How to Unlock Ghost - Monster Rancher 1
Unlocking a Ghost Monster in Monster Rancher 1 is pretty straight forward and easy. The first thing you have to do is have one of the monsters you're raising die - you can die during combat or through old age, it doesn't really matter. Although, it's typically easiest to have your monster die through combat otherwise you'll be waiting a really long time between attempts to unlock a Ghost.
What I recommend is to go to the Market/Shrine and adopt a new monster that starts with low Life and Defense. At the Shrine if you use the Monster Rancher 1 CD you'll get a Tiger/Hare monster that's perfect for doing this since it starts with Life and Defense below 100. Bring it back to your Ranch and run the Mailman Hard Work on it until the Defense is below 10 then start participating in tournaments with the intention of getting one shot. When a monster is hit for more than double its total health in a single hit - it's usually killed.
Having a funeral for your dead monster doesn't affect the outcome in any way so do whatever you'd like. The next step of this process involves us going to the Market/Shrine and getting a new monster. It doesn't matter what monster you choose - the only requirement is that he's never been to the Ranch in his entire life.
With our new monster you'll have to participate in a tournament within the next 15 weeks. It doesn't matter if you win or lose the tournament, all that matters is your participation. Before you join the tournament it's recommended that you save your game - because if you fail to get cursed then you'll have to go through the whole process of getting another monster killed.
Those of you playing on an Emulator, create a Save State on the tournament results screen right before the final loading screen. You can keep reloading your Save State from here until you get the outcome you want - that's what I did when writing this guide. If your monster successfully becomes cursed Holly will mention a strange mark on its body the following day (pictured above) and her master will show up to let you know that it's been cursed.
Head into town with this monster and Combine it at the Lab with any other monster to be rewarded with a Ghost! That's all there is to it - from this point on you'll also be able to get Ghost monsters from any CDs that would grant them at the Shrine.
How to unlock a Ghost:
1. Get a monster killed
2. Obtain a new monster from Market/Shrine (it needs to be a monster that has never been to the ranch before)
3. Enter the new monster into a tournament in the next 15 weeks; there is a 1 in 16 chance it will become cursed
4. Combine the cursed monster with any other monster to obtain a Ghost