Well done for getting to level 19. If you let me know in particular which upgrades you felt underwhelming we could try improve them?
Viewing post in Hadley's Run: A Starship Saga - Demo comments
the main rare mod that felt underwhelming was recklessness (-5% hp and +10% damage) as a rare when there is armour piercing ammo (10% cannon damage) sure maybe recklessness is both turret and cannon damage but it still feels... not that worth it
and the only way i know of to recover hp is to with living steel (hitting 20% hp regens you to 50%)
maybe recycling should be a hp recovery not shield recovery but at lower numbers than 5% per stack of the upgrade