Best ways to play solo in Jump Space

Jump Space, the Sea of Thieves-like in space, is now in early access, and it’s a total blast. Jump Space was made with multiplayer co-op in mind, but you can play it in a more challenging solo mode.

The most interesting parts of Jump Space are the epic setpieces where a team of players works together to board another spaceship or protect their ship from an enemy crew, so the most fun way to play is in four-player co-op mode. Still, you can also opt for a mode where you ride alone or with a friend. Interestingly, going without a friend is arguably a better, or at least a more success-prone option, because full-solo players get to enlist the help of an excellent robot companion, BU-D3, aka Buddy. This friendly AI is great because it mans turrets, and also because it has functionalities like repairing the ship, producing ammo, retrieving items, and reviving the player.

To make a skirmish work in the Jump Space multiplayer realm, each team member should know their role beforehand. In solo play, roles will be simplified as the solo ships will have fewer features and require less maintenance, but Buddy comes equipped with the knowledge that no human player in such a young game has yet, so it’s a total plus.

Buddy’s great because he will give players a taste of teamwork, all the while preserving their fantasy that they don’t require the help of any living soul to survive space.

What ship to pick to play Jump Space solo

As the game is still in early access, ship availability is limited. At the time of writing, there are currently only two ships at your disposal, one for each playstyle.

Players looking to go solo in Jump Space will need the DT-4 Dart, a small ship that sacrifices firepower and functionalities to provide high maneuverability and speed to players. The Dart has a pilot and a gunner seat, but, because it was intended for solo play, the person in the pilot seat will have more firepower options at their disposal. The Dart isn’t the ship players will begin the game with, so they’ll have to retrieve it from an Active Drifting Hull event, which will be available once players unlock the galactic map’s second sector. Once retrieved, the DT-4 Dart will become readily available.

This is the ship suited for players who don’t want to depend on anyone. Still, even though Buddy will provide better help than any inexperienced friend could, even its fun AI quips might not be enough to replace the kind of fun a player would have with a real space pirate buddy, even as their ship begins to go down in flames.

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