Shady Job Level Walkthrough
Level 1 loop and playtest Level 2 — strategy, not a fake puzzle dump.
This is a strategy walkthrough for Shady Job, not a room-by-room puzzle script. GAZE IN GAMES has not published a public floor plan for the September 10, 2026 Steam launch, and inventing locked doors would be fiction. What we do have is the job itself, playtest structure, and press-visible hazards. You carry Punchy Bag up an unfinished skyscraper and bury it in concrete. You build the way. The bag fights back.
Level 1 is the loop the announcement sold: grab, path, climb, bury. Playtest 1.3 / Wave 4 on August 14, 2026 added LEVEL 2. Playtests ended August 31, 2026. Treat Level 2 as more site with the same physics, not as a different genre. If you still need the day-one brief, use Getting Started. If you need a mechanic, use body bag, building, and Plunger Gun.
How to think about a floor
Every floor is four questions:
- Where is the bag right now?
- Where is the next slab that can hold it without a heroic jump?
- What hazard is between those two points?
- Who is allowed to move?
Call floors by the numbers painted on walls. Official shots show 13. Landmarks in those shots — city skyline, cranes, giant golden statue — are for orientation (“statue side,” “crane side”), not side quests. If the crew cannot answer the four questions, nobody places a block and nobody yeets cargo.
Party language (Bag, Path, Line, Down) is defined on co-op. HUD language (green bar, slots 1 and 2, Shoot / Pull / Release / Drop) is on controls. Do not invent an interact-key ritual for a generator you have not seen.
Bag-first versus path-first
Two legal strategies. Pick one per floor. Mixing them mid-span is how Punchy Bag leaves.
Path-first. Builder and plunger scout. Break a window, ride a crane, place a short span, test it without cargo. Carrier waits on the last numbered floor. Move the bag only when Path is called. This is the default for ice, electric, long drops, and any floor where the bag is already angry. It is slower at the start and faster after the first collapse you did not have.
Bag-first. Carrier walks existing structure while the builder places the next two meters. Useful on calm cargo, wide slabs, and when you are recovering from an escape and the bag is already ahead of your pretty plan. Dangerous on cantilevers and moving platforms. The bag breaks structures; a path that exists only in the builder’s head does not count.
Rule of thumb: if you would not stand on it during a shove, it is not path-first-complete. If the bag is already struggling, you are not allowed to experiment with bag-first. Rough handling makes it worse — do not add “we were in a hurry” as a handling style. See body bag.
Solo players are forced into a hybrid: pin the bag (plunger cup on a wall), place a short path, unpin, walk, repeat. Duos should almost always path-first. Four-stacks can run path-first with a floater hauling a toilet or barrel ramp while the carrier stays parked. Roles lock on the squad planner and roles.
Level 1 loop
Run Level 1 as a repeatable loop, not as a sightseeing tour of cartoon concrete.
Grab. One carrier. Confirm the black taped cargo is in hands before anyone wanders. If it is already loose, that is an escape recovery, not a start.
Read the site. Look for cranes and moving platforms before you dump a death bridge into the skyline. Look for breakable walls and windows that skip a stupid span. Look for painted numbers so the next Down call has a digit.
Path a single floor. Short spans. Test. Then bag. The building page is the collapse lecture; this paragraph is the routing version: never build the whole tower while Punchy Bag sits on floor one practicing kicks.
Climb and cover. The plunger lookout Shoots a static wall, not the bag, unless the bag is the emergency. Rescue beats vanity scouting. Prompts stay Shoot, Pull / Release, Drop. Full tool use is on the Plunger Gun page.
Handoff on numbered slabs only. If you swap carrier mid-span you are volunteering for a physics lesson.
Roof bury. The job ends in concrete at the top, not on a photogenic ledge. Keep a pin on the bag while the last blocks go down. Do not celebrate on the statue side while cargo still has a walk left. If the bury needs a platform or a crane, bag last on, bag first off, same as any other moving floor.
When you wipe, restart the loop from the last stable numbered floor. Do not replay the highlight that caused the wipe.
Playtest Level 2
Wave 4 / Playtest 1.3 (August 14, 2026) added LEVEL 2. Public notes did not publish a puzzle list, and this wiki will not invent one. What Level 2 means for strategy:
- More vertical job, same cargo rules. Aggression still scales with rough handling.
- More reasons to stay path-first. New floors are where crews get cocky with bag-first.
- Same tools. No official second gun appeared in the store pitch. Sandwich and industrial fan remain screenshot loadout, effects uncatalogued. Toilets and barrels remain props.
- Same bury fantasy: the bag still has to go in concrete. A second level is not a hunting mission. If the bag escapes downward, you are on a carry from that floor, not on a new questline.
Historical access (random Steam invites, plus-three friends with 30+ days on the list, survey in the menu) is on the playtest recap. It does not change how you route Level 2 at launch.
Hazards press actually showed
Steam says traps and hazardous environments. Press and official art fill in two you should plan around:
- Ice. A screenshot froze a teammate solid, nametag Valentine. Treat ice as a stop, not as a slide. Path-first. Do not Pull a rescue through it because it is shorter. Do not park Punchy Bag on it to “slow the bag down.” That is rough handling plus a frozen carrier.
- Electric. Press noted live, dangerous flooring in screenshots. Same rule: stop, scout, break a wall or take a crane around. Do not build a metal-looking vanity span into a glowing floor and hope.
Other observed clutter — sandwich, industrial fan, toilet, barrel, green HUD bar — is loadout and props, not a hazard table. Effects are still being catalogued pre-launch. If a live prompt names a trap the press did not, believe the prompt and add it to your floor call.
When ice or electric is on the next slab, the builder owns the detour, the plunger owns a wall cup, and the carrier does not move. That is the whole special-case walkthrough.
Roof bury, then reset
The bury is a handling puzzle more than a building puzzle. Cargo is at its most valuable and its most inconvenient. Pin it. Hands on it. Last structure tested without the bag if the pour sits across a gap. Then walk it in. If it escapes on the roof, you do not have a lower floor as a consolation prize — you have a down climb with an angry bag. Path-first on the way back up.
After a successful bury, reset roles before anyone assumes a victory lap is a new strategy. Launch-week level tweaks will land in patch notes. For a tone check rather than a route, read the preview. The rest of the how-tos sit on the Guides Hub.
Run the loop until it is quiet. Quiet means the bag arrived, the span held, and nobody had to invent a puzzle that was never there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Is there a room-by-room Shady Job map yet?
What did playtest Level 2 add?
Playtest 1.3 / Wave 4 on August 14, 2026 added LEVEL 2. Treat it as more site, same cargo rules. Timeline is on the playtest recap.
Should we move the bag or build first?
Path-first on hazards, long drops, and angry cargo. Bag-first only on calm, wide slabs. Role split is on co-op.
How do ice and electric change the route?
Stop, detour, and do not rescue through them. Press flagged both; one shot froze Valentine. Plunger cover is in the Plunger Gun guide.
Where does the job actually end?
Bury Punchy Bag in concrete at the top, not on a scenic ledge. Day-one loop framing is in Getting Started.
Who should read this walkthrough?
The caller. Carrier, builder, and lookout still need their mechanic pages, plus the squad planner if jobs keep drifting.