Why can't my pet battle anything? Apparently the help menus and FAQ's presume I am not clueless, but alas they are wrong.

Welcome! Check this pet under the "Other" tab. That's where it talks about battling. I don't battle much myself so I don't think I'd be much help.

Welcome!
How hungry and happy is your pet ? If either of those are at 0/10 then your pet won't be able to battle. You can either feed them and give them a minion, or you can book them into the Lakeview Resort in Veta (or the Rathskeller Inn if you have the Omen Islands unlocked) and they will be kept fed and happy, and able to battle.
Newly adopted pets need a little time before they are able to battle. If you adopted your pet recently, you should get an error telling you how much longer you have to wait. If that's the case, I recommend you use the time to train your pet up some here.
This post has a lot of links to useful battle information, help and general guides.

I hope that helps you some. Have fun battling!

Well thank you much for pointing me in that direction. Looks like I'm kind of doomed. I've been trying to train and fight and my opponents get tougher very fast and training doesn't seem to do much at all. The example pet had a ton of health and at 1 point per training that's way out of my reach any time soon. Rats.

Thank you very much for the suggestions!

My opponents seem to scale up even if I don't beat them, and mostly I don't. I found out about making scrolls totally by accident and I still haven't figured out how to use potions (there is a slot, so there should be a way, I would think).

The FAQ's (at least the ones on site) seem to think I have a lot more base information than I do, so they are mostly just confusing. Site navigation is really weird as well; I'm still getting used to having to go to (for example) games then battle/collesium then training and finding my way back to the quest givers was a weird trip. I have not yet figured out how to get "back to the rest of the site" from Wardrobe other than a ton of backspacing (the whole top of the screen isn't the same at all).

Oh well, work in progress.

welcome! I am new too. I have been training my pet and not doing great in the BD either...but hopefully we can figure it out!

so for potions - you can buy them at this shop: Apocalyptic Apothecary.

Once you have bought a potion, say the , you need to click on it in your inventory. There will be a section called "Weapons" with a button under it, equip weapon. When you click the button, your pets will show up. Click on the pet that is your battle pet. You can equip many copies of these potion types, either a lot of the same, or multiple different elements. Other potions, the pylonics, for example, you can only have one of each type equipped.

When you use the potion during a battle, it will get used up and disappear permanently. The element potions are very helpful to lower level pets because they generally do a lot more damage than you can.

There is a SUPER helpful battle guide on the battle forums

https://subeta.net/forums.php/read/876467

I don’t know how to link the post 😖

This may be a while after you first posted, but I hope you are enjoying Subeta! :)