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'.

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

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'. (No Image at the moment, please add one if you possess the proper emblem)

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'.

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 DLC Broken Steel.

Ways of lowering and raising karma in Fallout 3

 * Killing a Very Evil character or creature: +100 karma
 * Killing a Good creature: -25 karma
 * Killing a non-Evil character: -100 karma
 * Enslaving any character with the Mesmetron: -100 karma
 * Stealing from a non-Evil character or faction: -5 karma per item
 * Donating caps to any church: +1 karma per cap
 * Devour a corpse (Cannibal Perk required): -1 karma per corpse
 * Giving away Purified Water to beggar characters like Carlos outside of Rivet City: +50 karma per item
 * Giving away Scrap Metal to Walter in Water Processing Plant, Megaton: +10 karma per item
 * Performing a good action in a freeform quest: At least +50 karma
 * Performing an evil action in a freeform quest: At least -50 karma
 * Repeatedly hacking a locked terminal (Classifies as stealing, but can be done over and over again) -5 karma per hack attempt
 * Blowing up Megaton in the Power of the Atom quest: -1000 karma
 * Disarming the Megaton bomb: If you disarm the bomb for free, you will recieve +200 karma
 * Blowing up the Enclave Mobile Command Crawler in the Who Dares Wins quest in the Broken Steel DLC: +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, were "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.