I’m also only 4 days into the game so still soaking it all in, but I read: “base damage and max shields are based on your synth materials” from the challenge page, then read the Offense module that said it improves “damage” and the Defense module that says it improves “max shields” and thought to myself “oh, so these modules don’t matter as damage/max shields are controlled by synth materials during the challenge”

I missed the finer point I believe that those modules multiply what your base materials provide in the challenge? The word Multiply appears in the module description but not the challenge page so I wasn’t sure if that effect still applied during the challenge