The co-op space shooter Jump Space is getting its largest update so far, and you can already play it. Developer Keepsake Games has pushed a sweeping set of changes to the game’s experimental branch, headlined by a new player ship called the Hammerhead, several new weapons, and a heavily reworked loot system. The build is open for testing now, with the team aiming to roll it out to everyone by the end of June.
Quick answer: Open your Steam Library, right-click Jump Space, choose Properties, and under “Game versions and betas” select the experimental branch. The build downloads automatically and uses a separate save from your main game.
How to access the Jump Space experimental branch on Steam
Note: Keepsake has specifically asked players to stress test late joining and disconnects with friends, so playing in a group gives the most useful feedback.
The Hammerhead ship and new weapons
The centerpiece of the update is a second player ship, the Hammerhead. It is built like a tank, with more durability than the existing Catamaran, though that bulk costs it some speed. The Hammerhead carries no pilot weapons. Instead, it relies on four gunner stations and four special weapon slots, making it a vessel best crewed with a full team.
The update also adds new firepower for both the ship and your character on foot. The hangar gains a new wall for managing all of your ship components in one place.
| Weapon | Type |
|---|---|
| Vulcan minigun | Ship special weapon |
| Thunderhead cannon | Ship special weapon |
| Minigun | On-foot weapon |
| SMG variant | On-foot weapon |
Reworked loot and weapon blueprint storage
Loot has been overhauled across the board. Guns now drop with varying rarities and a set of random modules, and you can spend upgrade points to decide which of those modules are active. That gives you more direct control over how a weapon performs. You can also now view the full stats for every player and ship weapon, which makes side-by-side comparisons much clearer.
One of the most requested changes addresses the loss of favorite weapons. Jump Space is not a hardcore extraction shooter, so Keepsake has added a way to keep what you like. You can save found weapons to a personal blueprints list and then reprint them as many times as you want from the Assembler.
You can also share gear without giving it away permanently. The system lets you create “loan copies” for friends, which they cannot keep, or they can scan a weapon to turn it into one of their own blueprints.
Ship health and space combat changes
The ship health system has been redesigned, and every hostile craft has been rebalanced. Keepsake wants feedback on whether keeping your vehicle alive now feels too easy or too hard across the different difficulty levels.
Enemy ships are also smarter in a fight. During interstellar combat they now perform evasive maneuvers and dodges to avoid your fire. To help you adapt, a new targeting guide shows where to aim to land critical hits.
Hot-join and disconnect recovery
Two quality-of-life features round out the test build. You can now hot-join missions already in progress, and players who disconnect during a round can rejoin instantly. These are the systems Keepsake is most eager to test, which is why it has asked players to deliberately push them by joining late and dropping in and out during sessions.
When the update goes live
The full release is targeted for the live version of Jump Space by the end of June, provided testing goes smoothly. Until then, the only way to play these changes is through the experimental branch. The game remains in early access on PC and Xbox Series X/S, priced at $19.99, and you can find it on its Steam store page. If you would rather wait, your existing save stays untouched while you stick to the main build.
