Community Archive

All by Myself

Start NPC	Marin - Bastok Markets (E-10)
Requirements	Bastok Reputation 2
Items Needed	Ken's Escort Reward
Repeatable	Yes
Reward	1,500 gil

Walkthrough

Be warned that this is considered by many players to be one of the most difficult quests in the game, and it's for an extremely meager reward.

NOTE: The escort portion of this quest is capped at level 10. Change to a curative job (or any job combination that allows you to cure at level 10). You will probably have to cure a lot, so keep that in mind.

Quest Steps

Marin wants you to watch over her brother Ken in Dangruf Wadi.
When Ken asks you not to interfere, select "I wasn't talking to you, squirt!" to start the quest.
Zone into Dangruf Wadi for a cut scene in which Ken tells you to leave.
Talk to Ken to start the escort.
- Talking to Ken caps the level of all players of the party to level 10.
- Follow him without being seen and keep him alive.
  - He has extremely large sight range and pivots around very quickly.
  - See notes below for tips and suggestions.
- He more or less follows the path outlined in the 'Quest Route' map.
- Ken fights all monsters he sees (even nonaggressive ones) and takes tremendous damage during the trip.
Once he's back at the zone he'll say something and zone out. That's when Marin will appear.
Talk to Marin to obtain Ken's escort reward and to remove your level cap.
Go back to Bastok and talk to Marin to receive your reward, 1500 gil.

Notes

Under the level cap, a White Mage may be the only realistic option to complete the quest without help from a high level player.
The Destier Beret is your friend!
BUFFS DO NOT WEAR! It is recommended to enable Afflatus Solace if you have WHM 40+ before speaking with Ken to receive the level cap. The Stoneskin effect will wear off in one hit, but it does reduce the damage he takes after every Cure you give him.
Invisible status wears off instantly, be it by someone else casting it on you, by using Prism Powders or even Tonko: Ichi.
Ken has HNM sight radius, which means if you can see him, he can see you.
He has the natural 90 degrees area of sight in front of him, but he turns and moves around a lot.
WIthout a high level player clearing the area ahead of him, he will be attacked and killed if you don't cure him. Ignoring him is not an option.
When you're running low on MP try to cure him to full HP fast and rest. It takes a while for his HP to drop again, which gives you time to rest and catch up with him.
His trip is one set path (see the 'Quest Route' map[1]). He does a loop on the left-hand side of the entrance of Dangruf Wadi and goes through a few regions. His path will not take him near the newly-added high level monsters.
- Be advised that the aforementioned map gives his general route without any specifics. At various points he turns to look behind him, and even deviates a bit from the map, but his path is always the same.
- When he engages a monster, he runs off to fight it, but will return to the point where he left off before continuing his path. This means that he may turn around abruptly after the battle ends, unless there's another mob he needs to fight first. Be aware that he ignores terrain while returning to the point he left off from and takes the straightest line, even if that involves running straight over normally impassable rocks.
The only time that is really safe to cure him is while he's in a battle, but keep in mind that he might turn around right after the battle ends.
Outside cures don't have any effect; only the escort can cure him.
Alliance members won't be capped, but can't heal him either.
Other players cannot engage Ken's targets, even though they don't appear claimed.
A higher level player not in the party can run ahead of Ken and kill most or all of the mobs in his way. This drastically reduces the difficulty on this quest.
- Now that the monsters respawn in 5 minutes rather than 15, this option is no longer very effective; neither is training the monsters, which deaggro liberally. The best way to beat the quest may be to just cure him as the developers intended.
- Dec-2025, Used a Lv99 (no iLVL) RDM/BLM to run ahead and clear monsters using Stonega and Waterga. These low level spells are enough to one shot everything, and often multiple monsters in a single cast. The biggest problem was the large open areas, as there is some randomness to which route trough that area that Ken takes. As such, always get to those areas and clear them ASAP. He only really pauses in the open areas, so if he's in the tunnels expect him to not stop if there is no monsters for him to fight. He can fight at least one monster by himself without healing, so if he does engage something don't worry about it. The level synced player stayed at the entrance to the zone, and only left when Ken returned to the entrance to avoid getting spotted at the very end.
You have 30 minutes in total to complete this quest. The countdown starts as soon as you enter Dangruf Wadi, not when you talk to Ken. You must talk to him within 5 minutes after zoning into the area or he'll leave and you have to rezone to start.

General notes on Escort quests

Any of the escort quests can be easily deactivated by talking to the same person who gave you the quest.
If the escortee dies, you only have to zone out and zone back in to restart the quest.
This quest can be completed once per Conquest Tally.
You can not sneak or invisible the escortee.

Game Description

Client: Marin (Kulatz Bridge, Bastok Markets)
Summary: Marin wants you to watch over her little brother Ken, and make sure nothing happens to him during his military academy exam. Hopefully, this does not count as cheating...

SPOILER WARNING: Click here for additional details about this story line.

Source entry: All by Myself. Cached on this server on 4 November 2026.