when you are trying to capture any enemy, you can still hit the target monster and they cannot die. That's how you get the chance up to 100% by capturing them as you do the fatal hit. The rates are lower for rarer enemies but the strategy remains the same.

Ideally the person/animal capturing is behind a wall but with 20 levels difference, the monster-less partner, or you, can take a few hits and at 100%, it seems to not drop much if any on small hits. On strong hits, I've seen it drop back to 85-90% but it usually works out. The unstable ones are a bit harder to setup but similar strategies work.

Below are more screenshots showing different fights that I've done. Hopefully you're able to identify the "cryoshear" parts and the color and start to see how you can identity the "type" that it should have.

Poison before and after


Water before and after


Astral before and after


Water before and after (I messed up the first capture and killed it.)


Electric and beast fusions


Glitter (Notice how you lose track of the color once it starts getting coatings)


Glitter one by itself without coatings


Grass Unstable Fusion before and after


Glass one broken apart


Earth fusion?

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Right after making the guide, I got this bootleg grass Wingloom[wiki.cassettebeasts.com]

Random extra notes I had.

• What happens when you fuse two bootlegs tapes? Wackier colors?
  
• The game mentions having approximately 14,400 different fusions possible. With 14 possible bootleg types, 15 counting the original, there are actually 3,240,000 possible types/monster/color pairs if you account for both possible types of the original monsters. I'm not sure if there is overlap of the color though and I wonder if they even mix/show properly. It should be noted that some would technically be duplicated by using bootlegs to swap the monster type and thus get the same "result "as the original. Colors may be different though.