Bully: Scholarship Edition Beginner Tips - Classes, Curfew, and Bullworth

Bully: Scholarship Edition, developed by Rockstar New England and published by Rockstar Games on Steam, is an open-world school action-adventure about navigating Bullworth Academy’s classes, rules, cliques, missions, side activities, and schoolyard combat.

Content note: ESRB rates Bully: Scholarship Edition T for Teen with Animated Blood, Crude Humor, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence. This guide keeps school, combat, and suggestive-theme discussion non-graphic and gameplay-focused.

This is a beginner fundamentals guide for Scholarship Edition. It is not a full mission walkthrough, class answer sheet, romance guide, 100% checklist, collectible map, achievement guide, or PC compatibility fix guide.

Essential Tips

1. Treat Classes as Real Progression

Classes make the rest of Bullworth easier.

Do not treat the bell as background flavor. Chemistry, English, Gym, Shop, Geography, and other classes unlock or improve tools, social options, fighting, travel, and cleanup support. A few early school days spent passing classes can make missions, errands, and collectibles less annoying later.

2. Build Your Day Around the Clock

The school schedule is a route system.

Scholarship Edition has morning and afternoon class windows. Use the gaps for missions, errands, shopping, saves, and travel, then return before unpassed classes turn into truancy. Once a class is passed, you have more freedom during that slot.

3. Use the Map and Status Screens Constantly

The menus explain what Bullworth just changed.

Check the map for classes, mission starts, jobs, stores, bus stops, save points, and nearby objectives. Check status for class progress, current objectives, completion, and group respect. If a neighborhood suddenly feels hostile, the respect screen is often the fastest explanation.

4. Respect Curfew

Late-night wandering creates avoidable pressure.

Curfew begins at 11 p.m., and staying out makes authority attention harder to ignore. Plan late errands, shopping, and travel around a return route, then sleep before the 2 a.m. pass-out risk turns a productive day into a forced reset.

5. Keep the Trouble Meter Low

A small rule break can become a chase if you stack mistakes.

The trouble meter rises when Jimmy breaks rules. When it climbs, prefects, police, and other authority figures become a bigger problem than the original task. Stop fighting near authority, leave crowded areas, apologize when the game allows it, and save pranks for moments when escape is realistic.

6. Watch Respect After Missions

Missions can change how whole groups treat you.

Bullworth’s cliques are not just background characters. Respect changes can make groups friendlier, more aggressive, or openly hostile. After a mission, notice which group moved up or down before cutting through that group’s hangout.

7. Do Not Fight Every Encounter the Same Way

Spacing matters more than button mashing.

Use lock-on, movement, grapples, sprinting, and ranged tools instead of standing in a crowd trading basic hits. If several students join a fight, create space first. A clean retreat with health intact is better than winning beside prefects with a full trouble meter.

8. Practice With the Slingshot Early

Reliable range is one of Jimmy’s safest tools.

The slingshot is useful because it gives you a way to pressure targets without stepping into every punch. Gym progress improves projectile accuracy, so pair class progress with a habit of fighting from safer distance when the situation allows it.

9. Use Soda Before the Next Fight

Health recovery is part of routing.

After a messy fight, do not sprint straight into the next mission marker just because you survived. Buy or use soda, reset your route, and save when possible. Bullworth punishes carrying low health into surprise trouble.

10. Upgrade Travel Before Cleanup

Better movement makes side work less tedious.

The skateboard helps early, and Shop classes unlock better BMX bikes. If you plan to chase errands, races, map cleanup, or collectible sweeps, improving travel first saves time and lowers the chance of getting caught by class or curfew.

11. Delay Collectible Sweeps Until Geography Helps

Scholarship Edition gives you a cleaner cleanup path.

Geography progress can mark collectible categories on the main map. Pick up obvious collectibles as you pass them, but avoid exhaustive blind sweeps until you have class rewards and broader map access to support the route.

