Fallout 3

(Copied over from "Last, Best Hope of Humanity")

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 19, you can get the other two achievements, "Paradigm of Humanity" (Level 20 Neutral) and "Scourge of Humanity" (Level 20 Bad), as well.

Upon reaching level 19, you can either get more XP until you are just on the brink of Level 20 or you can play it safe, save at the start of the level, and work towards 20 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!

This is just an easy way to level up. I didn't discover this cheat, and I don't know who officially did, but this helped me get my last couple levels after I completed the game. I hope it helps others, too. See the video below.

As for reaching rank 30 with Good, Neutral, and Bad Karma, refer to the other solutions. They are very detailed and helpful.

METHOD: Have at least 2 Frag Mines with you and enter the Craterside Supply in Megaton. Throw your Frag Mine against the wall and quickly pick it up over and over again. You will get 6 experience points every time. It is a bit tedious, but it definitely adds up, and is very helpful when there isn't much left to do in the game to earn XP.

If the man leaning against the wall on the other side walks away, just pass time (by pressing the 'back' button) and wait until the next morning and continue. I suggest saving regularly in case something goes wrong.

** MINOR SPOILERS BELOW. **

To get this achievement, you need to reach level 20 with bad karma.

Getting to level 20

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

Bad karma is easily obtained throughout the game, usually through the theft of items or the murder of wastelanders, but can also be gained by simply being mean during conversations. (I particularly enjoyed making children cry whenever possible.)

If you have a good/neutral karma and 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.) This will have some obvious gameplay effects (reduced numbers of merchants to access), 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 than that, 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.

One last note: Taking the evil path during the Power of the Atom quest will provide a lot of bad karma, so feel free to save that quest for "the right time".

A quick and easy way to lower your karma without fighting or painfully walking around stealing things things is hacking a terminal that shows up as red\owned by someone. Crouch and make sure you are hidden. Press A to hack the terminal, but instead of hacking into it just back out. You lose karma for just clicking into it. It took me about 20 times to lower my karma a level. As long as you remain hidden you won't have anyone bothering you. If there is someone around just press the back button and wait a few hours. Using a stealthboy is also a good option if you aren't going to play with that save.

The terminals you are looking for will show up as red on your HUD and ask you to hack into them. There are many in Rivet city, but I used the one down the hill and to the left of the Megaton entrance, with the bar overlooking the bomb.

The best way to get this achievement is to go to Rivet City and slaughter everyone you see. I didn't include Megaton because to some players, it might not be "available at the moment," if you know what I mean.

If you don't have any problems with a glitch/mechanic abuse, there is a way to get XP retalively fast after you leave the vault.

The first thing you should keep in mind as you start your game is that it is advisable to keep your character barely good (try stealing things without being caught, saving often, and loading the most recent save when you realize you are neutral) if you are going for all the leveling achievements (the end part of the guide will be assuming you are). Also, make explosives one of your tag skills as you will need a skill of 25 to do this method. Having an intelligence of at least 4 is advisable.

First, go to Megaton and the Craterside Supply (Talk to Lucas Simms at the entrance of Megaton if you are unsure of where this is) and talk to the shop owner, Maria. Tell her you will help with her book and choose to talk about Minefield.

After you finish talking with her, make "The Wasteland Survival Guide" your active quest. then travel to Minefield which should be where your objective marker is. Disarm two mines and fast travel back to Megaton.

Go to the Craterside Supply and make the frag mines you picked up your active weapon. As you walk in, you should see a mercenary leaning on a wall. Head directly behind the wall he is leaning on, crouch, then throw a frag mine and pick it up.

You should keep this process going, getting 5 XP each time you pick up a mine (up to seven with the swift learner perk maxed out). I would advise getting the swift learner perk as quick as possible to increase your speed of leveling up.

One thing to note is that past 5 pm, Billy Crealy will visit the shop and wander, along with his girl. I recomend waiting until 8:00 am when this happens. Eventually, the mercanary will want to go to bed regardless, and you will have to wait until 8:00 am for him to come back.

When your are 35-45 XP from the level you want, then stop. Save, then if you are going for good karma, just keep going until you you level up. If you are going for neutral karma kill both the mercanary and Maria.

If you are going for bad karma, kill the mercanary, then steal everything in the shop. If you are still not bad karma, attempt to hack the computer then back out. Continue to hack in and back out until you are at bad karma or you are confident killing Maria will bring your karma down enough to be bad karma (if she has not run out). If she has ran out, hack the computer succesfully and you will level up.

The video below (which all credit goes to ablestmage on youtube) details the method of throwing the fragmine and picking it up so you can understand. Please leave comments telling me how I can improve my solution. I am always open to suggestions.

EDIT: To those wondering why I "posted the same solution as somebody else", this is why. 1. Most of the leveling achievements don't have that guide and I posted this on ALL the achievements. 2. My guide is more in depth and supports someone who starts a new game solely to get these achievements. Please do not vote down just because there is another similar guide above.

My advice is almost the same as Aerodynamo's except that instead of having good karma I suggest having bad karma. You are also going to need about 2000 caps at max if you are "very evil" in the game and if you want the other two lvl 20 karma related achievements. In the end if you want to stay an evil character, you won't have spent a cap.

When you are just about to reach level 20, save your game. Then continue your progress towards level 20. Earn the first achievement, presumably the scourge of humanity one. (If you want to continue on your path of evil create a new save file after gain the achievement. If you want to get the other to lvl 20 karma achievements DO NOT save over your level 19 save.)

Load up your level 19 save. Fast travel to rivet city and find father clifford who is usually around Saint Monica's Church. Speak to him and donate caps to him. Every cap you give him is equal to 1 good karma point. So donate caps until you are at neutral karma. Then continue to level twenty to get Paradigm of Humanity achievement.

After getting the previous achievement, reload your level 19 save again, find father clifford again and this time donate caps until you have positive karma. Then continue playing until you are level 20 for the "Last, Best Hope of Humanity" achievement.

This would be the best way to gain all of the lvl 20 karma achievements with bad karma on your primary game file. And if you are not going to continue with the nuetral or positive karma game files, then reloading your lvl 20 bad karma file will result in you not having spent a cap!


Hope this helps!

(if i need to give credit to anyone let me know! I'll give credit where credit is due)