Recording

Recording is the process of producing new monster tapes from wild Monsters. Recording a new species registers it as being "Recorded" in the Bestiary and unlocks its first Bio entry.

Story

According to Kayleigh, a monster's essence can be recorded in a cassette tape, though it is not known how or why this works. The player first learns how to record monsters during the quest This Is The World We Live In. In the quest On The Hunt, Hoylake tasks the player to record a series of monsters if they haven't already done so previously.

Mechanics Overview

During battle, the player or partner can choose to consume a Tape item and record a wild enemy monster. At the start of the turn, the recording character will transform out of their tape and start the recording process. During this time, the target monster cannot be defeated and will always survive with at least 1 HP. Any damage dealt on the target during this term boosts the recording rate, while any damage received by the recorder will drop the recording rate. If successful, the monster takes (5% of Max HP + 1) damage, and cannot be recorded again.

The record rate also depends on the percentage of health the target monster has remaining, and the species' base record rate. Additionally, Bootlegs have a lower base record rate compared to the regular counterparts. The record rate can be improved by using tapes with better capture rate and by purchasing the Microphone Upgrade and Recording Mod from Town Hall.

Care must be taken, however, as switching tapes will take place before recording, which can prematurely defeat the target monster. Certain moves that take place at the end of the turn, such as Roll Again and stickers with the Chance to use at the end of the round attribute will take place after a recording success or fail, so the target monster could also be defeated before you can have the opportunity to try again next turn. Additionally, because the recording character will be untransformed while recording, they are vulnerable from taking overspill damage and may take lethal damage while recording.

If an encountered monster has not yet been registered in the Bestiary, there will be an exclamation point (!) in its status bar.

Status Interactions

If the recording character is inflicted with the Sleep status effect, the recording attempt will fail, even if using a tape that guarantees recording success. If the target monster is affected by a coating, it will affect the multipliers on elemental tapes. Status effects that deal damage, such as Burned or Conductive, will also update the record rate whenever damage is applied. The target monster will also survive if Gambit or Ghostly expires or if Resonance overload activates while being recorded.

Record Rate Formula

Both the Optical Laser Tape and Black Shuck's Tape skip the record rate formula entirely and will record the target without fail.

The record rate is a decimal number between 0 and 1, and constantly gets updated whenever the target or the recorder takes damage, or when the target changes type from coatings. After most actions have been completed, a random decimal between 0 and 1 is generated, and the recording is successful if this is less than ${\text{RecordRate}}$.

${\text{RecordRate}}={\frac {{\text{DamageBonus}}\times {\text{HPBonus}}\times {\text{LevelBonus}}\times {\text{SpeciesRate}}\times {\text{TapeRate}}\times {\text{UpgradeBonus}}}{10000}}$

There are six major components that contribute to record rate:

• ${\text{DamageBonus}}$, which is based on the damage dealt to the target and received by the recorder,
• ${\text{HPBonus}}$, which increases if target monster is at a lower HP,
• ${\text{LevelBonus}}$, which scales based on the target's level,
• ${\text{SpeciesRate}}$, which is the base record rate of the species and is affected by whether or not it's a bootleg,
• ${\text{TapeRate}}$, which is the multiplier from the tape used, and
• ${\text{UpgradeBonus}}$, which are multipliers from the Microphone Upgrade and Recording Mod if present.

DamageBonus

Let $d$ be the damage dealt to the target monster, and $r$ be the damage taken by the recording character.

${\text{DamageBonus}}={\begin{cases}\displaystyle {\frac {d-r-200}{4(d-r)-200}},&d<r,\\\\\displaystyle {\frac {4(d-r)+200}{(d-r)+200}},&d>r.\end{cases}}$

Generally, ${\text{DamageBonus}}<1$ if $d<r$ (the recorder takes more damage compared to the monster) and ${\text{DamageBonus}}>1$if $d>r$ (the monster takes more damage compared to the recorder). This function has asymptotes at 1/4 and 4, meaning that it effectively gets capped to within the range $1/4<{\text{DamageBonus}}<4$, regardless of how much damage has been dealt or received. Both $d$ and $r$ here are unaffected by any kind of healing.

HPBonus

${\text{HPBonus}}=1-{\frac {2}{3}}{\frac {\text{HP}}{\text{MaxHP}}}$

The HP is based on the target monster's HP. The lower the % HP, the larger the multiplier. ${\text{HPBonus}}$ is equal to 1/3 if the target is at full HP, and is approximately 1 if the target has almost no HP left.

LevelBonus

${\text{LevelBonus}}={\frac {1}{6}}\left\{{\frac {20}{\min({\text{MonsterLevel, 30)}}}}+5\right\}\approx {\frac {3.333}{\min({\text{MonsterLevel, 30)}}}}+0.833$

This means that lower-level monsters are comparatively easier to record, while its effects cap out starting at Level 30. Examining the limiting cases for this function, $0.944\leq {\text{LevelBonus}}\leq 4.167$, where the lower bound of 0.944 applies to monsters Level 30 and above, while the upper bound of 4.167 applies to monsters at Level 1. This multiplier is equal to 1 if the monster is at Level 20.

SpeciesRate

This term is based on the species' base record rate that roughly corresponds to the species' rarity. Known values for the base record rate are 50, 40, 30, 25, 15, 3, and 1. The higher the base record rate, the easier it is to record. As an example, Traffikrab has a base record rate of 50, Weevilite has a base record rate of 25, Sirenade has a base record rate of 15, and most Static encounters have a base record rate of 3.

The ${\text{SpeciesRate}}$ is usually equal to the base record rate, but is approximately halved if the monster is a bootleg. Mathematically,

${\text{SpeciesRate}}={\begin{cases}\displaystyle {\text{floor}}\left({\frac {\text{BaseRecordRate}}{2}}\right)+1,&{\text{if target is bootleg}},\\{\text{BaseRecordRate}}&{\text{otherwise}}.\end{cases}}$

TapeRate

Main article: Tape

Each tape has an associated capture rate multiplier; for Basic Tape this is 1, for Chrome Tape it is 3.5, and for the elemental tapes it is set to 4.5 if the element matches the target's type (which is affected by coatings) and is 1.5 otherwise. Tapes that guarantee success, such as the Optical Laser Tape and Black Shuck's Tape, bypass the entire record rate formula entirely.

UpgradeBonus

This is affected by the amount of Microphone Upgrade and Recording Mod upgrades bought, with the latter only contributing to ${\text{UpgradeBonus}}$ if the fusion meter is full.

${\text{UpgradeBonus}}=\left(1+{\frac {\text{MicrophoneUpgradeAmount}}{20}}\right)\times \left(1+{\frac {\text{RecordingModAmount}}{20}}\right)$

Both upgrades can be bought 5 times, giving a maximum of value of 1.25 (or 25% increase) each, so with both max upgrades and a full fusion meter this results in an effective multiplier of 1.5625 (or 56.25% increase) compared to not having any upgrades.

Trivia

• As of version 1.2, Bootleg monsters cannot be defeated on turn 0 (before the first turn of battle).
• Prior to version 1.2, Nowhere Monarch can be recorded due to a glitch.

References

Mechanics

Battle Stats • Damage • Stat Stages • Hit chance • Critical hits Types • Status Effects • Fusion • Experience Recording • Slots • Sticker Attributes Other Abilities • Bootlegs • Relationships