Shady Job Co-op Roles

Shady Job does not ship four classes. You are construction workers on a shady contract: haul a taped black cargo bag up an unfinished skyscraper and bury it in concrete while the body inside fights back. The jobs below are community roles — seats a crew assigns so the physics chaos has an owner. They are not unlock trees, not balance patches, and not a verdict on who is “best.”

Ranks use S / A / B and reprint the same four jobs for 2-player, 3-player, and 4-player online co-op. Steam does not list local split-screen. If you want names in Discord instead of theory, jump to the squad planner. If you want the social rules of a party, stay in the co-op guide. This page only answers: how much does this seat matter at this party size?

The four unofficial jobs

Carrier owns the bag. Hands stay on the taped cargo. Voice stays on bag status. The Carrier does not wander off to lay a decorative ramp. Deep handling, aggression, and the Punchy Bag nickname live in the body bag guide.

Builder owns the route. Unstable blocks, collapse risk, cranes, moving platforms, smashed walls and windows. One greedy span can dump the whole stack. Read building before you volunteer.

Plunger owns the Plunger Gun: climb unfinished steel, yank the bag back when it slips, pull a fallen teammate to a ledge. On-screen prompts from playtest shots are SHOOT, PULL/RELEASE, and DROP. Technique sits in the Plunger Gun guide.

Flex (Spotter) owns attention. Ice freeze, INDUSTRIAL FAN blast zones, HUD slot items such as SANDWICH, physics props (toilet, barrel), Floor 13 callouts, and anyone about to step off a plank. Flex is not a fifth class. It is the job you staff when a pair of eyes is cheaper than a rebuild.

2-player ranks

A duo cannot staff four seats. Rank here means priority, not four nameplates.

Role	Tier	Why it sits here
Carrier	S	No bag owner, no job. The cargo is the win condition.
Builder	S	No path, no roof. The second player must lay the way up.
Plunger	A	Rescue and yank fold into the non-carrier. You cannot skip the gun.
Flex	B	Ice and fans matter, but they are overflow on the builder-plunger body.

Seat split: Player 1 Carrier. Player 2 Builder plus Plunger plus Flex. Do not both grab the bag “for speed.” Dual-carrying in a duo usually means nobody is watching the next gap, and the Punchy Bag gets a free punch.

Plunger vs bag: The Carrier does not hold the Plunger Gun as a main tool. The second player does. If the bag slides, Player 2 yanks; Player 1 re-owns it. If Player 1 falls, Player 2’s gun is the only rescue. That is why Plunger is A even when it is not a dedicated seat — losing the gun in a duo is losing your spare life.

When Flex spikes: Ice on a walkway, a fan aimed at a plank, or a barrel rolling into a homemade bridge. Player 2 pauses building, calls it, clears it, then goes back to blocks. Do not invent a third teammate who is not in the session.

3-player ranks

Three bodies let you peel rescue off the builder. Flex still shares a ribcage.

Role	Tier	Why it sits here
Carrier	S	Still the load-bearing seat. Rough hands still feed bag aggression.
Builder	S	Cranes and stacked blocks still gate height.
Plunger	A	Now a real seat: climb ahead, yank recoveries, fish people off ledges.
Flex	A	Worth staffing as a hat on the Plunger, not as a silent fourth.

Seat split: Player 1 Carrier. Player 2 Builder (paths, cranes, platforms, break-throughs). Player 3 Plunger with Flex overlay (ice, items, fans, callouts).

Three is the first size where “I am just watching” is allowed for a few seconds. Player 3 should be ahead of the bag, not jogging in the Carrier’s pocket. A plunger that walks beside the cargo is a wasted gun. A plunger that is one floor up can SHOOT a recovery line before the bag clears the edge.

If someone disconnects: Collapse back to the duo template. Builder picks the gun back up. Do not leave the bag with a player who is also laying a crane span — that is how gentle carry dies.

4-player ranks

Four is the first size where Flex is a seat you can defend in voice chat.

Role	Tier	Why it sits here
Carrier	S	Four people make the bag more tempting to manhandle. Hold the line.
Builder	S	Bigger crews build greedier stacks. Someone still owns collapse.
Plunger	S	Vertical shortcuts, double rescues, and yank highways need a dedicated gun.
Flex	A	Ice thaw, item slots, fan angles, and Floor 13 calls finally have an owner.

Seat split: Player 1 Carrier. Player 2 Builder. Player 3 Plunger. Player 4 Flex/Spotter.

Four-player failure mode is not “we are understaffed.” It is “everyone is a hero.” Extra hands punch the bag, stack extra blocks on a live span, and fire plungers into teammates. Flex exists to say no: wait out ice, do not walk the fan, do not yeet the barrel into the Carrier’s knees, sandwich later — bag first.

Who holds the gun vs the bag: Still two different people. A 4-player Carrier who dual-wields cargo and plunger is a 2-player Carrier wearing a crowd. Give the gun to Player 3. Player 4 can borrow it to thaw a route or pin a prop, then give it back.

Why the ranks look like this

Physics-chaos logic, not a spreadsheet:

1. The bag is the timer and the boss. Aggression scales with rough handling. A dedicated Carrier is S at every size because dropping cargo resets more progress than a slow ramp.
2. Height is gated by building. Unstable blocks and cranes are the other win condition. Builder is S at every size.
3. People will fall. The Plunger Gun is climb, rescue, and yank. Its tier rises with party size because more bodies fall and more recoveries are possible.
4. Hazards are cheap wipes. Ice freeze and fans punish the crew that never looks up. Flex stays B until you can spare a body, then it becomes A.

None of this is official balance. If a launch-week patch changes how cranes latch or how hard the bag kicks, the tier list hub will move letters. Until then, argue from collapses you can describe, not from vibes.

Pairing roles with a strategy

Roles without a pace rule still wipe. After seats are set, pick a line on strategy tiers. The default this wiki defends is path-first plus gentle carry, with plunger-yank as recovery rather than a highway fetish. Ice respect is S on that page for a reason: a perfect Carrier still face-plants if Flex lets the walkway freeze.

If you are still arguing about Steam timing, price (unannounced), or whether a 1050 Ti is enough, leave this page. Use the release date note and the system requirements tool. Come back when four usernames need four jobs.

Launch-night use, not a shrine

Write the four jobs on a scrap of paper. Circle the row that matches headcount. Say the names out loud once. Then go to the site. If Floor 13 turns into a barrel circus, you do not need a new tier list — you need the Flex to call the prop and the Carrier to stop sprinting. Revisit this page after the first full clear attempt with one note per seat: idle time, panic time, and whether the gun and the bag ever ended up in the same pair of hands.