Bully: Scholarship Edition on Windows: Cliques, Classes, and the Trouble Meter

Reading Bullworth's Social Hierarchy

Bully: Scholarship Edition is an action-adventure game from Rockstar New England and Rockstar Games, released on Windows in 2008. It follows Jimmy Hopkins at the fictional Bullworth Academy, and the manual's central piece of advice is blunt: one of the most important things to learn at Bullworth is your place in the social hierarchy. You navigate several different school groups while trying to take over the school, and the manual warns that winning the approval of some groups earns you no kindness from the others as you climb the ranks.

The manual's Bullworth Society chapter profiles the cliques that make that climb complicated. The Nerds are described as strong-minded students who usually find themselves in trash cans or their own lockers; they may look weak on the outside, but they can become an important ally, and they know how to make stink bombs. The store description frames the driving objectives in the same social terms: beat the jocks at dodgeball, play pranks on the preppies, save the nerds, and kiss the girl.

Because alliances are never neutral, the hierarchy turns every relationship into a calculation rather than a checklist to clear. The practical question is not simply who to befriend but in what order to climb, since the manual cautions that each group's approval can sour the others. The Nerds illustrate the trade the manual emphasizes: an ally that looks weakest on the surface and is nonetheless worth cultivating.

Classes, Skills, and School Supplies

Classes are the game's main skill track, presented as the very place you learn the tricks of taking over the school: how to fight the menacing jocks, win over the girls, dodge the Prefects, and make stink bombs. The manual lists Mathematics, English, Biology, Geography, and Chemistry, each with a wry description. Mathematics is multiple choice; in English, mastery of the language is called highly important "in the world of business"; Biology asks you not to puke while dissecting the frog; and Geography is compared to pinning a map in your bedroom without knowing where the pins go.

Chemistry is the standout: if you ever wanted to learn how to make stink bombs and firecrackers, that is the class not to miss. The payoff flows straight into the supply list. The manual describes the Stink Bomb as smelling like a year without showering followed by a swim in a pool of rotten eggs, only worse and in a bottle, and warns you not to get caught in the rancid cloud yourself. Class attendance is thus a progress gate for practical items, not a side activity; the manual's framing that Bullworth rewards the fittest or the most prepared runs directly through what you learn at the desks.

The Trouble Meter, Prefects, and Time

The trouble meter is the visible cost of misbehavior. It fills as Jimmy commits misdemeanors, shifting from yellow to orange and finally to red as the level increases, and authority figures pay more attention to him as it fills. The manual draws no finer scale than that, but even so the same prank carries different weight depending on how full the bar already is: a distraction on a quiet day is one thing, and the same distraction with the meter already climbing invites the scrutiny the manual describes. Managing the meter is a brake the player applies to their own mischief, and it is tracked in the same status window that holds Jimmy's health.

Prefects are the authority figures in blue jackets who enforce the rules. Miss class or bully another student and they will be all over you; sometimes an apology gets them off your back, and other times you will need to run and hide. Getting caught can mean detention. That makes the school day a clock to work around: the manual frames the map and status window as a way to find your way around and learn to tell time, which helps locate missions, find objectives, and interact with classmates, and it notes that skipping class is no fun if you did not even know it had started.

Pranks, the Slingshot, and Getting Around

The supplies list gives pranks a small, readable kit. Marbles are the manual's example of environmental mischief: despite the name, they are used for pranks, and the suggested trick is dropping some near busy doorways. Firecrackers can get you into unwanted trouble but are ever so fun, with a warning not to drop them in the school toilets. The Stink Bomb's own caution about the rancid cloud applies both to standing too close and, implicitly, to the Prefects the trouble meter may draw. Each tool is a choice between a short-term distraction and pushing the meter higher.

The slingshot serves as the dependable ranged option: the only thing to worry about is hitting the target, since it comes with an endless supply of ammo and cannot be confiscated. The manual suggests practicing on targets and getting used to relying on it. Between pranks that raise the trouble meter and a weapon that never runs dry, the ranged toolkit reinforces the game's logic: the noisy tools are powerful but risky, while the quiet one is always available.

Navigation is handled through the map and status window. The map rotates so the direction Jimmy is walking faces the top, with his position at the center, and the same screen shows his health bar, which you increase by buying a soft drink from the many vending machines. Social interaction opens a menu: press the R key or the Left Trigger to see the potential interactions available to Jimmy, whether you are locating missions or dealing with classmates.

Controls for On Foot, Vehicles, and Combat

The standard control scheme covers keyboard and Xbox 360 controller across movement, combat, and interaction. On foot, the mapping includes Melee Attack, Sprint, Jump, and a combined Grapple/Interact/Dismount action for bikes and vehicles, plus Lock On/Punch on a bike. The shoulder buttons cycle weapons left and right, the directional pad shows secondary and primary tasks and zooms the view, the Map Menu and Pause Menu each have their own key, and interaction uses R on keyboard or the Left Trigger on the Xbox 360 controller.

Vehicle and bike controls reorganize around driving. The A button accelerates, X brakes and reverses, Y dismounts, and B jumps in a vehicle, with the left analog stick steering and the right stick working the camera; clicking the left stick looks back. The right trigger fires the weapon, the bumpers still cycle weapons, the left trigger holds a lock-on, and Back and Start open the map and options. The manual's own skateboard entry adds a traversal note: it is ideal for escaping lame authority figures and for zipping around the map, and hitching a ride on the back of a car going to town is also fun.

Putting It Together: How a Session Plays

A practical loop emerges from the documented systems. Attend classes to unlock the social-dominance skills and the Chemistry-made prank gear; use the map and interaction menu to find objectives and handle classmates; and spend what you have learned on the hierarchy by courting one clique at the expense of another. The trouble meter is the throttle. Getting caught by a Prefect brings detention, so a red meter argues for laying low, using the skateboard or a vehicle to escape, or apologizing if the option presents itself, rather than pressing on with firecrackers and stink bombs.

First published Oct 18, 2026.