History Main / EvilPaysBetter

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' has the eartbound demon Anthony Crowley reflecteing that while the wages of sin might be death, the working hours are better, you can go home earlier on a Friday and you don't have to work overtime at the weekends.

* In just one of many examples in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', many Light Side acts involve you giving piles of your hard-earned money away. In fact, the Light Side / Dark Side split shows this. It's often said that the dark side offers quick, easy power, and the light side offers less power more slowly - but ''only'' the light side can give immortality, the goal of Jedi and Sith alike.

* The mission reward table in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Fifth Edition has a "Run will make you a cold-hearted bastard" entry that increases the cash reward by up to twenty percent. Conversely, the "Run has good feelings as part of its reward" entry reduces the cash by up to twenty percent. The other side of the equation is that the evil run has a reduced Karma (experience) reward, while the good run has an increased Karma reward. But the important thing to remember as a Shadowrunner is that good feelings don't pay the bills...

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': This is [[MadScientist Professor Venomous']] main reason for being [[CardCarryingVillain who he is]]. [[spoiler:Not only did villainy give him the emotional security and confidence he lacked for years as Laserblast, it also made him filthy rich.]]

* Wrestling/BobOrtonJr: During the famous "Piper's Pit" vs. "Flower Shop" angle, which solidified Wrestling/RoddyPiper's face turn and a heated feud between Piper and Adrian Adonis, why Orton said he was joining forces with Adonis ... he paid him much better while Piper was a short-changing, penny-pinching glory hound who ducks his opponents (because he's scared) and makes his minions do the fighting.

*** The (mostly) good ending of Azura's Daedric quest is to purify Azura's Star, receiving it as a reusable Grand Soul Gem and gaining Aranea Ienith as a potential follower. On the other hand, you can complete the corruption and transform it into the Black Star which can hold all types of soul including human — keep in mind Black Soul Gems are rather rare and humanoid souls are the best for enchanting.

* Wrestling/BobOrtonJr: During the famous "Piper's Pit" vs. "Flower Shop" angle, which solidified Wrestling/RoddyPiper's face turn and a heated feud between Piper and Adrian Adonis, why Orton said he was joining forces with Adonis ... he paid him much better while Piper was a short-changing, penny-pinching glory hound.

* Invoked in ''Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness''; the kingdom the game takes place in is cursed with {{Greed}} and you have the choice of either doing the main storyline quests the good way, lessening the curses effects or helping the GodOfEvil responsible make the curse permanent by making things worse and getting sweet loot for it.

* The mission reward table in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Fifth Edition has a "Run will make you a cold-hearted bastard" entry that modifies the cash reward by up to twenty percent. Conversely, the "Run has good feelings as part of its reward" entry reduces the cash by up to twenty percent.

Related tropes include RewardingVandalism, VideoGameCrueltyPotential. Compare BetterLivingThroughEvil, where evil has some more diverse benefits. Opposing tropes include CutLexLuthorACheck and VideogameCaringPotential.

* Invoked in Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness; the kingdom the game takes place in is cursed with {{Greed}} and you have the choice of either doing the main storyline quests the good way, lessening the curses effects or helping the GodOfEvil responsible make the curse permanent by making things worse and getting sweet loot for it.

*** Subverted in the Tenpenny Tower quest, since helping Roy Philips and his ghouls massacre the tower earns you the Ghoul mask, which protects you from feral ghouls, especially the [[DemonicSpiders reavers]]. Killing Philips for Chief Gustavo only gets you 500-700 caps, while having the ghouls peacefully move in(only to turn on the residents later) nets you both the money and the ghoul mask. Thus, the peaceful option actually grants the greatest reward. Of course the ''[[TakeAThirdOption third option]]'' is this: [[spoiler: let the ghouls in, turn on a Stealth Boy, kill Roy Philips before he gets in, loot his corpse.]] This nets you the [=xp=] for the quest [[spoiler:and kill]] as well as getting a better ending then the so called "good" ending (leaving the residents, especially Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, alive) but you lose the Ghoul Mask (which doesn't protect you from already hostile feral ghouls).

