History Main / MercyRewarded

* Both ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' award KarmaMeter points for getting out of certain situations without combat. There's also an achievement in ''Mass Effect'' for defusing seemingly unwinnable situations with your Charm or Intimidate skill. In one particular twist, doing so will avoid losing a party member.

* The ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' games occasionally use this. An excellent example: In ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', you are given the choice to spare or kill [[spoiler: the rachni queen]]. If you spare her, you meet an asari in the [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 sequel]] carrying a message from her promising [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsArmy an army of rachni]]]] to help you fight the Reapers.

** Sparing Wrex and the Rachni Queen in [=ME1=] and Legion and Zaeed in [=ME2=] all give advantages in [=ME3=] - especially in Legion's case.
*** Actually Wrex is a subversion, since the highest possible score requires [[spoiler:him to be dead (as you can betray his more dim-witted replacement without fear of disovery)]].

** Expanded on in ''VideoGame/BioShock2'', where showing mercy to certain characters alters the ending. Sparing them is considered good, however sparing one character [[spoiler:means they'll remain a twisted, bloated foetus creature subjected to incredible pain and insanity for the rest of his life]]. It's considered a good act.
*** It's either that or ''[[spoiler:painfully electrocuting him with thousands of volts of electricity.]]'' Also, he's begging for his life.
*** The decision is complicated further by [[spoiler:a video of the character (pre-insanity) begging you to mercy kill him, knowing the monster that he will become]]. The BrokenBase is less about the decision itself and more about 2K Marin's decision to label one decision "good" despite the fact that it's designed to be a very grey dilemma.
*** [[spoiler:Actually, there could be a cure out there for his mutation, and it'd be useless if he were dead. Remember, sparing him and when you temporarily take control of a Little Sister, you'll find a statue of Delta pulling a man out of a sea-monster's mouth.]]

** Sparing Wrex and the Rachni Queen in ME1 and Legion and Zaeed in ME2 all give advantages in ME3 - especially in Legion's case.
*** Actually Wrex is a subversion, since the highest possible score requires [[spoiler: him to be dead (as you can betray his more dim-witted replacement without fear of disovery)]].

* ''Medieval: TotalWar II'' has its own take on this, giving a KarmaMeter to each of your individual generals. A governor-general that is very Chivalrous (as opposed to Dreaded) will increase population growth and happiness in a city instead of just public order. Good-aligned generals are, therefore, much more useful in empire-building. And given that troops fighting for them are less likely to run away, they're really helpful for taking on an enemy bristling with firearms.

* One of the most interesting examples of this is in ''MortalKombat 3''. A certain button combination at the "Finish Him/Her!" screen would trigger a Mercy which grants the other player a tiny bit of life to continue fighting. It also allows you to perform Animalities after you beat that shred of life out of them. That's right, for sparing your opponent's life, you gain a brand new way to brutally murder them.

** In ''Path of Radiance'' one particular chapter rewards you with the Ashera Staff if you refrain from killing any of the priests - and there are a hella lot of them clogging the chokepoints. What to do? Shove them out of the way. Then again, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you wouldn't kill a helpless priest anyways, would you?]] You CAN, however, steal their staves and sell them for cash, or keep some of them.
** In both ''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'' sparing enemies is some level gave the player bonus experience that they could use to level up characters that didn't even get into fights. The biggest of these would be sparing the senators when you have to destroy the supplies in their camp at the cost of losing the valuable items they drop, [[TakingAThirdOption or if you have Harr and Heather at high enough levels to survive the inner parts of the camp alone you can have rob them before they escape and get both the items and the bonus experience]].

* ''{{VideoGame/Dishonored}}'' gets harder the more people you kill-- more rats, more Weepers, and heightened security. You also get material rewards for letting a few specific enemies live [[spoilers: such as the Pendleton twins, Lady Boyle's sisters, and the Weepers under the Hound Pits]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem: Thracia 776'' allows you to Capture enemy units. There are a few rules to it, of course, but you get their equipment and won't have to lose your own units if you're clever.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' rewards you for showing mercy to the Little Sisters. You only get half the Adam for sparing them, but after sparing a few you get a 200 Adam bonus (equal to 2.5 spared Sisters) and other assorted rewards.
** Expanded on in the sequel, where showing mercy to certain characters alters the ending. Sparing them is considered good, however sparing one character [[spoiler:means they'll remain a twisted, bloated foetus creature subjected to incredible pain and insanity for the rest of his life]]. It's considered a good act.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mardek}} 2'' has a choice to spare a character. Doing so gets you a very useful shop in ''Mardek 3''.

