which means you need to explore world to find bosses in ruins and unlock your upgrade by defeating them. you can break ores with some ability like laser eye too, and there's chance to find recipe from them(like stone hummer).

maybe these random drop like items&abilities are locked behind life shaper level too. keep hunting mobs to gain exp for your creature before challenging stronger area.

main way is to collect the upgrades from the ruined temples around the map. They usually have a powerful guardian though, so be careful.