How to obtain Loaned Unit Era Level Increase item?

I have more era levels on my r5 and stars than some who score better because they have higher loaned levels than me which makes no sense they need to tie it to * gain and level of the era char itself and those who do it early on get ahead

Its an objectively bad design that got even worse than the last one LMAO

Seriously, who is in charge there at CG?  It is a joke. Do so few people funnel money into this game that they have to hire entry level Software Engineers?  A need sitting at home woth ChatGPT could throw something like this together with fewer errors. 

I have 5 toons at EL 5 who can't score 10%. 

I have mats to boost loaned toons, but there's not tutorial or any information on how to do it. I'd love to spend those and get a reasonable score, but CG simply won't even tell me how the event is played. 

This is ludicrous. 

Seriously, I don't know how to USE the loaned toons EL increase item. I have clicked on everything within the character and nothing provides an option to increase the loaned toon's EL. 

From the Community Update:

How do we upgrade Loaned Units? All of your Loaned Units have the same Era Level, and they can’t be upgraded directly. Instead, they are upgraded whenever you receive a Loaned Unit Era Level Increase token, which is automatically consumed to level all of your Loaned Units by 1. For this first era, they will be provided primarily via daily inbox messages....

The 50,000 from the Episode Pass is likely fed out a drip each day into your inbox

I appreciate the info but it doesn’t answer the core question of how to obtain these things. Right now it seems pay only which is outrageous considering this is replacing all the characters automatically leveling with your Era characters in the previous Eras.

AhnaldT101 seemed to identify all the possible sources currently available.

Everyone got 5 for free.

4 come from Tier 4 of the Marquee.

Episode Pass gives 3.

Pass Plus gives access to the “free” bundle that has another 5.

The first tier shard pack for R5 gives 2.

And the second tier shard pack gives 7.

They are upgraded automatically. Which is fine, but why is CG handing out materials? AFAIK there isn't any other "material" in the game that gets used automatically without the player doing anything. The choice to automate the process is not itself a problem. But if the players aren't ever going to see or use a material, why tell them they got some new shiny mats and show them a picture? 

Better to just get a message in your inbox: "Your loaned toons have been upgraded X ELs." 

Doing it this way as the lone exception to well-established systems is just confusing and adds nothing to the game. They literally spent money creating art for a material you can't collect and will never use.  It's absurd. 

It slows progress.  My R5-D4 is era level 14 my support loaned toons are 10.  I can no longer advance no matter how high I take R5 because I haven’t bought their silly packs.  It’s manipulation of the worst kind for monetary gains.  

the old old system, loaned units were the lowest main character toon.  Last era it became the highest toon summoned equal level loaned toons.  Now it’s pay us to advance in every aspect of the game.  

It's particularly terrible that the price of Mat packs has tripled. I used to buy several of those packs on day 1. 

But now? No thank you. I guess I'm going to be one of the ppl who gets pitiful rewards bc I don't see any reason to invest in a game mode that is this awful.