You might check the Item Marketplace forum for catalysts. Regular ones are going for around 15k now. (If you want fabled or majestic, those'll cost a lot more, though.) 400 tokens is quite a lot for a cata when you can buy them for much cheaper from other players.

As for finishing before the event ends - if you have a cata planted with a pearl, even if it's not at 100%, Krin will auto-finish the sculpture for you after fest is over. But there's an awful lot of time before then. You can ask other players for help tending your sculpture, too.

Really the only thing you need for a sculpture is a catalyst. Pearls are great since they add traits (no pearl is 1c, which isn't fun at all). All the other sculpting items aren't necessary unless you want extra customization.

Sculpting pets are themed. You can also catch some wild themes in the fest zone, either from encounters or as nests.

Glancing at your party pets - get better equipment. Green and blue equips are next to worthless. Check the trade broker to see if you can buy some stuff. Your best bet might be legendary lv25 stuff, which while below your level, is quite good and also fairly common. If you can't get legendary, try for epic. Fest zone named may still be a struggle, but your general enemies should not be that difficult.

There does seem to be some benefit to lowering health first (though it's much more pronounced in The Lost Grove; it might not be as effective in other zones). Purple traps, though more expensive, may also be more likely to succeed.

Third party slot should be available from the Sanctuary of Saerielle. Check the Plaza.

Quick edit: also, if you're struggling with funds, are you running missions at all...? Also, once your party can survive in fest zone, some chests there can give you a bit of gold.

(weakening pets ups the chances, but it's very slight.
You don't need to be any particular level to unlock the last party slot, you just need to have reached Sanctuary of Saerielle, as it's unlocked in Saerielle's Plaza)

there are Zone themed pets, caught in the fest zone, or found there as eggs, and Exclusive themes, which are made via sculpting. You can see the list of themes obtainable this fest Here

The thing about Exclusives is that they have higher base stats than wild-caught pets (equal to pets made with Enhanced generator esssences- that is, double the stats of the species' wild counterparts)
For example, here's a wild-caught nyte and here's an exclusive I made a few years age to compare the base stats.

The most basic part of Sculpting: Catalyst, Pearl
You can find Mystery Sculpting Catalysts (when opened, chance at any catalyst, most commonly regular, rarely fabled, very rarely majestic) as drops from enemies, drops from chests, buy from the fest shop, get them from Seeking, or obtain them via player trades or the Trade Broker (Fabled catalyst pouches are from diamond shop, other players, Seeking. Only contain Fabled catalysts. Majestic, obtained the same way, only give one of the three majestic theme catalysts)

Same with Clams for how to obtain them
Mundane pearls make is so the sculpted pet will have 1 vis (majestics get 2 carry instead)
Golden make a 2v pet (majestic = 1v)
Prismatic make a 3v (maj. = 2v)

The only thing that is really necessary is the Catalyst itself

Blue/Pink coating just let you pick what gender the pet will be if you want a specific one
Sea pebbles let you pick what trait slot(s) you want for the vis trait(s) (not the exact trait, just the slot)
Enriched Sand just makes it so a vis trait will have a hidden underneath (it does not make it so the pet has a carry in another slot)

Siren's Tears are the most useful of these additional items- they let you boost the base stats of the pet (up to four times)
Example, another nyte, and another nyte


(As for your Zone wanderings, to make it easier, you might want to go over your party- at the moment you have Pan and Akane as your party? Pan should be in Slot 1 as the lead pet, being an Earth element (a Tank element through and through), and would probably do better with either HP or Agi
Akane should have 2Int, rather than 2HP, since she'd do better as Healer, in slot 2 or 3 (when you unlock it)
You'll want your third pet to be fire or air
Both of them need a major equipment overhaul, Pan needs Assassin, Akane needs Evoker (or Illusionist), the Uncommon equips and way-lower-level equips need replacing asap.

If you send Mission pets on lv25/Very Hard missions at Esior's Haven, you should be able to get some Epic or Legendary lv25 equipment from the mission satchels you get as a reward that you can equip or sell)
This will all make it way easier to make your way around the zone)

You can add a better pearl, but not more of the same pearl. So for example, if I put a mundane (1v) on a sculpture but later get a golden (2v), I can add the golden and override the mundane to make it 2v. But I can't add two mundanes to make it 2v. And mundane + golden will not make it 3v.

If blue traps are what you can afford, blue traps are functional enough. (Unless you find an epic theme, of course, but that's fairly rare.)

Gear matters quite a bit, yes. Green and blue gear IS better than nothing... but not by much. Better gear means stronger party.

