Bully: Scholarship Edition

Step 1 — Install SilentPatch (strongly recommended for stability)
The Steam build of Bully (the same retail .exe, v1.200) is notoriously
unstable on modern systems: it can hard-crash on the opening "Welcome to
Bullworth" cutscene, lock up on certain loading screens, and leak memory
in the audio code until it runs out of memory. Historically players needed
a "Bully Fix" / patched data set to get past missing-content and intro
crashes — today the maintained replacement is SilentPatch by CookiePLMonster.
It fixes the collision-load crash, the audio/handle leaks, and improves
frame pacing, which is what makes the game stable on Deck.

SilentPatch loads as an ASI plugin, so you need two pieces in the game root:
1. The ASI Loader (ThirteenAG's Ultimate-ASI-Loader), renamed to
dinput8.dll — this is the proxy DLL Wine/Proton loads at startup.
2. SilentPatch itself: SilentPatchBully.asi (+ SilentPatchBully.ini).

Get SilentPatch from the official GitHub releases:
https://github.com/CookiePLMonster/SilentPatchBully/releases
And the ASI Loader from:
https://github.com/ThirteenAG/Ultimate-ASI-Loader/releases

Place all of those files directly into the game's root directory (the
folder that already contains Bully.exe):
~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Bully Scholarship Edition/

If you still crash on the very first cutscene even with SilentPatch, the
common community workaround is to drop a pre-made post-intro save into the
Rockstar Games save folder to skip the opening sequence.

Step 2 — Set launch option for DLL override
The ASI Loader hooks in via dinput8.dll. Tell Wine/Proton to prefer the
native copy you placed in the game folder:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%

Add this in Steam → right-click Bully → Properties → Launch Options.

Step 3 — Unlock FPS in the config
The game ships with a 30 fps cap. To raise it:
1. Find the config file inside the Proton prefix under:
~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/12200/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/
My Documents/Rockstar Games/Bully Scholarship Edition/
2. Open the settings file and set FPSLimit=60 (or FPSLimit=40 for battery
savings on Deck).
Note: SilentPatch also contains its own frame-rate handling improvements,
so physics will remain stable at higher frame rates.

Step 4 — Proton version
Use GE-Proton 9-12 or newer. As of GE-Proton 9-12 (Sept 2024) a
Bully-specific fix was merged upstream, which improves out-of-the-box
behaviour on Deck. Stock Proton Experimental also works for many users.
Avoid Proton 7 and earlier — the game's DirectX 9 path has known audio
and timing issues on older Wine builds.

Step 5 — Controls
Bully has native gamepad support (it shipped on consoles), so the Deck's
built-in controls map correctly out of the box — no custom controller
layout is required. If you find the right analogue stick sensitivity too
high in combat, adjust it in the in-game options.

Community guide reference
A thorough step-by-step guide covering SilentPatch installation, launch
options, and config tweaks for Steam Deck is available as Steam Community
Guide ID 3616094281. Note: do not combine SilentPatch with the separate
"60FPS exe" mod — community reports say the two are incompatible; let
SilentPatch handle the frame limiter instead.

Install method
Standard Steam install of the official app (AppID 12200). The .exe is DRM
-free in the install folder; SilentPatch and the ASI Loader are free,
open-source community fixes installed alongside it. No other launcher or
storefront is required.