History Main / MercyRewarded

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', you gain ExperiencePoints for resolving encounters, no matter how you accomplish this. If the goal is stopping the dragon from flattening a nearby town, it doesn't matter if you do this by killing the dragon, bribing the dragon, or tricking the dragon into going someplace else, you should get the same XP. Naturally, this varies considerably from one DungeonMaster to another, but the concept is there. This doesn't apply to other kinds of reward, of course, since a dead dragon is far easier to get treasure from than a live one.

** In the sequel, players far enough down the Mastermind tree can convince enemies that have surrendered to actively fight on your behalf. Their AI isn't great, but it gets you an extra gun, and with other Mastermind skills the converted enemy gets massive bonuses to health and damage.

** In both ''Path of Radiance'' and ''Radiant Dawn'', sparing enemies in some levels gives the player bonus experience that they can 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 on their own, you can have rob them before they escape and get both the items and the bonus experience]].

** In addition, in ''VideoGame/BioShock2'', sparing one antagonist will earn the player extra supples in next level.

** In the ending to ''MegaMan10'', [[spoiler: Dr. Wily is sick when Mega Man captures him, so Mega Man takes him to a hospital instead of taking him to prison. To reward him, Wily leaves behind the cure to the Roboenza virus when he escapes.]]

* A ''JudgeDredd'' video game for the Sega Genesis gave you 50 points for every dead criminal. Properly arresting one gave you 100.

* Several mission-relevant [=NPC=]s in TheOldRepublic will send the player gifts of money, equipment, or consumables in gratitude for being spared. Of course, in quite a few of these cases a different character will send you a reward for killing them...

* At one point later on in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', right after [[spoiler:the destruction of Zeal and the death of Crono]], the [[spoiler:remaining]] party members (led by Frog), meet up with [[spoiler:Magus]]. You have a choice to make: fight him, or choose to leave him alone. [[spoiler:If you choose the former, you battle him and kill him (for real). If you choose the latter, Frog sheathes his sword, says attacking him would be pointless, and Magus decides to '''join your party'''. Whoa.]]
** You get this same choice and (mostly) the same results, even if Frog is not in the party.

* If you're running a good-aligned party in ''MightandMagic VII'', one of your mandatory quests is to do a pacifist run of a fairly difficult dungeon called the Walls of Mist. You fail it if you so much as damage an enemy, though you can try again. (Evil parties have a quest that takes them here too, but are free to kill anything they like).
* Arguably invoked in ''[[RiftWar Return To Krondor]]''. There are many situations in ''ReturnToKrondor'' where you get XP for avoiding a fight with various groups, but generally the reward is less than what you get if just kill them.
* Horrifically inverted in ''InfiniteSpace''. [[spoiler:Letting a minor villain live will cause an innocent girl to die [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horribly]].]]

* Several mission-relevant NPCs in TheOldRepublic will send the player gifts of money, equipment, or consumables in gratitude for being spared. Of course, in quite a few of these cases a different character will send you a reward for killing them...

** Unfortunately, this doesn't work on PCP addicts or serial killers (they have melee attacks and will slaughter you if you try to arrest them), and is suicide against drug dealers (who throw extremely powerful syringes). Nice in theory, fails in practice.

* Narc gave you a LOT more points for "busting" criminals than for just shooting them, making non-lethal the best way to gain bonus lives.
** On the other hand, busted criminals never drop items (ammo/grenades), and some criminals are too hard/impossible to bust, so you will wind up killing as many, or more, than you bust.

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' takes place in a BlackAndGrayMorality world where violence and cruelty are often rewarded, but it still has some instances of this trope. For example, choosing to kill the Rattus Faber bandit chief during the Troubled By Vermin storyline nets you his rifle which has a small Dangerous bonus, but sparing him instead ([[PathOfMostResistance which is tougher to do]]) makes him available as a companion that gives you a much bigger Dangerous boost than his rifle ''and'' nets you tributes from the other rats later on.

* ''VideoGame/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 ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHest'', you can spare a cop's life by intimidating them to drop their weapon and handcuffing themselves (sometimes you'll have to shoot them to get them to cooperate). Getting cops to cuff themselves will count as a hostage under your possession.

* ''SplinterCell'' games (at least the later ones) deduct points for every person you kill on the mission, all of them if its a civilian or ally. However this applies in missions in which you are specifically told to kill someone, and the objective is fulfilled for "knocking them out" even if you only do it nonlethally, by all rights they should be alive.

** Sparing the Rachni Queen in [=ME1=] and Legion and Zaeed in [=ME2=] all give advantages in [=ME3=] - especially in Legion's case. 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)]].

* ''Very'' subverted in ''DungeonKeeper''. Setting your enemies free will merely cause them to come back to fight you; in contrast, [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil torturing them causes them to eventually join your side]].

* ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games sometimes feature this. In random fights, in case you've almost finished beating the crap out of an enemy squad, with just one enemy left, sometimes he will stope the fight and attempt to converse with you, pleading for mercy. In case you grant it, he can leave with no fuss, thank you and give some money or items, decide you're cool and join your team, or invoke ISurrenderSuckers and have a last stab at you.

* If you let Sareena live after defeating her in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero'', she [[DramaticEntry shows up dramatically]] at the conclusion of your battle with Quan-Chi to deliver the coup de grace.