Karma

Generally referencing the actual concept of karma, karma (as a tab on your in-game character sheet) in the Fallout series is the reflection of all good and evil choices you make during the game. In the first Fallout, it only covered a statistic called "reputation", as well as the special karma/reputation perks. In Fallout 2, what was originally called reputation was renamed to karma, and reputation became a measurement of how you are perceived by various communities.

As a statistic, karma (reputation in the original Fallout) is a measurement of your good or bad deeds and how perceived by the inhabitants of the Wasteland. Also, you can gain "titles" displaying your "achievements". For example, in Fallout, if you kill a child, you earn the Childkiller award.

Wanderer
You start off with the status of a 'wanderer' with 0 karma points. This status can therefore also be called neutral. You stay a wanderer until you either reach +250 or -250 karma points.

Defender

 * If your positive karma reaches 250 you gain the status of the 'Defender'.


 * This karma level's icon is a reference to Batman.

Shield of Hope

 * If your positive karma reaches 500 you gain the status of the 'Shield of Hope'.


 * This karma level's icon is a reference to Captain America. Instead of having a star on the costumes chest (which Captain America has), the Vault Boy sports a number 13, referencing the Vault 13 from Fallout and Fallout 2.

Guardian of the Wastes

 * If your positive karma reaches 750 you gain the status of the 'Guardian of the Wastes'.
 * This karma level's icon is a reference to the British Guardsman, guarding a "waste" bin.

Savior of the Damned

 * If your positive karma reaches 1000 you gain the status of the 'Savior of the Damned'.


 * This karma level's icon is a reference to Dudley Do Right.

Betrayer
If your negative karma reaches -250 you gain the status of the 'Betrayer'.

Sword of Despair
If your negative karma reaches -500 you gain the status of the 'Sword of Despair'.


 * The icon seems to be a reference to King John of England, noted for his cruelty and nicknamed "Softsword" for his lack of military prowess.

Scourge of the Wastes
If your negative karma reaches -750 you gain the status of the 'Scourge of the Wastes'.

Demon Spawn

 * If your negative karma reaches -1000 you gain the status of the 'Demon Spawn'.


 * This karma level's icon is a reference to Spawn.

Fallout 3
Karma is the system in Fallout 3 that keeps track of the moral actions and consequences of a character. Karma is, philosophically, the principle of cause and effect, yet a recurring paradox within Fallout 3 is a lack of consistency on whether it is cruel intentions or cruel effects of actions that truly count towards or against one's karma. In Fallout 3, karma represents the player's aptitude towards a certain status: good, neutral, or evil, as well as the player's reputation when dealing with NPCs. Although it is measured in points, the player never gets to see a numerical karmic value, only the title. You can only use the console command to get the current value of karma. Players always start a new game at 0 karma: a neutral Vault Dweller.

People will behave differently toward you depending upon your karma. For example, if a player has very good karma in Megaton, one NPC will talk to the player every day to give them free items such as ammo, food or medicine. Players with evil karma can get the same benefits in Paradise Falls. Karma also factors into certain dialog options, such as recruiting followers and learning about Bigsley's side operation.

If the player's karma ever becomes good, they will be targeted by Talon Company mercs (even if their karma subsequently drops back to neutral or evil). Likewise, if the player's karma ever becomes evil, they will be targeted by Regulators, even if their karma later raises to neutral or good. A player that has been both good and evil (i.e. in order to recruit all followers) may sometimes find themselves attacked by both Talon Company mercs and Regulators at the same time (though they may attack each other first). Keeping a neutral karma level will result in neither Regulators nor Talon Company mercs bothering you.

Companions and karma
Surprisingly, the two companions (excluding those who don't care about the player's karma) that prove themselves to be the most loyal are those who require low (or evil) karma: in other words, Clover and Jericho. After being hired, they will follow the player regardless of changes in his or her karma level, although they will often mention how boring the player is, should he become good. That is probably because the Lone Wanderer paid for their services (not to mention that Clover herself is a slave, thus blindly loyal), and because they don't really have a "conscience." Following the Lone Wanderer as he or she helps other people is boring, but not disturbing. Jericho is a companion that can prove himself handy when given good armor and weapons. Clover, however, appears to be much weaker than other companions (including Jericho), but when separated from you due to certain events of the story, she will join you again when you go looking for her, unlike Jericho.

Butch DeLoria and Sergeant RL-3, both recruited with neutral karma, are similar to Clover and Jericho. They will not leave if your karma becomes good or evil, but unlike Clover, you can't get them back with a high or low karma level when the main story separates you.

