Yeah, my formulas are a little messy atm. Fixing that...but actually Hardness is your main damage, and raising the damage is just raising the multiplier.
Did you find any chests? If so, it means that you got some artifacts. From the Research Nexus (in the shuttle - second tab from the left) you can research components by selecting an artifact and then some items. Have you tried this?
 "Transport Defender")
 "Dungeon Warfare"){kind=logo}
 "Galactic Clicker")
 "oO")
 "Army of Destruction"){kind=icon}
 "Last Legacy: Null Space")
 "Renegades")
 "Solarmax 2"){kind=icon}
 "Crush The Castle 2 PP")
 "Cardinal Quest 2"){kind=icon}
 "Idle Mine EX")
 "Kawaiidle")
 "Shop Empire Rampage")
 "Timber Lorry Driver")
 "Notebook Space Wars 2")
 "Learn to Fly Idle")
 "Astrox")
 "Glean 2")
 "SkullFace"){kind=icon}
Yeah, my formulas are a little messy atm. Fixing that...but actually Hardness is your main damage, and raising the damage is just raising the multiplier.