*** In VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}} being really good ALSO gets bounty hunters after you as well. Being really evil, however, can cause Raiders to become terrified of you and try to pay you off to avert your wrath.

** In [[''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' the first entry]], you're tasked with freeing a Nymph from a mage called Ragefast. You can kill him for 2000xp and loot his tower full of valuable magical artefacts and take the Nymph or let her go. Or you can say the right things to him and he'll let the Nymph go without a fight, netting you 2000xp and a lock of her hair (which you can turn into a powerful magical cloak). But if you feel like being an asshole, you can also do ''both.'' First persuade Ragefast to let her go and get the hair. Then talk to him again and he will get upset and attack, so you can kill him without the slightest repercussions. Then you can loot his tower. Since he's a wizard, he inevitably has cool stuff. That's 4000xp, and the hair, AND the loot from the tower, without loss of reputation.

* VideoGame/OverlordII gives you the option of [[LawfulEvil Domination]] or [[ChaoticEvil Destruction]]. The former involves subjugating peasants to make your slaves, generating resources over time. The latter is basically the KillEmAll option, getting all of the resources at once with no opportunities to get any later.

* In the first VideoGame/ArmoredCore, similar to Fable's 'attack the farm' quest, there are two missions to either attack or defend some cargo, and attacking it pays more.

* In just one of many examples in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', many Light Side acts involve you giving piles of your hard-earned money away.

** In fact, the Light Side / Dark Side split shows this. It's often said that the dark side offers quick, easy power, and the light side offers less power more slowly - but ''only'' the light side can give immortality, the goal of Jedi and Sith alike.
** It's [[FridgeBrilliance even more brilliant than that]] - in the first game, you encounter the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent spirit of Ajunta Pall]], whose immortality has GoneHorriblyRight: for thousands of years, all he's been able to think about are his regrets, and the empty, meaningless life he led as a servant of evil. TheDarkSide does offer immortality - in such a way that [[WhoWantsToLiveForever the one who obtains it wants nothing more than to die]]. This story detail mirrors the gameplay fact that, since it's quite easy to get by on what you find (and rack up mountains of credits by selling what you don't need), the extra money offered by TheDarkSide options has [[MoneyForNothing little practical value]].

** In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', you're tasked with freeing a Nymph from a mage called Ragefast. You can kill him for 2000xp and loot his tower full of valuable magical artefacts and take the Nymph or let her go. Or you can say the right things to him and he'll let the Nymph go without a fight, netting you 2000xp and a lock of her hair (which you can turn into a powerful magical cloak). But if you feel like being an asshole, you can also do ''both.'' First persuade Ragefast to let her go and get the hair. Then talk to him again and he will get upset and attack, so you can kill him without the slightest repercussions. Then you can loot his tower. Since he's a wizard, he inevitably has cool stuff. That's 4000xp, and the hair, AND the loot from the tower, without loss of reputation.

** ''VideoGame/SimCity'' as a whole tends to do this. If you're low on cash, you can bet that a sleazy character will offer you cash in order to build something for them. These tend to be things such as toxic waste facilities, missile silos, [[{{Area51}} "secret" military bases]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and casinos]], none of which help your approval rating any.

** Ironically, the best bonuses for non-violent builders in the game aren't for the goody goodies, but the neutral civilizations - good races mostly get better defences, while neutrality nets you better trading ability, the best research centres, more happiness (more important than loyalty if you want tax income) and all your planets instantly terraformed. Rock on, moral grey zone.
*** You need avoid being a monster that no one wants to trade with you and yet not a goody two shoes that you find money as a source of evil, that is why trade is so fitting for neutral factions.
*** For the most part, being a goody two shoes in random events gives you penalties, while being evil gives you massive bonuses. The neutral option gives you bonuses as well, but not as much as the evil options (most of the exceptions fit this trope as well).