* Used in ''{{Vectorman}}''. Go through a level without shooting once? Get a hefty point bonus. (This is doable on some levels thanks to the fact that your DoubleJump can do damage at certain points.)
* The original Midway side-scrolling shooter ''{{NARC}}'' had this. You could gun down every crook you meet, but if you stayed in his space long enough, he'd be arrested, for a nice end-of-level bonus. You ''are'' a cop, so this makes sense.

* The first two games of the ''KingsQuest'' series tends to give you more points for nonviolent solutions to problems. The later games, not so much. For instance, [[KingsQuestIV KQ4]], [[KingsQuestV KQ5]] and the remake of [[KingsQuestII KQ2]] all require you to deal violently with the antagonist.

* Violence is never the answer in the ''KingsQuest'' series. If you have the choice between violence and non-violence, the peaceful method is always the "correct" one that gives you the most points and the GoldenEnding.

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* In ''VideoGame/Utawarerumono'', it's technically not a merciful choice the player actually has: after the player manages to beat Mutikapa, the godlike tiger who's been killing villagers, her cub is left alive. Hakuoro automatically decides to spare the cub despite others pointing out that the cub might grow up to be another Mutikapa. Ultimately this provides a huge benefit to Hakuoro: the cub does in fact grow up to resemble Mutikapa in appearance, but it's ''loyal to Aruruw'' and therefore the player now has a defensive tank in the party due to Aruruw's desire to help "Daddy!" It even helps scare off Benawi's woptar army in the first battle in which you can control it, lowering all their defenses and making the battle winnable.

* In ''VideoGame/Utawarerumono Utawarerumono'', it's technically not a merciful choice the player actually has: after the player manages to beat Mutikapa, the godlike tiger who's been killing villagers, her cub is left alive. Hakuoro automatically decides to spare the cub despite others pointing out that the cub might grow up to be another Mutikapa. Ultimately this provides a huge benefit to Hakuoro: the cub does in fact grow up to resemble Mutikapa in appearance, but it's ''loyal to Aruruw'' and therefore the player now has a defensive tank in the party due to Aruruw's desire to help "Daddy!" It even helps scare off Benawi's woptar army in the first battle in which you can control it, lowering all their defenses and making the battle winnable.

* In [[VideoGame/Utawarerumono Utawarerumono]], it's technically not a merciful choice the player actually has: after the player manages to beat Mutikapa, the godlike tiger who's been killing villagers, her cub is left alive. Hakuoro automatically decides to spare the cub despite others pointing out that the cub might grow up to be another Mutikapa. Ultimately this provides a huge benefit to Hakuoro: the cub does in fact grow up to resemble Mutikapa in appearance, but it's ''loyal to Aruruw'' and therefore the player now has a defensive tank in the party due to Aruruw's desire to help "Daddy!" It even helps scare off Benawi's woptar army in the first battle in which you can control it, lowering all their defenses and making the battle winnable.

* In [[VisualNovel/Utawarerumono Utawarerumono]], it's technically not a merciful choice the player actually has: after the player manages to beat Mutikapa, the godlike tiger who's been killing villagers, her cub is left alive. Hakuoro automatically decides to spare the cub despite others pointing out that the cub might grow up to be another Mutikapa. Ultimately this provides a huge benefit to Hakuoro: the cub does in fact grow up to resemble Mutikapa in appearance, but it's ''loyal to Aruruw'' and therefore the player now has a defensive tank in the party due to Aruruw's desire to help "Daddy!" It even helps scare off Benawi's woptar army in the first battle in which you can control it, lowering all their defenses and making the battle winnable.

** In the fight against The Sorrow you must dodge The Sorrow's attacks while wading through the ghosts of every character you have killed up to that point in the game. The fewer characters you have killed, the fewer there are to dodge and the easier the fight is.

