Starbound [Winter Update!]

You either craft them or you find them from enemy NPCs for the most part. Hostile NPCs drop weapons at probably around a 70~80% chance.

That's my problem. Everything I kill, regardless of Sector, gives me gear as if I was in Threat 1 still. I don't know if I'm just extremely unlucky or what.

I actually made a suggestion about that on the forums, but the thread pretty much went unnoticed with only 11views and no replies. Basically I pointed out how obtaining the vast majority of important minerals shouldn't be possible on lower threat planets, and should gradually "unlock" when necessary as you progress since at the moment you can skip a TON of work at higher tiers by already obtaining everything you need on threat level 1.

Can hope it only went unnoticed by other players, and that the devs did indeed notice it.