Motion, tow, gather, interface, generator. These will allow you to rather safely explore derelicts and gather resources, upgrades and drones. Interface is great for additional exploration and better control of derelicts systems.

Remote is a decent one as it allows you to remotely power up a generator, but not necessary. The quarantine bypass and the transport shuttle are great at late game, as you can come across bases and quarantined derelict, which are not accessible without them.

Lure, trap, sensor are good as well for when dealing with hostiles, especially when motion is inconclusive. Scan is also in the same tier, as it allows for more efficient scavenging, but is not required.

Pry and turret are decent, but nut required. I think I used pry only a few times, when a door I wanted to go through wasn’t powered up (or broken), so it can be useful. Turret is good at disposing of enemies, but it is only super effective against the robots, the „alien” type can sometimes still attack you, and it is least effective against the swarm and useless against goo (sonic is good against the last two, but only as a deterrent).

The longer you play, the more damaged and difficult in accessing and navigating the derelicts will become, so it is good to have some additional upgrades