FINAL FANTASY IX
51 Achievements
1,000
60-80h
The One Ring
Obtain Madain's Ring via mining.
15
2.18%
How to unlock the The One Ring achievement in FINAL FANTASY IX - Definitive Guide
This is done in Fossil Roo, in the second area, (Just right of the Fossil Roo/Cavern. Your menu will call this Fossil Roo/Mining site) there is a miner that will let you mine if you trade him a potion. Up in the top right hand corner of the map, is where you dig out Kuppo for another achievement. You can buy potions from Kuppo if you've ran out.
The ring isn't in an exact specific location due to the fact that this mini game is based on a random number generator. I found the best method was to pause, and press RB to turn on High Speed Mode. While this mode is on, move to either the upper floor, or bottom and mash A or X when the exclamation point shows. Hit it about 5-10 times, and if you don't find anything, move to another location and repeat. You will either find, ore, hi-potions, or Madian's Ring (which is rare).
On average, you will find about 4 to 5 items before items basically stop spawning. If none of them are Madian's Ring, walk to the edge of the map, and tell the miner you are done mining. Walk through to another room, and phase back to Fossil Roo/Mining site, trade another potion and go back at it. The key is to change the map, because this resets the treasures.
I put on youtube videos and went to town, moving every-time I heard the item collection ding. Eventually getting it. Mind you, because it is random, this could take quite a few tries. But with super speed on, it'll make the search bearable.
https://youtu.be/DaHGRKjdZOU
Make sure you lower the volume incase it's too loud
When you progress normally in the game until you reach Fossil Roo, there will be a miner picking the rocks. He will ask you if you want to have a go at it as well after trading him.
This is the same part where you can free the moogle out of the rocks for
This is your only shot at getting it, so it would be wise to have a second save, if you'd like to continue and do this later, as it turns out this is RNG. Because of that, I already have to start a second playthrough, since you cannot enter anymore (you can try, I did to find out the hard way) as the staircases leading down to Fossil Roo is being blocked.
https://youtu.be/DaHGRKjdZOU
Make sure you lower the volume in case it's too loud
This achievement will be done in Fossil Roo. You can participate in a mining mini-game (it costs a potion), and there is a very small chance to obtain the Madain's Ring from one of the mining spots here (five up top and three down below). It is completely random, so you'll just need to repeat the mini-game until successful. If you turn on the High Speed Mode booster you'll be able to mine more spots each attempt. After 10 attempts or after getting any item (ore, potion, etc) move to a new spot. Once all spots are hit, leave the screen to reset the game and try again.
MISSABLE
In Fossil Roo, you will be able to speak to a treasure hunter that will lend you his pickaxe in exchange for a Potion. With the pickaxe in hand, you can mine items in the giant pillar in the middle of the room. There are five spots you can excavate on the top of the pillar and four spots on the bottom of the pillar. Press in front of the pillar and Zidane will pick at it a little bit and there is a chance you will excavate an item. You can find Potions, Hi-Potions and Ores while mining and if you are lucky, you will excavate a Madain's Ring.
The chances of excavating an item are low and the chances of excavating a Madain's Ring are even lower. It might be a good idea to mine at a certain spot five or so times and then move onto the next if nothing is excavated. If an item is excavated, move onto the next spot. If mining at every spot doesn't yield a Madain's Ring, quit and retry to randomise the RNG.
The High Speed booster is especially useful for this task. Zidane is able to mine at a much faster pace, allowing you to mine the pillar multiple times in a short amount of time.
Once you finally excavate the Madain's Ring, the trophy will pop.