I see a lot of people who talk about the Hull Upgrade being better than Shield Upgrade. Why do you think this is so? I would assume that the Shield upgrade would be better as it could potentially negate a critical hit. Maybe I'm wrong.

Under what circumstances would you use each of these upgrade cards? When is it more advantageous to use either? Are there better ships to pair each one with?

I can think of one use for shield upgrade that makes it awesome, and that is with R2-D2, and his ability to regenerate shields. Are there any others??

Hull unless you have R2-D2.Or another way to regen shields.) The point saved is useful and the odds of being critted are pretty low. Plus it means your 2 Hull ship can live through a direct hit Face up Card.(That one bomb that escapes me.

99% of the time, it depends on what you have the points for.

Proton Bombs.

Hull Upgrade with Determination costs the same and can actually discard any critical pilot damage

Depends on where it's going in.

For a Y-Wing, Hull and R5 Astromech is a great combo. Still only 4 points and it manages your Ship crit cards for you. Almost as good on an X-Wing. <edit> Add Determination in (as Tycho120 suggested) and you've got an all-round crit management system but that only works for the X-Wings right now with their inherant EPT slot.

If there's no Astromech, if I have the squad points, I like Shield Upgrade to possibly ignore the crit.

You spend one point for not being able to be critically hit on the first shot. Up to you if that's worth it or not.

Astromechs change the game a bit, with the two repairing R5s being better tailored to Hull Upgrade and R2-D2 better suited to Shield.

HU is point for point better than SU. As far as living.

There are 7 direct damage, and 2 minor explosion cards, giving a 23.48% of drawing 2 damage IF that last shield upgrade protects a crit.

3pts (HU) * 1.2348 = 3.70 points

However, its not a sure thing that the SU will protect a crit. On a focused 3 dice attack, there is only a 33% that a crit is rolled. So right there, that 1.23 should actually be more like 1.077.

But as I'm sure someone will come along and point out... crits can do things besides just double damage. Heck just last week, my B wing was being attacked by a swarmlet, and I had the opportunity to use my focus from HR attack, chose not to since I figured I could save it for D later (when the academies shot) if I didn't need it on offense, took a few more attacks, and then his BSP (he had init) pulled the last shield and a crit on my B... which just happened to be blinded pilot. So I didn't get to attack at all, and got dead before actually shooting... a SU would have protected that from happening, whereas a HU would not have...

But be aware that if you're going for survivability, the HU >> SU point for point.

For me, it's about avoiding a crit effect because the damage hits shields instead of hull. More padding to regenerate shields with the proper upgrade is also good.

Hull Upgrade.

You're paying one "extra" point for the Shield upgrade which keeps you from getting a damage card which MIGHT come in face up. The hull upgrade allows you to hold one extra card, face up or down, but there are other things you could spend that saved point on that will help you deal with any cards you may get dealt.

shield for hate, hull for surviving.

If I tell an opponent that my ships has an extra shield it is much worse then an extra hull. So if you bait and switch it can be a win win.

Example if I say one of my two Tie Fighter has an extra hull vs one has an extra shield. Most people will go for the shield first because it can soak a crit and sounds like it is more of a beef stick.

If you have a TIE Fighter with a Shield and one with a Hull upgrade you go after the Shield upgrade first, all else being equal, simply because it is worth more points!

I'd take hull upgrade, and with the extra point, elusiveness, to reroll your crits...

Hull every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Only way I'd take a shield over a hull is if R2-D2 was involved. There is just too low of a chance that a crit is going to be rolled to actively think about defending against it, at least not with a SU. It's a 1 and a million chance (I know the Math-wing experts will correct this lol) that your 1 shield will just so happen to cancel that 1 crit rolled against you.

I know the Math-wing experts also agree with me on the HU over the SD debate. I get the risk/reward allure of SD, and before HU I was using them too. If a SD was 2 points, I might still be using them. But if I have 3 points to spend, I want the guaranteed extra HP!

*As a side note, I do not use the term "math-wing" as a negative term. I respect the science. I'm just more of a Black Jack player. I understand the odds, and I use them to my favor. But when it comes down to splitting hairs and the math is only slightly favorable, I go for the risk/reward action.