Shady Job Strategy Tiers

Role ranks tell you who holds the bag. This page ranks how a Shady Job crew should climb: bag-first versus path-first, gentle carry versus speed, plunger-yank highways versus walking the cargo, and whether ice and fans get a veto. These are pre-launch strategy tiers for 1–4 player online co-op. They are not speedrun rules, not official developer doctrine, and not an excuse to invent item stats.

Playtests ended August 31, 2026. Steam launch is September 10, 2026. Until patch notes exist, every letter is physics-chaos advice. Pair it with co-op roles so the Carrier is not also the person arguing about cranes mid-span. For the social layer, keep the co-op guide open.

How to read this list

S is the default you should defend in voice chat unless the floor forces a change. A is a strong option that still asks for a named reason. B works in short bursts and punishes crews who live there. We are not publishing a D-tier meme column. If a clip looks funny and dumps the bag off Floor 13, it is a B play with good camera work.

Letters can shift by party size. A 2-player crew has less spare gun time for yank highways. A 4-player crew has more hands to punch the bag “for pace.” The strategy that survives both is usually the boring one.

Bag-first versus path-first

Approach	Tier	Use it when
Path-first	S	Default on every new floor. Build a line, then move cargo.
Bag-first	B	Tiny gaps you can step, or a recovery after a drop — not a lifestyle.

Path-first means the Builder owns the next span before the Carrier walks it. Unstable blocks, cranes, and platforms exist because the site is unfinished. Hauling living cargo onto a half-plank is how you buy a collapse. The building guide is the technique half of this rank.

Bag-first means the Carrier moves while someone is still placing blocks. It looks fast. It feeds the exact failure the Steam pitch describes: the bag struggles, breaks structures, and pushes people off ledges. In a 2-player crew it also means the only builder is chasing the bag instead of laying the route. Rank: B. Promote it to A only for a one-step hop you can see the far side of.

Hybrid that is still path-first: Plunger climbs ahead, scouts the crane, calls ice, then the Builder commits blocks. The bag waits. Waiting is not losing. Rebuilding a stack while the Punchy Bag is angry is losing.

Gentle carry versus speed

Approach	Tier	Use it when
Gentle carry	S	Always, unless you are picking the bag up off the concrete.
Speed handling	B	Short recoveries. Never as a floor-wide plan.

Developers already named the joke: handle the bag roughly and it gets more aggressive. Community shorthand is Punchy Bag. Speed running a living cargo up a physics site is how you donate your Carrier to the skyline.

Gentle carry is not slow-walk roleplay. It is: no body-checking the bag into rails, no using it as a ram to break a window, no four people yeeting it up a stair for a highlight. Break walls and windows with building intent, not with cargo. The body bag page is the handling manual; this row is the rank.

Speed handling is B because sometimes the bag is already sliding. A shove that seats it on a plank is a recovery, not a personality. If your crew’s plan is “we go fast and deal with punches,” you do not have a plan. You have a highlight reel and a wipe.

Plunger-yank highways versus walking the bag

Approach	Tier	Use it when
Walking the bag	S	Any floor with a standable path. Default transport.
Plunger-yank highways	A	Recoveries, vertical skips the Builder signed off on, ledge fish.

Walking the bag keeps aggression lower and keeps the Carrier’s job honest. The gun is not a winch that replaces the site. Playtest prompts are SHOOT, PULL/RELEASE, and DROP — a recovery kit, not a gondola company. Technique lives in the Plunger Gun guide.

Yank highways (chain the bag up a shaft on the plunger) sit at A, not S. They are excellent when someone already fell, when a crane left a vertical gap, or when Floor 13 has a hole you would rather not rebuild. They are a B idea if the Builder is still mid-span and the Plunger starts fishing cargo through live blocks. A flying bag is still a physics object. It will hit a teammate. It will hit a toilet. It will teach you about barrels.

Party-size note: 2-player crews should treat yank as rescue first. The second player cannot highway the bag and lay the next crane at once. 4-player crews can staff a dedicated Plunger; that is when highways become a real option, and also when friendly-fire yanks become a real problem. Call the shot. If nobody called it, walk.

Ice and hazard respect

Approach	Tier	Use it when
Hazard veto (ice, fans, live props)	S	Any time the Flex or Plunger calls a stop.
Push through hazards	B	Never as policy. Only if the alternative is an already-falling bag.

Screenshots show ice freeze, an INDUSTRIAL FAN, HUD slots 1 and 2 (SANDWICH among them), a green HUD bar, and physics props such as a toilet and a barrel. This wiki will not invent thaw DPS or fan Newtons. It will rank the policy: when a hazard is live, the bag waits.

Ice respect is S because freeze turns a gentle carry into a skating bag. Fan respect is S because a plank with a blower is a launch rail. Prop respect is S because a barrel through a homemade bridge is a collapse you chose. The Flex seat in the roles list exists so someone can say stop without also holding cargo.

Pushing through is B. It is the speed argument wearing a hard hat. If the bag is already mid-air, you play the physics in front of you. You do not plan to ignore ice.

Default loadout for launch week

If your crew wants one paragraph to screenshot:

Path-first. Gentle carry. Walk the bag. Yank to recover. Ice and fans have veto power.

That stack is S/S/S/A/S. It is boring. Boring is how you reach the roof with a bag that is still cargo instead of a boss fight you scheduled yourselves. Assign seats with the squad planner. If a friend still needs hardware confidence, send system requirements. If you are still arguing about the calendar, read the release date page and come back.

First-hour experiment, not a religion

Run the default stack for the first session after September 10. Change one letter if a floor demands it: a signed-off yank skip, a short bag-first hop, a recovery shove. Write down whether the Punchy Bag got punchier after the change. If yes, revert. If the only thing that changed is how loud voice chat got, you did not discover a new meta — you discovered that four people talking over a fan is still a fan. Bring those notes back here; this page will move tiers when the live game disagrees, not when a single clip looks faster.