So I've been gone for checks watch oh about 10 years or so. I came back just to mess around in the battle area here to see if I like it.

I have a whole mess of Loyalty Boxes and I think I'm just gonna spend them all for the battle stats.

Question is, how does this interact with AP? I noticed after using a couple tomes I didn't have any AP, so I saw in a guide that you need to read books. Did that, now I have a few, but does using the loyalty tomes negatively impact my AP gain despite the increased INT? As in, does reading books scale so that I have to read more to gain INT levels and thus AP, and if so, is it better for me to just read a ton of books first then spend all the tomes after I have a large number of AP?

16 intel points = 1 point of AP. If you use something like, 20 Tomes of Darkness, each tome has a chance to give you 1-3 intel points. At max, that means potentially 60 intel points. you would then read a book to your pet for example afterwards, and proceed to get 3 AP (because you retroactively get your missing AP after reading a book if your pet has gained beyond intervals of 16 intel points--16, 32, 48, etc.)

It's not uncommon to boost your pet's intel as much as possible with stat boosters and hold off on reading a book until you've accrued a ton of intel points to try and get as much AP in one fell swoop. Reading 16 books will still get you 16 intel, thus 1 AP.

Ok cool. Time to recklessly waste some tomes.

Using Loyalty Tomes does not negatively impact your AP Gain at all. You earn 1 AP for ever 16 intel regardless of how you earn it.

The only caveat is it only increases your AP when you read books. So if you earn intel from Loyalty Boxes or any other stat boosting item, you need to read a single book and it will catch you up to where you need to be based on your intel for all the missing AP.

I generally like to stat boost intel where i can because there is a limit on books. There is no limit really on how much you raise your pet's intel stat. You just need books to get the AP off the gained intel.

Excellent, thank you both for the help.

It is worth noting that books are the cheapest way to get intelligent when you are starting out raising Intel/AP on a pet. Subetslodge has a nice feature where you can track the books your pet has read and sort the ones you haven't read yet by price. https://www.subetalodge.us/

Read the cheap books to start. Then use stat boosters and only read a more expensive book or when new books are released so you can get at least 1 AP for the book. KuroKitty

What's a good target value to shoot for? Is there a sweetspot for INT before its not that important to keep raising it?

I have like 15 of these loyalty tomes and I've used about half. Battle pet's INT is at 267. I have 16 AP but I'm not even using half of that given my pet is only on T3.

100 AP is doable target if you are on a budget. Long term, talking years here, 200 AP for a pet you want to eventually cap. AP never stops being useful since you can always equip more once per battle spells (except for a glitch that gets triggered when have like 100 scrolls attached not a real worry since it's so very high).

If you have the sp, start buying scrolls now. Having decent scrolls in the lower tiers can make you overpowered and push your pet much higher in daily BQs.

Making sure I understand: I should be buying scrolls in my tier, or I should be be buying higher up ones now to prepare for later?

I'm honestly struggling to figure some of the tier stuff out, since its not actually listed in the item descriptions for scrolls like it is for weapons. Example, "Singed Stuffing" is listed in a few guides, costs 7 AP, but what tier do I have to be to use it? Or does tier only matter for scrolls if I'm trying to craft them? Not very clear to me.

Scrolls do not have a tier, any pet with enough AP can use the scroll in your scroll armory.

Crafting is based on your active pet's intelligent, it doesn't look at tier or AP. I think there is guide to scroll crafting somewhere. Sorry, I can't be of more help with crafting. I haven't crafted scrolls in over a decade.

Ok, I think I get it now. I can just buy up any scrolls that look good and can use them as long as I have enough AP.

Yep!

This guide can help you find good scrolls: https://subeta.net/forums.php/read/896675/Thesoveigns-Scroll-Guide-Regardless-of-Tier