Classes in Runaways are permanent purchases that define your character’s loadout, movement speed, melee power, and health before a run even starts. They cost either in-game credits or Robux, and the expensive ones cost a lot of both, so picking wrong is an expensive mistake. The ranking below sorts every class by how much it actually helps you loot, survive the police, and clear the final border fight.
Quick answer: Buy the Smuggler first at 45,000 credits — the crowbar plus a 10 percent speed buff lets you loot early and outrun the police at the border. Save toward the Juggernaut at 850,000 credits (1,260 Robux) if you want the highest survivability in the two-minute escape phase.
Runaways class tier list
| Tier | Classes |
|---|---|
| S | Juggernaut, Smuggler, Breacher, Bounty Hunter, Gang Member |
| A | Scout, Contractor, Medic |
| B | — |
| C | Brawler, Old CEO |
| D | Basic |
The B tier is empty on purpose. The Smuggler originally sat there before player feedback pushed it up, and nothing else in the roster lands in that gap — the classes either carry a run or they hold you back.
How this was ranked: each class is judged on three things — how much cash its starting kit generates early, whether its buffs and nerfs help or hurt during the two-minute border survival phase, and whether its price is worth the payoff. This reflects the class lineup as of August 2026. Runaways is a young game, and costs, starting items, buffs, and nerfs all get adjusted between updates.
Class costs in credits and Robux
Every class is a one-time unlock that carries over to all future matches. That is the main reason the high-end options are worth grinding toward — a single escape can pay out over 13,000 credits when you clear all four borders with a high wanted level, so the cheap classes are reachable in a handful of wins while the Juggernaut is a long-term goal.
| Class | Credits | Robux |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | — |
| Brawler | 25,000 | 81 |
| Scout | 35,000 | 90 |
| Old CEO | 40,000 | — |
| Smuggler | 45,000 | — |
| Contractor | 70,000 | — |
| Gang Member | 170,000 | 360 |
| Bounty Hunter | 300,000 | 540 |
| Breacher | 550,000 | 900 |
| Juggernaut | 850,000 | 1,260 |
Why the S tier classes win runs
Juggernaut is the clearest pick at the top. It is slow, but it soaks up an enormous amount of damage, which matters more than anything else once you are pinned at the border with waves of police shooting at you. Speed is a nice-to-have during the fight; not dying is the whole objective.
Smuggler is the value pick and the class most worth buying first. For 45,000 credits you get a small backpack, a crowbar, and a 10 percent running speed buff, with only a 10 percent melee penalty as the trade. The crowbar means you start pulling money out of ATMs almost immediately, so by the time you reach the border your inventory is stuffed with medkits and repair packs. It performs early, mid, and late, which is rare for a cheap class.
Breacher earns its 550,000-credit price through explosives. Blowing open safes, banks, and blocked routes changes how much cash you can pull per run and opens escape paths that other classes have to walk around.
Bounty Hunter is a fast close-combat enforcer, and that speed is genuinely useful. The caveat is that close combat is the riskiest way to play a game where the ending is a firefight against endless police, so its ceiling depends on you knowing when not to swing.
Gang Member is the most contested placement on the list. It is resourceful and evasive, which is exactly what the game rewards, but at 170,000 credits it is nearly four times the price of the Smuggler and not every player thinks it does four times the work. If you are choosing between the two, the Smuggler is the safer purchase.
A tier: Scout, Contractor, and Medic
These three are all reliable, they just each give something up. Scout is the mobility option at 35,000 credits — a 10 percent speed buff, a small backpack, and a bat make flanking and running away easy, but a 20 percent health cut is a real problem once the shooting starts at the border.
Contractor is the balanced one. It starts with a mace, a light bullet pack, and a pistol, adds 10 percent melee damage and 5 percent health, and only takes 5 percent off your running speed. There is no meaningful weakness here, which is why 70,000 credits is a fair ask.
Medic is the team pick. Keeping other players alive through the final phase has obvious value in a group, and much less if you are running solo.
Starter class buffs and nerfs compared
| Class | Starting items | Buffs / nerfs |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Knuckle | +5% melee damage; -10% running speed |
| Scout | Small backpack, bat | +10% running speed; -5% melee, -20% health |
| Old CEO | Gold Ruby Necklace, Diamond, Gold Tiara, Diamond Ring | +5% running speed; -15% melee, -15% health |
| Smuggler | Small backpack, crowbar | +10% running speed; -10% melee |
| Contractor | Mace, light bullet pack, pistol | +10% melee, +5% health; -5% running speed |
Why Basic, Brawler, and Old CEO sit at the bottom
Basic is the default class with no special skills and no useful items. Worse, its 10 percent running speed penalty is exactly the wrong nerf for a game that ends with you sprinting around a checkpoint dodging bullets. The tiny melee bonus stops mattering the moment you find a firearm.
Brawler at 25,000 credits is a solid close-range fighter with decent endurance, and there is nothing broken about it. It just is not worth saving credits for when the next tier up changes how you play.
Old CEO is the interesting failure. Its starting kit is the best in the low tiers — a Gold Ruby Necklace, a Diamond, a Gold Tiara, and a Diamond Ring hand you serious money instantly. But the 15 percent melee and 15 percent health penalties do not just hurt at the border, they hurt through the entire middle and late game. You get rich, then you get shot.
The crowbar is the melee weapon that matters
Whatever class you land on, the crowbar is the melee item to carry. It breaks ATMs fast, which means steady cash without ever needing to kill an NPC and trigger a police response. That passive looting loop is why the Smuggler ranks as high as it does — it hands you the tool at the start and gives you the speed buff that pairs with it.
Note: a melee nerf only bites in one narrow situation, which is being forced into a fight without a firearm. If you are looting and running rather than brawling, a 10 percent melee reduction costs you nothing.
What the border escape demands from your class
Every run ends the same way. You reach the Mexican border under a maxed wanted level, press the override button, and then survive two minutes while police and border guards pour in. That single phase is what decides which classes are good.
You have two viable approaches. Sit in your vehicle and burn repair packs to keep it intact, or get out and circle the checkpoint buildings and fuel pumps on foot, using medkits and staying out of firing lines. The second approach is why speed buffs rank so highly and why health nerfs are so punishing. When the timer hits zero the barrier opens and you sprint through for the escape.
You know it worked when the “YOU ESCAPED” banner appears and the payout screen breaks down distance travelled, cash earned, wanted level, and borders crossed. A clean four-of-four border run with a four-star wanted level and roughly $53,000 in cash pays out around 13,445 credits, which is the pace to measure your saving against.
If you are starting from zero, the order that gets you there fastest is Smuggler, then bank everything toward Breacher or Juggernaut depending on whether you would rather open more vaults or absorb more bullets. And since classes are permanent, there is no penalty for buying the one you enjoy playing over the one that ranks highest — the difference between S and A here is smaller than the difference between knowing the border layout and not.