12. Save 100% Completion for a Dedicated Pass

Completion is larger than the main story.

Bully: Scholarship Edition completion can involve story missions, side missions, errands, classes, transistors, collectibles, races, jobs, arcade scores, carnival tasks, travel goals, projectile hits, and version-sensitive details. Finish the school-year rhythm first, then use an edition-specific checklist.

School and Open-World Priorities

Situation	First Move	Why It Helps
A class window is active	Attend if the class is not passed	Avoids truancy and unlocks useful rewards
You are between missions	Check map and status	Shows objectives, class progress, and respect changes
Curfew is close	Route back to bed or a safe save plan	Prevents authority pressure and pass-out risk
A clique area feels hostile	Check respect before pushing deeper	Explains whether the danger is a temporary faction problem
Cleanup is tempting	Finish key classes first	Geography, Shop, and Gym make travel and collectibles smoother
You find an errand	Do it if class, curfew, and health allow	Small tasks are safer when they do not collide with the schedule

Combat and Tool Habits

1. Open with position - Move away from crowds, authority figures, and narrow exits before the fight grows.
2. Lock on before committing - Keep your target in front of you instead of swinging into empty space.
3. Use range when outnumbered - The slingshot and other tools are safer than trading punches with a group.
4. Save prank tools for control - Marbles, stink bombs, and similar supplies are useful when they buy space or slow pursuit.
5. Watch health after every fight - Soda is cheap insurance compared with losing progress.
6. Leave when the trouble meter spikes - Escaping can be the correct answer even if you could win the brawl.
7. Let class rewards change your habits - Gym, Shop, English, Chemistry, and Geography rewards all open cleaner ways to handle Bullworth.

Hidden Mechanics

Mechanic	What It Does	Beginner Use
Class windows	Split the school day into required morning and afternoon routines	Do unpassed classes before missions pull you across town
Truancy	Turns skipped unpassed classes into rule pressure	Arrive before the late window instead of rushing at the last second
Curfew	Makes nighttime travel more dangerous after 11 p.m.	Finish late tasks with a bed route already planned
Trouble meter	Increases authority attention as rules are broken	Stop stacking fights, pranks, trespassing, and late travel
Respect	Tracks clique standing and changes reactions	Recheck it after missions and before entering hangouts
Geography rewards	Can reveal collectible categories on the map	Delay full sweeps until map help is available
Shop rewards	Unlock better BMX bikes	Improve travel before errands, races, and cleanup
Gym rewards	Improves fighting and projectile habits	Use class gains to fight with more control
Soda	Restores health	Reset after fights before starting another objective

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Do not skip every unpassed class - You lose useful rewards and invite truancy pressure.

2. Do not start long errands near curfew - Late routes can turn into authority chases or a forced pass-out.

3. Do not ignore respect changes after missions - A route that was safe before can become hostile after a faction shift.

4. Do not brawl beside prefects or police - Move first so the fight does not become a bust.

5. Do not rely only on basic melee attacks - Lock on, reposition, use range, and spend tools when outnumbered.

6. Do not begin collectible cleanup too early - Geography and better travel tools make the work cleaner.

7. Do not carry low health into a new objective - Use soda or reset before the next fight.

8. Do not follow a generic Bully checklist blindly - Scholarship Edition and Anniversary Edition details can differ from the original game.

Summary

Category	Top Tip
Classes	Pass classes early because rewards affect combat, social options, travel, and cleanup
Schedule	Plan missions and errands around morning class, afternoon class, and curfew
Map	Use map/status to track objectives, report card progress, and respect
Trouble	Leave or apologize before authority pressure becomes the real problem
Respect	Treat clique standing as part of route planning
Combat	Use lock-on, spacing, slingshot pressure, and tools instead of brawling blindly
Collectibles	Pick up what you see, then sweep after Geography and travel upgrades
Completion	Save exact 100% routing for a dedicated checklist