Players with high karma may hire Fawkes or Star Paladin Cross. Both are very tough characters, and Cross is a very versatile fighter. They are not slaves or servants like Clover and Charon: they will follow you of their own free will, without any cost, if you ask them and have good karma. Be aware, however, that being good characters, they have a conscience and will leave your side if you become evil after hiring them, and will refuse to follow you again until your karma is high enough. If you want to pick one of them as your follower, be aware also that they appear quite late in the game. You cannot hire Star Paladin Cross before you gain access to the Citadel, which means that you cannot have her as your companion until the quest The Waters of Life is completed. Fawkes, although he appears when the player searches for the G.E.C.K. in Vault 87, cannot be hired before the player escapes from Raven Rock (end of The American Dream).

Karma levels
You begin the game with a value of zero, which increases or decreases based on the players actions. There are 5 levels of karma:


 * Very Evil: -1000 to -750. Evil: -749 to -250. Neutral: -249 to +249. Good: +250 to +749. Very Good: +750 to +1000.



Titles
Good karma titles apply if your karma is above +250 points, neutral titles are awarded if your karma is between -249 and +249 points and evil titles are assigned if your karma is less than -250 points.

Ranks above 20 can only be reached with the add-on Broken Steel.

Add karma (Doing Good)

 * Donating caps to any church (In increments of 10, 50, or 100): +1 karma per cap
 * Selling fingers taken from the corpses of evil characters (you killed) to Sonora Cruz via the Lawbringer perk: +10 karma per finger
 * Giving away scrap metal to Walter in Water Processing Plant, Megaton for free: +10 karma per item
 * Giving away purified water to beggar characters like Carlos outside of Rivet City: +50 karma per item
 * Performing a good action in a quest: At least +50 karma (ex: Bring Cherry to Rivet City.)
 * Killing a very evil character or creature (Allistair Tenpenny, Mister Burke, Eulogy Jones, Carolina Red, Ahzrukhal, and Jaime Palabras): +100 karma
 * Disarming the Megaton bomb in The Power of the Atom quest without requesting payment: +200 karma
 * Activating Project Purity yourself in the quest Take it Back! : +1000 karma
 * Blowing up the Enclave Mobile Command Crawler in the Who Dares Wins quest in the Broken Steel DLC : +1000 karma
 * Taking the Escalator to Heaven perk in the Broken Steel DLC: +2000 karma (essentially, it resets your karma to the maximum 1000)

Subtract karma (Doing Evil)
Finally, taking the Karmic Rebalance perk in the Broken Steel DLC instantly sets your karma back to 0: dead neutral.
 * Devour a corpse (Cannibal perk required): -1 karma per corpse
 * Stealing from a non-evil character or faction: -5 karma per instance
 * Repeatedly hacking an owned (red text) terminal (Classifies as stealing, but can be done over and over again) -5 karma per hack attempt
 * Selling ears taken from the corpses of good characters (you killed) to Daniel Littlehorn via the Contract Killer Perk: -10 karma per ear
 * Killing a good creature: -25 karma
 * Performing an evil action in a quest: At least -50 karma
 * Killing a non-evil character: -100 karma (although, this can be gotten around by shooting them once, making them hostile, then letting a follower kill them.)
 * Giving psycho to Paulie Cantelli in Rivet City: -100 karma each time so long as he's alive
 * Enslaving any character with the Mesmetron: -100 karma
 * Letting the feral ghouls into Tenpenny Tower in the eponymous quest: -600 karma
 * Blowing up Megaton in the Power of the Atom quest: -1000 karma
 * Infecting Project Purity with the modified FEV in the Quest Take it Back!' -1000 karma
 * Blowing up the Citadel in the Who Dares Wins quest in the Broken Steel DLC : -1000 karma
 * Taking the Devil's Highway perk in the Broken Steel DLC: -2000 karma (essentially, it resets your karma to the minimum -1000)

To manually adjust karma, the console command can be used, where "xxx" stands for the amount the player wants to add or use a negative value to decrease it instead. Useful when trying to recruit permanent companions.

Karma Карма Karma

Good Karma

 * Access to Star Paladin Cross and Fawkes, good mid-to-late game followers.
 * Talon Company Mercs will come after you, providing easy access to a Combat Armor variant.
 * Citizens in Megaton reward you for your good-doings with ammo and other random gifts.

Neutral Karma

 * The use of the Impartial Mediation perk, the single biggest skill boost in the game.
 * Access to Sergeant RL-3, a good early-to-mid game follower.
 * Neither Talon Company, nor the Regulators will come after you.

Bad Karma

 * Some Quests have no Good choice, this presents no problem to an Evil character.
 * The Regulators will come after you, which provides a good looking, if ineffective, piece of clothing.
 * Access to Clover and Jericho, a good early-to-mid game follower.
 * Equipment is easier to come by, as you can just kill someone and take their stuff.
 * Slavers in Paradise Falls reward you for your wrong-doings with ammo and other random gifts.