Detention is a punishment in Bully. Jimmy is assigned a detention task if he commits too many rule violations and gets busted. As detention is a punishment, there is no reward for successfully completing a detention task, and failing for any reason causes the task to start over from the beginning. The clock disappears for the duration of the detention.
Getting detention[]
Jimmy can get detention every three times he gets busted by the prefects or faculty while on campus. He must be busted on the school grounds and outside class hours, but before 7 p.m. If he is busted during class, he will be sent to class, and after 7 p.m., he gets sent to his dorm room. If Jimmy is busted off campus, the police will drop him off in front of a police station, or at the front gate of school if he is found truant or out after curfew. Jimmy is forced to attend detention every three times he is busted. Whenever he is given detention, a cutscene will occur in Dr. Crabblesnitch’s office where Crabblesnitch discusses Jimmy’s most recent rule violations and admonishes him for them.
Seth Kolbe supervises detention. Attacking Seth at any time during detention causes Jimmy to fail the detention and forces him to start over his task from the beginning. Moreover, free roam cannot be returned to until the task is fulfilled.
Although detention missions are not required for 100% game completion, successfully passing all nine fair-weathered detention levels will unlock the Prison Uniform outfit. Jimmy only needs to do three different detention tasks during any season except winter. Each detention task has three levels. In total, he needs to get busted 28 times, one time for a Dr. Crabblesnitch introduction cutscene and 27 times for getting him to the lawn mowing tasks.
Detention tasks[]
Lawn Mowing[]
Jimmy mowing a lawn at Bullworth.
Lawn mowing detention tasks can be taken during usual gameplay, except for Chapter 3.
Here, Jimmy has to mow lawns, akin to the jobs he can take mowing grass at the park or at a house garden in Old Bullworth Vale. Unlike the part-time jobs, however, Jimmy receives no financial gain for this lawn mowing. He is given a small riding mower to use. As he drives it over long grass, the grass is automatically cut. Each detention will have a meter displaying the percentage of the lawn that has been mowed. There is also a time limit to get the task finished.
The first three detention levels have Jimmy assigned to the small patch of grass next to Harrington House. The second lawn for the next three levels consists of a pair of grass patches near the Parking Lot, and the third for the final three is the Football Field.
Jimmy's first detention task has him mow at least 70% of the lawn. This increases to 80% for the second detention, and 90% for the third, after which he switches lawns. The football field, being significantly larger, has a lower minimum of 60% for the first, 70% for the second, and 80% for the third. There is no additional detention task after mowing 80% of the football field, and whenever Jimmy gets detention from then on, he will be forced to do said task.
The detention is failed if Jimmy takes too long to mow the minimum percentage of the lawn, leaves the detention area, gets off the mower before he fulfills the minimum percentage, or attacks Seth.
Snow Shoveling[]
Jimmy shoveling snow while Seth watches him.
Snow shoveling detention tasks can be taken only during Chapter 3, since the chapter takes place during winter.
Here, Jimmy has to shovel snow from the school grounds. For the first three detention levels, he has to shovel piles of snow out from in front of the library. There is a time limit to shovel the snow piles, and the number of snow piles Jimmy has to clear starts from four, then six, and finally eight. The next three levels have Jimmy shovel the Parking Lot, during which he also has to be careful not to hit the parked cars with the shovel. The first time he hits a car, Seth yells a warning at him. If he does it a second time, the detention is failed. Once the sixth detention level is completed, Jimmy will repeat this level should he receive another detention during winter.
The detention is failed if Jimmy takes too long to shovel the snow piles or attacks Seth. If Jimmy attempts to leave the detention area (without attacking Seth), he will be ushered back there, with Seth yelling to him an order akin to "Do not go the wrong way". While this will not directly cause Jimmy to fail his detention, it is time-consuming and may indirectly lead to Jimmy not completing his punishment.
Level details[]
Lawn Mowing[]
| Level | Location | Target | Time Limit (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrington House | 70% | |
| 2 | Harrington House | 80% | |
| 3 | Harrington House | 90% | |
| 4 | Parking Lot | 70% | |
| 5 | Parking Lot | 80% | |
| 6 | Parking Lot | 90% | |
| 7 | Football Field | 60% | |
| 8 | Football Field | 70% | |
| 9 | Football Field | 80% |
Snow Shoveling[]
| Level | Location | Target | Time Limit (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Library | 4 | |
| 2 | Library | 6 | |
| 3 | Library | 8 | |
| 4 | Parking Lot | 4 | |
| 5 | Parking Lot | 6 | |
| 6 | Parking Lot | 8 |
Trivia[]
- There are a series of unused lines from Dr. Crabblesnitch that would've been said to Jimmy in his office. This includes quotes for harassing girls or violating curfews, but also vandalizing mailboxes and sliding on rails (neither of which are violations in the final game). There are also lines commenting on the cliques (if the player was caught after attacking a member of them), and chapter-specific lines. For example, in Chapter V, there are lines for when Jimmy is respected by all cliques[1] and also for when he is hated by them.[2]
- While mowing the grass by the parking lot, occasionally another prefect will walk by on his regular patrol. He can be rammed repeatedly with the mower. Neither the prefect he is attacking, nor Seth will try to stop Jimmy from doing it, and the other prefect can be knocked out this way.
- While mowing the football field, the player can have Jimmy get out of the mower and hide in the bin. When the 8 seconds run out, Jimmy will be standing up inside the bin.
- On occasion, while shoveling the snow in front of the library, a baseball bat may be found under one of the snow piles. If Jimmy picks it up, the snow shovel disappears.
- There was a removed detention segment that would have Jimmy clean graffiti around the town of Bullworth. Several unused audio files from Seth and Jimmy relate to graffiti cleaning. An animation for Jimmy cleaning graffiti off the wall is also found in game data. SWEGTA produced a video with more information that can be found here.