Karma

Generally, Karma (as a tab on your in-game character sheet) 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 is an obvious reference to Batman.

Shield of Hope

 * If your positive karma reaches 481 you gain the status of the 'Shield of Hope'.


 * This Karma is a reference to Captain America.

Guardian of the Wastes
If your positive karma reaches 751 you gain the status of the 'Guardian of the Wastes'.

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

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

Sword of Despair
If your negative karma reaches -481 you gain the status of the 'Sword of Despair'.

Scourge of the Wastes
If your negative karma reaches -751 you gain the status of the 'Scourge of the Wastes'.

Demon Spawn

 * If your negative karma reaches -1001 you gain the status of the 'Demon Spawn'.


 * This Karma 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 the principle of cause and effect, and it represents the player's aptitude towards a certain status: good, neutral or evil. 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.

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 everyday to give them free items such as ammo, food or medicine. Players with evil karma can get the same benefits in Paradise Falls.

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 to bother you.

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:


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

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
 * Killing a Very Evil character or creature: +100 karma
 * Assist Angela in seducing Diego: during the wedding, you will receive +100 karma
 * Convince Mister Lopez to become a father figure to Ted Strayer +200 karma
 * Disarming the Megaton bomb: If you disarm the bomb for free, you will receive +200 karma
 * Activate Project Purity yourself without adding the modified FEV to the purifier in the Take It Back! quest: +1000 karma
 * Blowing up the Enclave Mobile Command Crawler in the Who Dares Wins quest in the Broken Steel DLC: +1000 karma

Subtract Karma (Doing Evil)

 * Devour a corpse (Cannibal Perk required): -1 karma per corpse
 * Stealing from a non-Evil character or faction: -5 karma per transaction
 * Repeatedly hacking a locked 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, (results in his death): -100 karma
 * Help or allow Mister Lopez to commit suicide: -500 karma
 * Enslaving any character with the Mesmetron: -100 karma
 * Blowing up Megaton in the Power of the Atom quest: -1000 karma
 * Have someone else activate Project Purity and infect the purifier with the modified FEV in the Take It Back! Quest: -1000 karma
 * Blowing up the Citadel in the Who Dares Wins quest in the Broken Steel DLC: -1000 karma

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. Best used when trying to recruit permanent companions.

Карма