Moral Points or Karma Points as they're referred to internally form a hidden system in the Metro video game series that follows Artyom 's progress and affects the ending of each game.
This system is never explained to the player and its mechanics can only be speculated about. As the Metro Series is about Artyom's journey and him seeking to understand the world around him, the game rewards the player by guiding Artyom through experiences that help him better understand the metro and its strange phenomena. It's commonly understood that every time Artyom gets a moral point, the screen flashes light blue and whispers or the sound of water dripping can be heard.
When Artyom loses a moral point, the screen darkens and an ominous sound can be heard. There are more opportunities to gain moral points than to lose them, and moral points that are gained and lost vary in severity. Moral points can be gained through making morally correct decisions, being stealthy in certain levels, but can also be awarded for exploring every part of the map to get weapons and supplies. There is no telling how many moral points are required to get the good ending since the statistics are hidden; however, making wrong choices, killing surrendering NPC's, stealing, or going loud in the levels that require stealth will likely cause the player to not gain enough moral points to trigger the good ending.
Artyom has not left Exhibition station since his childhood and does not know anything about the world outside the Metro. If Artyom pokes around corners, eavesdrops dialogues and explores the levels he learns how this new world works and manages to make a decision based on this knowledge. In other words, he achieves a different Enlightened ending , as opposed to the Ranger one in which he blindly follows his orders.
There are 99 possible moral points to earn 91 in the original game. Artyom must gain 50 moral points to get the good ending. Moral points have not changed from Metro This time around, Artyom is much more experienced, so moral points are earned based on whether or not he does the right thing. They are earned the same way as in Metro , i. Gaining moral points will unlock the Redemption ending, where Artyom earns forgiveness for his past, as opposed to the standard C'est la vie ending where Artyom sacrifices himself for the Metro.
