Karma and trophies are highly coveted rewards on Reddit, but what are they exactly? Why do they matter? And how can you get more of them? Let’s dive into it.
What Is Karma?
In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is the idea that your actions, good or bad, send out a ripple in the world, which eventually circles back to influence your life. Good deeds build up positive karma, and bad deeds lead to bad karma. Reddit karma works kind of the same way—except here, your “good deeds” are upvotes, and your “bad deeds” are downvotes.
Here’s how it works: when you post or comment something on Reddit, other Redditors can upvote or downvote it, depending on whether they agree, disagree, or just like what you’re sharing. Upvotes add to your karma, while downvotes subtract from it.
Your Reddit karma is the approximate sum of all your upvotes minus your downvotes across everything you’ve posted or commented on. So, if you’re regularly helpful, insightful, or witty, you’ll build up good karma. But if you’re a troll or disrespectful, you’ll rack up negative karma.
But why should you care about fake online points distributed by the internet hive mind?
Well, karma is important because, on Reddit, it is your reputation. Having a lot of karma signals that you make positive contributions to the community, while low or negative karma suggests you might be more of a troublemaker.
Some subreddits won’t let you share your opinions if you don’t have enough karma—your posts and comments may be hidden, and you may experience limits on how frequently you can post or comment.
If you’re new to Reddit, you’ll start with a single karma point, so you won’t be able to post or comment in every community right away. You’ll need to build up your karma before you can fully participate in the full Reddit experience.
How to Check Your Reddit Karma
On your phone, you can check how much karma you have by opening the profile menu.
You should see your total karma immediately below your avatar.
You can then click on this number to see the breakdown of your karma into post and comment karma.
If you’re viewing Reddit on a desktop, open the profile menu and select “View Profile”.
Your post and comment karma will be displayed on your profile card on the right.
How to Get More Karma
There are two categories of karma—post karma, and comment karma. Post karma is the sum of upvotes and downvotes you’ve gotten across all your posts, while comment karma is the sum of upvotes and downvotes you’ve gotten across all your comments.
You can increase your post and comment karma by posting quality content and making insightful comments that are witty, funny, or helpful to other Redditors. It also helps to avoid behavior that may cause people to downvote you.
If you’re trying to build up your Karma, here are some tips that may help:
- Find New User-Friendly Subs: The most popular subreddits usually have high post and comment karma thresholds. They do this to prevent spam, but it also makes it impossible for new Redditors to participate. You can get around this by building up karma in subreddits with low or no karma thresholds before attempting to post or comment in those bigger subreddits again. Here’s a list of some of these new user-friendly subreddits you can peruse.
- Start by Commenting: Since post karma thresholds can be pretty high, it’s often easier to build up comment karma than post karma. If you’re new to Reddit, focus on leaving witty or helpful comments in the early days before transitioning to making posts when you’ve built up enough karma.
- Comment on New and Rising Posts: Use the feed options to find posts that are “new” or “rising” to get in on the action early. That way, your comment can get in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
- Avoid Arguments and Controversial Topics: Arguing or controversial opinions are a sure way to get loads of downvotes. You might be able to get away with it if you have a decent amount of Karma, but if you’re just starting, I’d advise staying away from it.
- Delete Posts or Comments Accumulating Negative Karma: If you make a joke that misses or share an opinion that people dislike, you can delete it to prevent your downvotes from accumulating.
- Stay Away From Karma Farms: You may come across subreddits offering free upvotes or free Karma. Do your best to stay away from them. Karma farming violates Reddit rules and can lead to you getting a permanent ban.
What Are Trophies?
Trophies are rewards Reddit gives you to recognize your activity and contributions to the site. You can earn them for things as simple as verifying your email or as involved as joining the moderator council.
Trophies are a fun way to keep track of your achievements and history on Reddit. They show what Reddit events you’ve participated in and how you’ve stood out on Reddit.
While there’s no practical benefit to having trophies—they’re really just social badges—it’s still nice to collect a bit of Reddit silverware. Some trophies have even been discontinued, so if you have one that’s now considered a legacy trophy, it can be a unique point of pride.
How to See Your Trophy Case
On mobile, you can see what trophies you’ve accumulated by opening the profile menu and clicking “Profile”.
Next, switch to the “About” tab, and you should see your trophies at the bottom of the screen.
On a desktop, you can see your trophies by opening the profile menu and selecting “View Profile”.
Your trophies will be at the bottom of your profile card on the right.
How to Get More Trophies
Reddit awards trophies for doing things—some as easy as verifying your email and others that are more complicated.
Personally, I wouldn’t advise trophy hunting because it can be a long and frustrating road. Just focus on enjoying yourself, and the trophies will come to you.
However, if you decide to aim for a specific trophy, check out the subreddit r/trophywiki. It has a full list of Reddit trophies, organized by difficulty, along with information on whether they are still obtainable and what you need to do to earn them. If there’s a particular trophy you’re interested in, you can research it there to get more details on how to achieve it.
Reddit karma and trophies are just some of the fun quirks that make the platform unique. If you’re thinking about making it your main social media app, you should get familiar with it by learning how to search Reddit or how to turn on dark mode effectively.
