Karma (Fallout: New Vegas)

Karma is the reflection of all good and evil choices you make during the game and how they are perceived by the inhabitants of the wasteland.

Overviews
Karma doesn't have as much of effect on gameplay as in Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout 3, since reputation has a more important place.

However, it does still exist and if someone catches you performing an action that causes negative Karma against their faction you will often lose reputation with that faction; for example, stealing something from The Silver Rush where a Van Graff can see you. They may also become openly hostile despite your reputation with them not being lowered enough for you to be considered hated where they will attack you.

Karma's basic mechanics work similarly to the way they do in Fallout 3 (a 2001 point linear scale with -1000 being the most evil and +1000 the most good). Unlike reputation, where one can only gain fame or gain infamy, Karma can be gained and lost.

Karma also no longer determines which companions you can recruit. However, when opening a conversation with Cass after she has joined you and when you have substantially negative Karma (-100) she will complain about your behavior. You will get a second warning when your Karma is even lower (-150). After that, she won't complain anymore, as long as the player stays neutral. When you continue on your path to "the dark side" and talk to her again while having evil Karma (-250) she will leave for good. Note that Cass does not actually grant the player any grace period to improve their Karma, so a player who doesn't know better can alienate her in the space of minutes by making three attempts in a row to converse with her. Even though she will agree to accompany an evil character, the first attempt to talk with her (which you will need to do in order to tell her to travel with you) will result in her telling the player that he "can be a real asshole sometimes" and the first of three strikes will be used up on the spot.

When facing Lanius at the battle of Hoover Dam (assuming you choose to side with any faction other than Caesar's Legion), if the speech or barter checks can't be passed, or the wrong dialogue is selected at the near-end or the beginning, he will prepare to engage combat, and the player will have a unique "good" Karma dialogue option that will convince him to fight you alone, "honorably," regardless of whether you have followers with you.

The values for Karma gain may be bugged; currently killing very evil NPCs (such as Vulpes Inculta) gives only 2 Karma, yet killing some Fiends and Feral Ghouls grants 100 Karma.

Some ending narration in the game's epilogue will also depend upon the player's Karma. (See Fallout: New Vegas endings for details.)

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

Karma titles
Your Karma status is defined by a "Karma title", depending on your Karma points and your level. The base level cap is 30 and the add-ons raise this cap for five levels each, but titles do not change past level 30.

To increase Karma to good or very good

 * Go inside Vault 3 and kill some Fiends or go inside the NCR Correctional Facility and kill some Powder Gangers.
 * Give Med-X to Boxcars, the injured Powder Ganger, inside Nipton general store. Note that you can only do this once.
 * Kill feral ghouls (any kind).
 * Free the prisoners in Vault 3.
 * Kill evil or very evil Characters. (Boxcars, Philippe, Mortimer...)(note)

Maintain Neutral Karma

 * Kill Fiends or Powder Gangers if your Karma is too low.
 * Steal items if your Karma is too high.
 * The perks added by Lonesome Road, Ain't Like That Now, Just Lucky I'm Alive, and Thought You Died all reset Karma to 0.

To decrease Karma to evil or very evil

 * Steal items. (This can subtract Karma as many times as the player wishes by stealing from an owned container, replacing the item, exiting, and stealing it again.)
 * Go on a killing spree in a faction.
 * Access an owned computer terminal. This will cause players to receive -1 Karma every time they access it (which can subtract Karma as many times as the player wishes).
 * There is a house in Nelson with 158 books, which are technically owned and will result as stealing if taken. This can effectively turn the player's Karma evil in a relatively short amount of time.
 * In Nellis AFB, there is a room to the right of the Museum where Pete tells the story of the Boomers, this room is just past the lookout tower to the right. In this room, a large amount of airborne gas is visible, and there are just over 100 pieces of maize that can to be stolen. This is a great way to reduce your Karma.
 * The Ultra-Luxe Kitchens contain a lot of owned items (mostly white plates, drinking glasses, cutlery and foodstuffs).
 * Eat People (Cannibal Perk Needed)
 * Kill Good or Very Good Characters.(note)

Companions and Karma
The recruitment of your companions does not affect your Karma. However, companions such as Cass will permanently leave your party if you talk to them too many times with evil Karma.

Bugs

 * There is a random glitch where the Karma title remains at "Guardian of the Wastes" even when the character is well past level 20. This occurs with Good, Neutral and Evil Karma.
 * When reaching higher levels, the game may "forget" your karma at random times, then it will return without warning.