** Except The End, who you need to hold up to get his camo, after which you can murder the hell out of him. Tranquilizing him gets him his Mosin Nagant (if you actually went through all the trouble of knocking him out you probably will like a non-lethal sniper rifle).
* Sorta inverted in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'': near the end of Chapter 1 you come across a demon in a summoning circle. Choose to free him from the circle and you can get a magic weapon, a magic item, or a temporary but awesome buff. Choose to banish him and you can summon the good spirit he chased away, who rewards you with... a different magic weapon, a better magic item, or the same temporary but awesome buff. The spirit also gives you more XP, but which weapon is better depends entirely on your CharacterClass.

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII''. Although the quests are essentially the same on both the light and dark sides, being evil allows you to use Dark magic which is much better than Light magic. This is because the best Light magic spells can either be used from magic pedestals which don't care which side you took, or are just a bunch of a bunch of spells you can get for the elemental magics combined into one spell. Dark magic, on the other hand, has several of the most damaging spells in the game, as well as a few unique utility spells too. Also, if you have a Sorcerer in your party, he can be promoted to a Lich which makes him immune to Body and Mind spells. The Light side has nothing equivalent to this.
** So Light Magic is utterly worthless?
*** Not quite worthless, just less powerful and more wasted spells. Destroy Undead does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Their best spell is still DivineIntervention, a spell that heals everything including mana but at the cost of gaining some temporary aging. Very useful for the final dungeon since you have no reason to care about eventual stats loss.
*** Besides, the light spells "HourOfPower" and "Day of Protection" are basically packages of every {{buff}} spell from all the other magic styles, divine or arcane (minus "Immolation" from fire magic and the all-important "Protection from Magic" from body magic), and casts these spells at four times the power of their regular variants (meaning they last pretty much all day). Add "Day of the Gods" on top of it on high level and you get a party that's basically invulnerable, and Paralysis will knock pretty much any enemy out of commission. Sure, you find pedestals that cast these spells on you -- in the good faction headquarters, which is quite a ways from the last dungeons, and also rather impractical to sneak in and out of every time you want those buffs cast at you (at a considerable lower skill level than you could do yourself).
* In the early phases of ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series, it is almost needed to play an genocidal bastard if you want florins. Although further down the line it will have the off chance of generating negative vices that reduces tax income in exchange for immediate plunder. Opting for more benevolent route will give more population to rule over and thus more units and fresh bodies.
** However, in ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', sacking a settlement grants more money to the player than exterminating the populace outright.

* if aggression could be considered "evil," then ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' has a couple subversions. Befriending creatures in the creature stage usually nets you more DNA points than attacking and eating them, and befriending other tribes gets you more food than attacking them.
** Otherwise, it's pretty much averted in terms of the long-term benefits of acting aggressively vs. friendly. Players actions in each stage of the game lead to specific bonuses or abilities in the subsequent stages. Some of the best are scattered across the spectrum and really only serve to compliment the play-style used to achieve them, so its hard to call any one option "better". Entering the final stage, Space, the player earns a title and a corresponding unique ability based on their overall behavior across the previous 4 stages. By far, the two most powerful abilities belong to the Scientist (who can instantly wipe out all civilization/colonization on a planet) and the Zealot (who can instantly convert an entire planet, even an alien homeworld, to join their empire). Both of these abilities are considered war crimes by NPC civilizations (right up there with the [[EarthShatteringKaboom Planet Killer weapon]], meaning anyone who notices will declare war against you), and both require behaving in a ''friendly'' manner in any two of the previous stages.

* In the Web Game ''The West'', jobs like grave-robbing, house-robbing, coach-robbing and train-robbing pay poorly but have a ''huge'' chance of turning up some very good items that would cost you a fortune to buy - not to mention they're worth a lot too. The only offset is that you're more likely to get injured. Which isn't much of an offset since you can regain your health rapidly anyway.