The higher-level missions and satchels do give more gold. And hey, it's better than nothing.

Mundane pearls shouldn't cost that much in gold, if you buy from another player? especially as fest progresses, they're worth like 2k

I believe Dex and Agi profs unlock after you finish the tutorial, but I cannot remember, so you should be able to add them now if you've completed it? (If you have and you still can't, I'd say maybe ping Krinadon and ask)

All Wild caught pets of the regular species have base stats around 10-12 for Str/Int/Dex/Agi (varying by species- there are some outliers, the most unusual being Luffox's Agi stat)

Wild fabled species (Neph found in the third region, The Lost Grove (the lv60+ area at the end of the currently available plot, often shortened to 'TLG'), and the Fest Zones, Ferrikki found in TLG, and themed ones in Fest Zones, the relevant Seasonal Fabled in their seasonal Fest Zone (aeri = spring, ligh = summer, ryo = fall, griffi = winter), and vene bought from the vene shop in Ethernia in the third region) have an average of 20-24
(puffadore catalysts are fabled, but puffs are technically 'pseudo-fabled', and only have stats equal to regular species)


Functionally, there are several things that affect a pet's stats (and I assure you that you can do perfectly fine exploring with wild-caught pets!)

Pet's stats are displayed as X (Z + Y) on their profile (you can ignore the orange numbers below that)

X is the pet's cumulative stats- if you hover over it with a mouse cursor it'll show you the breakdown of where the stats are coming from

Z is the Base Stat (discussed above), it's the stat the pet is born with (can be raised when an egg is hatching, and via correct nurtures during hatchling stage). For bred pets, it falls between what the two parents have (so a pet with 10 Str bred with a pet with 13 Str can make offspring with 10, 11, 12, or 13 Str)

Y is the Grove Bonus modifier- higher rarity pets caught in TLG have this, and it can be bred, but they drop by about 4 points per generation

Equipment- the equipment tells you what stat boosts they give. Equipment boosts vary by the rarity and level of the equipment.
Uncommon equips are, frankly, garbage, for instance, regardless of level, while Mythical are technically the best but come in only lv25 and lv50 and can only be obtained from other players of as a chance drop from bosses in the Dungeons.
(Epic and Legendary, and as close to your pet's level as possible, is generally best, and matching the pet's element and battle position, eg. Air = Myrmidon = Str/Dex)

Proficiency- Very important! Make sure you set these when you have available points (pets get a point at lv0, 30, 60, 65, 70)
The stat boost they get from this scales based on a) how many points you've put to the stat, and b) the pet level
So a lv0 pet with 1 Str prof gets +20,
at lv29, 1str gets +83
a lv50 with 1 str point gets +147
a lv50 with 2 str points gets +221
etc.
(Str, Int, Dex, and Agi all have the same numbers, HP works the same way but obviously since HP is a larger number overall it gets higher boosts)

yes, that's why I... said dex and agi? Honestly I didn't actually register that you had typed 'int or dex' until you said that and got vaguely confused and scrolled up to read what you had typed more closely, since Str/Int are the same prof


Theoretically pets obtained as egglings can be stronger- however, it takes a lot of people patting a Hatchling to raise the stats any significant amount (When an eggling is hatching, as long as you get to it within... 24? hours of when it first wants to hatch (at that point it just autohatches), you get the popup that lets you a) "help it hatch", which is +20HP (again, HP is a higher total, so gets a higher boost), b) "let it hatch on its own", which is +1 at random to one of Str, Int, Dex, or Agi, or c) use a Philter

Once hatched, 5 correct nurtures swap to raising the lowest stat (in order of HP>Str>Int>Dex>Agi) by +1 (or +20HP) (however, 10? page views also boost a pet's Maturity slightly, so they grow to adolescent faster) so a pet with
110HP, 11Str, 10Int, 12Dex, 12Agi boosts after 5 correct nurtures to
110HP, 11Str, 11Int, 12Dex, 12Agi and then

130HP, 11Str, 11Int, 12Dex, 12Agi,

130HP, 12Str, 11Int, 12Dex, 12Agi,

130HP, 12Str, 12Int, 12Dex, 12Agi

130HP, 13Str, 12Int, 12Dex, 12Agi
etc.


(Honestly, after a while the pets you catch wild tend to mostly be the ones you catch because,,, uh,,, you have no self control and they were pretty. The pet made you do it. ...look, they're so pretty? Rather than for use as battlers. (this is why I have multiple tabs full of common/uncommon/rare pets for instance)