Trouble Meter

The Trouble Meter is a HUD meter on the screen in Bully.

Purpose
The trouble meter measures how much trouble Jimmy Hopkins is in when he breaks the rules. Whenever Jimmy breaks a rule, the level of trouble that he is in will show up on the meter. The Prefects and Faculty on campus, Police outside of campus will display vision radius in yellow - if Jimmy enters their vision radius and it turns red, they will chase him to try and bust him.

To get rid of the Trouble meter, Jimmy must hide or stay out of authority's vision radius and wait until the meter drains to empty, or attend a class. You can enter the boys dorm, since authority figures never spawn inside.

Trouble Level
Jimmy's trouble meter is set roughly into 6 levels, divided by colors based on severity. The first two levels are bright yellow, the second two are dark yellow, the last two are red.

If Jimmy's trouble meter only goes up to a half yellow color, the authority figures will only yell at him rather than try to bust him.

If Jimmy's trouble meter is at a full yellow color level or lower, he can apologize for misbehavior depending on who he is apologizing to and how many levels of English class he has passed. Prefects can be apologized to after passing English 3, Teachers and Police officers will only accept his apologies after English 5. If Jimmy's trouble meter is at full yellow color level or at any orange level, any authority figure who can see him will attempt to bust him. However, if grabbed, he can generally escape. He cannot apologize for trespassing, truancy, or violating curfew.

If Jimmy's trouble meter goes at a red color level, any authority figure who grabs him will bust him automatically.

If Jimmy's trouble meter hits the highest red level, all prefects, teachers, and/or policemen in the vicinity will appear on screen and give chase. As before, if any of them grab him, he will be instantly and automatically busted. The trouble meter will not go down for about 30 in-game minutes (30 seconds in real time).

Crimes
Acts of misbehavior cause the meter to fill to varying amounts based on the severity of the offense. Some rule violations will escalate - that is to say, if Jimmy continues to engage in them, they continue to fill the trouble meter.

See Also: List of rule violations