Questions:
1. How do you decide what to catch/trap? Are there any specific pets to definitely go for or is it just on personal likes?
2. Can I just catch many pets (for only the costs of the traps) and release them later if I dont have enough space or is there a fine or something on releasing later on?
3. What is a good battle party? Defence + healing + multi target offence? What are you using?
3. How do I recognize wild themed pets in the howling pass?
4. Im well on my way collecting scales, are the eggs in the scale shop something special or not?
5. In proficiencies, I see attacks have ranks. How do I rank up an attack?
6. What happens to ice sculptures in progress as the festival ends? Can we still complete them?
7. Does purchasing a new tab automatically give additional stalls or are tabs just for organizing?

Answers:
1. I don't usually catch and trap pets unless they have a) more than one trait and/or b) a cool color scheme. If I find a themed I will totally catch it.
2. There is no fine for releasing but if it looks cool you MAY get money for it
3. I use Wind, Water and Light. For your first pet I'd go with Wind, second I'd go with Light and Third pet I'd go with Water.
4. You can take a guess by looking at how rare they are (e.g. Rare Lupora vs. Common Lupora) or you can purchase a genetic scanner from the diamond shop
5. I'm sorry, I don't actually know how to do that XD
6. I'm not sure about that either :0
7. Tabs do give 25 stalls no matter what you do. Otherwise this game would be super expensive.

I hope this helps

Hi, welcome :)

There are a lot of people who find SW tedious but still want to get the tasks for it. So they'll enter a match but leave without actually playing, 'cos I think that fulfills the tasks. :\ You might consider asking in zone chat if anyone wants to play and do a friendly round, or else try against the AI.

For pets to trap:
-Commons (white stars) and uncommons (green stars) are almost never worth catching.
-If you're in the fest zone, you might encounter a themed pet. It'll say you've encountered a Rare Enemy and in the battle it will have a theme name (e.g. Mountain Guardian Lupora instead of Wild Lupora). Definitely catch those. People collect them.
-Legendary (orange stars) and mythical (red stars) are extremely rare and require special traps to catch. Always ask in chat if someone wants it; people may send a master trap in exchange for the pet.
-Eventually you'll get to The Lost Grove. Epic (purple stars), legendary, and mythical pets there are still rare but have special stat boosts that make them desirable.
That said, if you like a particular pet, you can catch it. Just don't expect to get much for it if you ever try to sell.

There's no fine for releasing. It's best to make sure you have enough space and only keep pets you actually want. But you can release at any time if you need to.

A general balanced party would be as follows:
One tank (usually earth or shadow, sometimes light or water)
One healer (almost always light, occasionally water)
One cannon (air or fire)
That way you have a mix of defense, healing, and damage-dealing.
That said, other party setups may work as well. For example, light can double as healer and tank, so some people use light-air-air or light-air-fire. I do that often. You can play around with the elements and find what works best for you. But understanding how each element functions is very important.

I mentioned this earlier, but themes are denoted by "Rare Enemy" (in purple) when you encounter them and have a theme name when you're in the fight.

Guide to scale shop pets here. In general, more scales = more traits = more worth it.

Ranking up attacks is currently only possible in The Lost Grove, the most recent zone in the main storyline. When you get there, every time you use an attack or win a battle, it gets a small increase in %. Eventually it'll rank up. It takes a very long time though.

Ice sculptures that aren't at 100% by the end of fest will disappear. Same with any unused festival supplies.

Each tab gives you 25 more spaces in your stable. They do get more expensive with each tab you buy, though. (I think it goes something like 20k, 60k, 120k, 240k, 480k, 480k, 480k)