Hiring is a game mechanic in Bully in which Jimmy pays another character to help him.

Hiring

If Jimmy has 100% respect with a clique, male members of that clique may offer to help Jimmy in exchange for $1 if he greets them. The way to tell if a character is available to be hired is if locking on to them causes Jimmy's amount of money to appear on the right top of the screen.

Upon being hired, the other character appears as a blue sphere on the mini-map, and his name and a health meter appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. He will follow Jimmy around and help him in fights.

If Jimmy attacks the person he hired or attacks members of the bodyguard's clique, the person will first warn him, and eventually stop helping him if he continues. He can also cause the person he hired to get bored and wander away if he hides. If he gets far enough away from the other person, either by running or by taking a vehicle, the person will quit helping him. If he takes someone he hired to a place where students from a rival clique will attack him, e.g. a Bully to the Library or a Greaser to Harrington House, those students of the rival clique will attack Jimmy as well, regardless of his respect percentage with the offending clique.

Russell

After the events of Chapter 1, Russell is always available to be hired. In the mornings he is in the lot in front of the Boys' Dorm, in the afternoons in the school parking lot, and at night in front of the school gates. Once he notices Jimmy, he will automatically offer himself to be hired, even if Jimmy doesn't greet him first. The only way Jimmy can interact with him normally is by annoying him until he threatens Jimmy and then apologizing, or already having a bodyguard.

Other characters

The chance for a character to offer to help Jimmy seems to be random and to vary between characters. There also seems to be some variance between copies of the games - some players have reported certain characters regularly offering to be hired and others have denied that.

Trivia

• The six bisexual male characters (Cornelius, Trent, Gord, Vance, Kirby, and Duncan) will only let Jimmy hire them as long as he hasn't passed any Art classes. Upon completing Art 1, they will flirt with Jimmy rather than offer him to hire them. Duncan's name was discovered by deliberately not passing any Art classes so that he'd offer to be hired and his name would display on the interface.
• The Second-in-Commands (Melvin, Bif, Peanut, Damon and Omar) cannot ever be hired.
• Non-Clique Students can't be hired.
• Strangely, the authority figures (i.e., Prefects, Police, etc.) will never attempt to bust Russell if he's Jimmy's bodyguard, especially if Jimmy's trouble meter is empty. It is unknown why this occurs and why Russell is the only character with this behavior, as other bodyguards will easily get busted. It's possible that when Russell gets recruited, he may have the same trouble meter as Jimmy.
• An NPC that is acting as a body guard has noticeably different behavior:
  • When fighting, the hired NPC has a different strafe from when they are fighting in free roam. They constantly taunt, beckon and drop their guard against the opponent. They also have a neutral expression instead of an angry one. They may also occasionally speak one of their conversation lines during the fight.
  • They will use their conversation lines when not doing anything, which are usually reserved for when they around other members of their own clique. Jimmy cannot respond as all interactions with his bodyguards are disabled.
  • Hired NPCs are very sensible to being bumped. The slightest touch will make them react, while usually Jimmy needs to be running at a considerable speed or riding a skateboard to get a reaction from a regular NPC.
  • Hired NPCs always act towards member of rival cliques as if they were invading their territory. Usually, clique members ignore or simply taunt rivals when they are both in neutral ground, and only attack on sight if they are wandering their turf. When hired, NPCs will attack any rivals that they come across regardless of where they are. Because of this, if a hired NPC finds a female member of a rival clique, they will start harassing and insulting that girl and will completely ignore whatever trouble Jimmy might be in until said girl runs away in fear. Strangely, while bullying, they use "friendly fire" quotes (which were supposed to play only when Jimmy attacks them while they have 100% respect).
  • If the hired NPC carries a projectile weapon and takes it out in a fight, they will never use it against their opponents, and just keep moving back without ever firing, even if they are attacked. While they would usually drop their weapon and go back to fist fighting, they will never do this while hired and essentially become defenseless. They will only fight back if Jimmy makes them stop following him, either by attacking them or a member of their clique enough times.
  • Norton and Hal's bearhug animation is glitchy when they perform the attack while hired.
  • When the bodyguard performs a grab on an opponent with their back turned, a glitchy, otherwise unseen animation will play where they will both be frozen until the grab is reversed.

Navigation

[ v • e ]Gameplay
Generic gameplay	100% Completion | Class schedule | Clock | Daily Schedule | Health Bar | Knocked Out | Map | Passing Out | Photo Album | Pink water | Radar | Sleeping | Smoking | Swimming | Urinating | Vomiting
Social gameplay	Apologizing | Bribing | Bullying | Crying | Fighting | Hiring | Kissing | Laughing | Respect | Snitching | Taunting
Trouble	Authority alert | Busted | Curfew | Detention | Hiding | List of rule violations | Trouble Meter | Truancy
Props	Chemistry set | Fire Alarms | Lockers | Trees | Water Fountains
Category:Gameplay