I think I may have sent mine out on a crap mission then. If that's how it works it's going to be a very long & boring process.
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I think it's all challenge log entries. I unlocked squads on 4 characters, and went:
2/4 on do five treasure maps challenge, had them saved up before the patch
0/2 on craft 20 HQ items (bronze rings)
1/2 on craft 30 items (bronze rings again)
0/1 on do 3 gold saucer minigames
1/1 on earn 100 MGP from gold saucer minigames