Bully: Scholarship Edition

At Bullworth Academy, expelled teenager Jimmy Hopkins has a school year to navigate cliques, classes, teachers and trouble. Attend lessons, take on missions, pull pranks, make friends or rivals, and travel between the boarding school and nearby town as Jimmy tries to establish his place in a corrupt institution.

Bully: Scholarship Edition follows fifteen-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, a teenager expelled from every school he has attended and left at Bullworth Academy while his mother departs on another honeymoon. Bullworth presents itself as a strict New England boarding school, but its worn buildings and corrupt social order make it a difficult place to settle. Jimmy spends the school year dealing with students who have their own rivalries, adults who enforce rules unevenly and a faculty whose authority does not always deserve respect. The story’s immediate stakes are school-sized: establish a place in the hierarchy, decide whom to help or challenge, and get through the year without being controlled by the institution’s most influential pupils. Rockstar frames Jimmy as both a troublemaker and someone who stands up to people exploiting their status.

Bullworth Academy is the main hub for classes, missions and everyday encounters, while the surrounding town gives Jimmy places to go beyond the campus. A clock appears when an activity is time-sensitive, and the map helps locate objectives, classmates and other points of interest. The day’s schedule matters because classes begin at particular times; skipping them is possible, but it can attract the attention of authority figures. Walking between school spaces and town becomes part of moving from one activity to another, with a skateboard offering a quicker way around and a bicycle or other vehicles providing additional travel options. The world supports spontaneous interactions as well as directed objectives, so getting from one side of the school to the other can bring Jimmy into contact with students, prefects or a new source of trouble.

The student body is organised into groups whose members occupy different positions in Bullworth’s pecking order. Nerds are frequently targeted but can become useful allies; preppies bring money and influence; jocks rely on their physical strength; and greasers guard their own territory. Townies live beyond campus and may bring the police into a conflict, while prefects and teachers represent the school’s authority. The manual describes approval from one group as something that can provoke hostility from others, making social advancement a source of friction. Encounters can involve conversation, gifts, pranks or fights, and the interaction menu presents the actions available with a nearby character. Jimmy’s relationships are therefore expressed through what he does around people, not just through the main missions.

Classes give the school timetable a practical role in progression. Scholarship Edition’s PC manual lists Mathematics, English, Biology, Art, Music, Shop, Gym, Photography, Geography and Chemistry. Each subject is presented as a classroom activity, and passing classes provides rewards that help during the school year. The manual connects Shop with tuning bikes, Gym with wrestling, Photography with taking pictures, and Chemistry with making prank items such as stink bombs and firecrackers. Classes can also teach useful tricks for handling school conflicts and authority. Their place between missions makes attendance a choice with a cost: Jimmy can spend time on lessons and gain their benefits, or skip them and risk being noticed by the people enforcing the rules.

Fighting and pranks draw on a deliberately schoolyard-sized set of tools. Jimmy can punch, grapple and lock on during a melee, while the slingshot gives him a ranged option with an effectively unlimited supply of ammunition according to the manual. Other items include firecrackers, stink bombs, marbles, itching powder, eggs, a spud gun and a bottle-rocket launcher. These objects can distract, inconvenience or slow down other students and authority figures, but using them carelessly can raise the trouble meter. As misdemeanours accumulate, that meter changes through escalating levels and authority figures pay more attention; getting caught can mean detention. Soda from vending machines restores health, creating a straightforward recovery option within the school environment.

Movement and small errands broaden the routine beyond school lessons and story missions. Jimmy can ride a skateboard to cross the map faster, use bikes and vehicles, or interact with cars as he travels toward town. Shop class is tied to improving bicycles, while the social map and status display help orient him and show current tasks. Students may react differently depending on where Jimmy is and what he is doing: prefects enforce school rules, and town residents can call the police when trouble spills beyond campus. This makes location part of the consequence system. A prank in a corridor, a fight in a group’s territory and an incident in town all take place under different forms of supervision, so the same mischief can have different practical risks.

Small discoveries and secondary tasks give Jimmy reasons to explore Bullworth between lessons and missions. Rubber bands are scattered around the grounds; finding the full set earns a Rubber Band Ball. The camera offers a way to capture school life and mischief, while spray paint and other supplies create opportunities for pranks outside a scheduled class. A skateboard can hitch a ride behind cars on the way into town, linking a schoolyard toy to travel through the larger setting. The interface keeps primary and secondary tasks separate, so an errand, collectible search or self-made prank can fit around the next story objective. Bullworth’s routines give Jimmy more to do than attend class or rush directly to the next confrontation.