* The later VideoGame/{{Civilization}} games do that, probably unintentionally. Razing a captured city (and slaughtering the population, destroying World Wonders etc.) is usually the easier way, since captured cities are a major pain in the backside.
** Unless you keep a Great Artist at hand.

* Appears for the most part in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', with ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' being the one exception, sorta. Working for the [[AffablyEvil nice Triad mob boss]] pays better than working for the heartless corrupt police officer, though you really don't have much choice in working for the evil cop since he's black mailing you into it, and as you can imagine, pays you nothing.
** Also nice in ''[=GTA4=]'' it would be more of "Evil Pays At All" with the mission [[spoiler: where you have to choose if you kill Derrick or Francis [=McReary=], the nice criminal brother of one of your friends or the corrupt cop (also the jackass brother of you friend). Francis pays you 20,000 dollars and you can call him three times to lose your wanted level, an ability that otherwise only your optional girlfriend has. Derrick instead gives you for saving his ass nothing.]]
*** [[spoiler: Killing Francis does have one nice benefit- in the subsequent mission, Albanian gangsters attack Niko and Packie at the funeral, and you have to drive the hearse to the cemetery. If you kill Francis, the police won't come after you when you defend yourself against the Albanians.]]

** The opposite occurs with [[spoiler: the assassination of Playboy X (jerk) or Dwayne (ex-criminal who wants to get on with his life. Killing Playboy results in getting his crib as additional savehouse, with cameo clothes of ''[=GTA3=]'''s protagonist in the wardrobe. Also you become friends with Dwayne, and get a notable friendship bonus. Playboy gives you a few thousand bucks and never talks with you again.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims'', reaching the top of the criminal career track ALWAYS pays more than reaching the top of the law enforcement career track.

* In the first VideoGame/ArmoredCore, similar to Fable's 'attack the farm' quest, there are two missions to either attack or defend some cargo, I believe, and attacking it pays more.

** Throughout the series, this is case for completing many quests given by the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Princes]]. Though technically beings AboveGoodAndEvil who operate on their own BlueAndOrangeMorality, the Princes are mostly considered "evil" by all but the most knowledgeable in-universe, especially in contrast to the SaintlyChurch of the Nine Divine, making them an EvilCounterpart almost by default. Accepting and completing the Daedric quests almost always involves rather uncouth activities, up to and including murder, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbing]], [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]], [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]], making [[DealWithTheDevil Deals With The Devil]], and even [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking making it rain cats and dogs]]. (Which are ''[[{{Squick}} on fire]]''.) The rewards for completing these quests make them extremely worthwhile, however, including {{Legendary Weapon}}s, armor, and other artifacts of great power.

*** The [[ThievesGuild Thieves]] (illegal) and [[AdventureGuild Fighters]] (legal) Guilds would often reward you with [[DudeWheresMyReward paltry sums of gold]] when progressing through the ranks, but the rewards suddenly become better near the end, giving you powerful magical items and such, along with superior long-term benefits. The [[MagicalSociety Mages' Guild]] (legal) and [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] (illegal) however, tend to give you the very powerful items and spells along the way, with the final rewards and long-term benefits being rather inferior compared to the former two guilds. Sure your tenants will hate you for making them pay a massive debt but they'll hate you more for letting more of the kingdom getting killed.
*** The Mages Guild is also the only way (without [[GameMod mods]] or [[DownloadableContent DLC]]) that you can get access to Enchanting and Spellmaking (which open up a whole new world of [[GameBreaker Game Breakers]]), just for completing it halfway. By contrast, the Fighter's Guild only gives standard high-leveled loot, which you can also get by raiding a dungeon or two.

*** Many of the powerful Daedric Artifacts cannot be obtained at all without being evil.