Jimmy can run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the game's world. The weapons available include slingshots, bags of marbles, stink bombs, baseball bats, planks of wood, and spud cannons. The player can use melee attacks and weapons to fight enemies.
At the beginning of the game, the player can only explore Bullworth Academy, with all other areas unlocking as the story progresses. The world of Bully, named Bullworth, is separated between five areas: Bullworth Academy, Old Bullworth Vale, Bullworth Town, New Coventry, and the Blue Skies Industrial Area. Outside of missions, the player can freely roam the game's open world, and has the ability to complete optional side missions. Players complete missions-linear scenarios with set objectives-to progress through the story. Throughout the story, Jimmy rises through the ranks of the school groups, archetypes which include Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, and Jocks.
The game's single-player mode lets the player control a high school student-teenage rebel James 'Jimmy' Hopkins. Bully is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective.
