Fallout 3

It's fairly easy to keep to the middle ground in this game.

If you go too high, kill an innocent traveller.
And there's plenty of things to keep your karma on the plus side.

Simply get to level 8 without being too good or evil. Using the neutral conversation options is good for this.


I personally got it by being a well behaved lad, and then just before I levelled up, going on a killing spree (trying to get the Bad Karma achievement, but didn't go far enough)

You can check your Karma status in Stats > General on your Pip boy 3000

A very fast and easy way to maintain a neutral karma level (assuming you're playing as a "good" character) is to go to Moriarty's Saloon in Megaton. Behind the bar there is a door (this room can also be accessed by picking the lock on the side door outside). Go in there and find Moriarty's Terminal in the corner. If you don't have the science skill to hack the terminal, you can pick the lock on the cabinet next to it to find Moriarty's password. (It's probably best to do this when he's not in the room, obviously.)

Upon trying to access the terminal, you will get bad karma. Repeat as often as necessary to get your karma in the neutral range.

Edit: This apparently works in Tenpenny tower (in case you might not have access to Megaton) at both terminals on the first floor as well. I'm thinking that this trick will work at any red colored terminal with a non-evil owner. I've tried red terminals owned by hostiles and never lost karma, so...I dunno.

I haven't found the best way to get positive karma, but giving (not selling) scrap metal to Walter at the Water Processing Plant in Megaton is pretty simple. You can also give purified water to wastelanders you can normally find in front of towns.

(Copied over from "Protector")

The best advice I can offer for this achievement is to play the game Good, as it is much easier to get Bad Karma then Good Karma. When you get to Level 7, you can get the other two achievements, "Mercenary" (Level 8 Neutral) and "Reaver" (Level 8 Bad), as well.

Upon reaching level 7, you can either get more XP until you are just on the brink of Level 8 or you can play it safe, save at the start of the level, and work towards 8 and each side of karma.

To get karma, here are some tips:

For Good karma, give Purified Water to the tramp outside of Megaton. He will be to the right laying on some rocks just outside the gate. You can get purified water from Wadsworth at your house. (NOTE: You will only have a house if you have completed "The Power of the Atom".)

For Bad karma, well... this one is easy! Murder, steal, massacre, hit people, whatever you want to do.


ANOTHER TIP:

A friend of mine recommended saving the "Power of the Atom" quest until you reach one of the levels before those in the achievement (7, 13, 19). Once you get to the level, either blow up the bomb or disarm it, and depending on which, you will get XP and karma for completing the quest. The one problem with this is that you might not have Tenpenny Tower in order to blow the bomb up at level 7.


Good luck!

** MINOR SPOILERS BELOW. **

To get this achievement, you need to reach level 8 with neutral karma.

Getting to level 8

Straightforward enough, but there are ways to achieve this more quickly. First, avoid companions.

Second, look out for the NPCs who request certain types of items, and then watch to see if redeeming those items provides XP. Two such "standing orders":

* Scrap metal in Megaton. (Easy to find everywhere.)
* Pre-war books at the Arlington Library. (Excellent per-book XP.)

Lastly, I recommend hacking every terminal, picking every lock, and attempting (almost) every speech challenge. All provide nearly guaranteed XP, without the hassle of a fight.

Karma

Neutral karma generally means that you do as much harm as good. Playing through the storyline as the traditional hero will get you a wealth of positive karma, so getting the neutral karma achievements will require you to do some evil (mostly murder and theft).

If you need a karma boost, I have two suggestions:

* At the Church of the Atom (Megaton) or Saint Monica's Church (Rivet City), donate caps. If you have a lot of cash lying around, it will be very easy and quick to get into "positive" karma.
* In Megaton, give away your scrap metal rather than requesting payment. (You still get the XP.)

If you need to decrease your karma, this is easy -- go on a killing spree in Megaton or Rivet City. (Megaton is great for using the Fat Man, if you have it at this point.) This will have some obvious gameplay effects however, so I suggest saving the game prior to this -- go get the achievement, load your save, and then continue.

Neutral karma can be a tough target to hit sometimes, so my suggestion is to check your karma after each murder / mini-nuke. Once you hit neutral karma, simply stop killing and run away until you are out of range of all angry wastelanders.

If you actually need even more karma loss, first steal everything you see, but be careful not to be caught, as it will typically provoke a gunfight. Then go on your murder spree.

By far the easiest way to get this achievement is just to play through as good, and when you're about 50 exp away from levelling up, drop the difficulty to very easy, and go to town on the lovely people in megaton. Kill enough people to drop your karma to neutral, and leave town, remember you won't level up until your character is safe, so exp isn't a problem, as long as there is enough people for you to kill to drop your karma. If you destroyed Megaton, The Rivet City marketplace is fine as well. Obviously save it beforehand because you will inevitably kill named characters and lose out on trade, quests or conversation if you don't.

Numerous solutions, my method. Play the game as good working towards the other achievements. When you reach the level tiers save close to the level change. Collect scrap metal in bundles, and when you are within the next level trade the scrap metal in Megaton for experience to give the level. When I wanted to go from good to neutral/evil I would go into Sheriff Simms house during the day, take one or two of each item and then crouch in front of his refrigerator. I would take all the items I collected and put them in the fridge. I would then open the fridge and grab one item then close and rinse and repeat. This process you are stealing 70+ items in each run through. I think from Very good to neutral I would have to do this 2/3 times which equates to about 10 minutes. I would then use a 2nd save at neutral, go and trade the scrap metal in and earn the level. Load up the spare save, continue to do the fridge trip until evil, and trade scrap.
I understand killing people reduces Karma, but I just disliked doing it and the time to kill people. At the end of the game I had 170 scrap metal and was able to net 1000+ experience, earn 29, then take the Here and now perk to level 30.