* ''MetalGearSolid 3'' rewards you with new camouflage if you nonlethally defeat bosses, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation but they die anyway.]]

* ''TheSuffering: Ties That Bind'' rewards mercy, but in this the form of ShootTheDog, by finishing off a slowly dying officer.

* ''{{Bioshock}}'' rewards you for showing mercy to the Little Sisters. You only get half the Adam for sparing them, but after sparing a few you get a 200 Adam bonus (equal to 2.5 spared Sisters) and other assorted rewards.

* ''SuperSmashBros Melee'' had the "Merciful Master" bonus awarded if you win a match without KO'ing anyone - which usually means they managed to KO themselves. And an even bigger bonus called "Switzerland" awarded for not taking any damage and not using any attacks at all.

* In some ''SuperRobotWars'' games, you can on certain occasions earn a battle mastery or (much more practically and rarely) a new unit by reducing an enemy to critical damage without destroying them. Of course, most of the time, you're rewarded for finishing off boss units, who tend to [[MetalSlime run away at low HP]].

* ''FireEmblem: Thracia 776'' allows you to Capture enemy units. There are a few rules to it, of course, but you get their equipment and won't have to lose your own units if you're clever.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft's'' Diremaul instance has a section where the players can become king of an ogre tribe by killing the previous king. All the other bosses can be spared using several tricks to get past them, and doing so results in them paying you tribute in the form of items that are usually superior to what you would get by killing them.
* Both ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''MassEffect'' award KarmaMeter points for getting out of certain situations without combat. There's also an achievement in ''Mass Effect'' for defusing seemingly unwinnable situations with your Charm or Intimidate skill. In one particular twist, doing so will avoid losing a party member.

* Minor one in ''FinalFantasyVII'', as the team travel along the train tracks of Corel, a certain section of the tracks has a chirping sound. Cloud can travel up the slope to find a bird's nest with two treasure chests. If you choose not to attack the bird and give up the treasure, and either Aerith or Tifa is in the team, it can up their ''RelationshipValues'' for the Golden Saucer Date sequence.

* Doing good deeds in ''RedDeadRedemption'' (such as clearing out gang hideouts, helping the law, retrieving stolen goods, etc.) raises your karma meter slightly. When it's very high, random people will give you items, including but limited to cash, guns, and a [[GameBreaker rosary that deflects bullets]]. Disarming people in duels and bringing back bounties alive also gets you more fame, faster than killing your charges would have.

* ''VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' grants bonus XP for doing certain missions without being spotted or without killing anyone. Many of these also penalize you (i.e. The Prince yells at you and withholds money) if you kill anyone, since you're supposed to be upholding TheMasquerade.

* ''{{Mardek}} 2'' has a choice to spare a character. Doing so gets you a very useful shop in ''Mardek 3''.
* The ''MassEffect'' games occasionally use this. An excellent example: In ''MassEffect1'', you are given the choice to spare or kill [[spoiler: the rachni queen]]. If you spare her, you meet an asari in the [[MassEffect2 sequel]] carrying a message from her promising [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsArmy an army of rachni]]]] to help you fight the Reapers.
** ''MassEffect2'' tries be more ambiguous on the issue in one quest on Illium. Sparing a begging mercenary recruit will come back to haunt you when it's revealed the recruit was an unrepentant PsychoForHire who joined the mercenaries after murdering an innocent[[AssholeVictim (ish)]] volus merchant and now walks free. Then again, you can give the evidence of her crime to the police, which can still be considered a better option than murdering her before the PlayerCharacter even knew she was evil.
** ''MassEffect3'' takes this to the extreme. Throughout all three games, an obnoxious reporter hounds [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard,]] hell-bent on digging up any kind of dirt she can find. In all three games, [[ComedicSociopathy you can spout a one-liner and then punch her out.]] However, if you import a save after both games, and in those games you non-violently managed to upstage her in her own interviews, [[spoiler: you can get her to support you for the coming war with [[AbusivePrecursors the Reapers.]]]] Well, didn't see ''that'' coming...

* ''{{Bioshock}}'' rewards you for showing mercy to the Little Sisters.