It doesn't actually appeal to me but a lot of players chose to play the Bad Karma or BK game, and I know why. The BK relics are simpler to use because each of them boosts just one of the 5 attributes. It's also a lot easier to get the first of the BK tags that so many people like to wear. But it's not as simple as it looks, and I think a few of our younger players are being fooled by those tags.

First of all, in order to use a BK relic you must have more Bad Karma than Good Karma, and you are constantly gaining Good Karma as you grind your way through the game. You gain 1 point of GK for every 100 mobs you kill. If you want to lose that GK you pretty much have to go stand in front of a tiger every time you level up. You normally lose experience points from dying, but if you didn't have any to begin with, it's no big deal. You will lose GK from dying too.

But how do you gain Bad Karma? As low-level player, that's not easy. The usual way is to make a karma trade with another black clan member. You kill them, they kill you. You both gain Bad Karma that way and you can do that in the Bloody Plains. Keep in mind that you can't kill a member of your clan, and I don't think you can kill a member of your own band/league either.

You have to make this karma trade at a slow time of day, or you'll just get jumped by the usual horde of PK, or Player Kill players. Then neither of you gets any BK, just the hordes around you.

The other way to gain your first bit of Bad Karma is to do the 'Flowers of Bloody Plains' quest. You talk to the rich man in Hefei, and he asks you to get him 5 flowers from Bloody Plains. Then you talk to the old man, and he asks the same thing. You can't get the flowers until you talk to both men.

The flowers are just to the left of the Conqueror's Cave entrance in the Bloody Plains. Most of the PK players won't attack you there because they know you are a lowbie, and they know what you are up to. It's hard enough to collect these things because the mobs in BP will attack you.

When you get back to Hefei with your flowers there will be a quest mark on the old man. You talk to him and you can give him the flowers. You will get some Conqueror's Cave herb and some good karma. You don't have to give him the flowers. You can tell him, "No". Then you go give the flowers to the rich man, and he will give you some money, some CC herb, and some Bad Karma.

It's not much, but it's a start, and this will let you use the BK relics if you've been regularly standing in front of a tiger, each time you level up.

Ok, so now you want that cool "Dark Heart" tag? Well, you're going to have to go arrange some karma trades or wait until you are big enough and strong enough to go play the PK game.

I think you will find that a lot of players have the "Dark Heart" tag, but they are still using the GK relics. If you have more Good Karma than Bad Karma, you can use the Good Karma relics and you don't need much BK for that Dark Heart tag. I doubt that it is worth my time to try for any Bad Karma, and besides, I've invested a ton of money in Good Karma relics.

So how do you play the Karma game? Please let us know.

- SpearDriver