How to beat Romina, Saint of the Bud in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (2024)

Romina, Saint of the Bud is a boss fight in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that may throw you for a loop. Romina is a deadly threat with an array of fast attacks, but much of the tension in her battle comes from keeping Scarlet Rot at bay. On the bright side, Romina also has plenty of weaknesses for you to exploit.

Our Elden Ring DLC guide explains how to beat Romina in Shadow of the Erdtree, including what those weaknesses are and the best ways to take advantage of them.

Romina location in Elden Ring DLC

Romina makes her home in the Church of the Bud, a remote location tucked away in the western part of Rauh Ruins. She’s a mandatory DLC boss, and you’ll venture here as part of Shadow of the Erdtree’s main quest. It’s difficult to reach and sits atop a few rot caverns, with Hornsent waiting to invade you along the way, but you can’t miss it.

Romina weaknesses and how to prepare

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Romina has quite a few weaknesses for a legendary boss. She’s prone to Bleed and Frostbite, and she takes extra damage from holy-aligned attacks. If you’re running a faith build, you may want to pick up some of the new DLC Incantations to exploit that last weakness.

A Cold- or Bleed-infused sword, such as Milady or the Backhand Blade, is excellent for this battle, though non-elemental swords deal heavy damage to Romina as well. Avoid hammers and other blunt weapons, though. These seem to deal less damage, and since they have shorter range, you risk putting yourself in more danger anyway. Keep Glintstone Icecrag, Adula’s Greatblade, and Zamor Ice Storm equipped if you’re specializing in sorcery, and bring Frozen Lightning Spear along if you’re running faith instead.

Divine Beast’s Frost Stomp is also a very useful Ash of War for this fight, since it covers a broad area and Romina is rather big.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

The Mimic Tear is, as ever, a strong Spirit Ash choice capable of withstanding attacks and exploiting Romina’s weaknesses the same as you can. If you’re focused on Frostbite, you may also want to try the Dung Eater Puppet or, better still, the Jolan and Anna Puppet, as they’re both excellent at inflicting Bleed. Complete Count Ymir’s quest and find Rabbath’s Rise to get Jolan and Anna. Even the Greatshield Soldier is useful in this battle, thanks to its ranged Frost-inflused attacks and high defense.

You can summon Dryleaf Dane again for this battle, and even though doing so buffs Romina’s HP a bit, you should still bring him along. He’s a valuable asset and keeps her attention off you.

Try finding enough Scadutree Fragments to get your Scadutree level to 10 or higher and your Revered Spirit Ash level to seven or higher. If your immunity level is low, consider equipping any of the Immunizing Horn Charm Talismans to slow how quickly Scarlet Rot builds up, and have Neutralizing Bolus items in one of your shortcut slots to remove any rot buildup that does occur.

How to beat Romina, Saint of the Bud in Elden Ring DLC

Romina’s attacks hit hard and gradually build up the rot meter, but she’s slower and more deliberate than the likes of Messmer and Rellana. There’s a second or two after most of her attacks where you can strike and retreat, and since she keeps her attention on one attacker for quite a while, magic users should be able to complete the fight from a distance while their summon and NPC ally keep Romina busy.

The good thing about Romina is that her bug extensions make for a pretty big hitbox. You don’t have to be right near her human form for your hits to count, so sticking to the tail stinger while Romina and the centipede are attacking a summon is a perfectly viable strategy.

Romina boss fight phase 1

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Romina almost always begins the battle by rushing you and slashing twice with her giant polearm. The way she moves and the strength of each hit means that if the first attack connects, you probably can’t dodge the second. Dodge forward or backward to avoid both strikes, and keep an eye on her movements to get the timing right. She likes to hold the polearm back for an extra second before swinging.

The centipede part of Romina has a few unique attacks of its own. It will sometimes thrust forward and strike, an attack you can dodge sideways to avoid. If it rears back and clicks its mandibles together, that signals another type of attack: It’ll rush forward and to the side in a snake-like movement and then repeat it again while moving forward. The direction is usually right, then left, but either way, you can avoid it by dodging backward right when it’s about to strike.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Romina will sometimes bring her tail and the centipede in around her and then whirl around and spread them out. Dodge backward to avoid getting caught by this one. She’ll also roll into a wheel and race towards you twic, before unfurling herself again and attacking with the centipede and a quick slash from the polearm. Dodging forward is your best chance of avoiding these, although there’s also a small safe space directly in front of Romina where the polearm — on purpose or by accident — doesn’t hit you.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

She attacks with her stinger tail if you get too close, and if the centipede makes contact with its single forward thrust, Romina will trap you, deal damage with her stinger, and build the rot meter for several seconds.

Last is a strong attack where Romina will rear back and slightly into the air, then whirl forward and hit you with her stinger, poleblade, and centipede one right after the other. Dodging forward will let you avoid the three-hit combo entirely.

Things change a bit once her health drops to the halfway point, though.

Romina boss fight phase 2

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Romina becomes much more agile and gains a few new attacks in her second phase, including several that cause extensive Scarlet Rot buildup. However, when she’s not airborne, her attacks are as deliberate as in her first phase, so you almost always have a window of a second or two to attack while she recovers. She also remains focused on one attacker at a time and only changes targets after finishing a combo or if you attack her repeatedly without stopping.

The phase begins when Romina summons rot energy around her, rises into the air, and creates multiple butterflies in rings around the arena. These explode after a few seconds, dealing damage and causing rot buildup. You can position yourself in an area with no butterflies or try dodging to evade when the explosion happens.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Romina will repeat this attack at intervals, and there’s an odd quirk you can take advantage of after the first time. She only summons the butterflies from a specific location, and she’ll cross the entire battlefield to go back to it if need be. That’s a few seconds where she’s not attacking, meaning there’s an easy target for you to hit before she creates the field of rot energy around herself.

Romina deploys her poleblade slashes more frequently in this phase, and she has a new combo She rises into the air, then leaps forward with a whirling slash that covers most of the battlefield, turns around and do it again, and finishes with a whirling slash as she slams into the ground. There’s a rhythm to this attack, and you have about a second between each to dodge the next, in any direction.

This combo produces more butterflies on the field, which explode after Romina crashes to the ground. Romina herself remains still for a second after the final attack, which gives you time to rush in and land some of your own.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

She’ll occasionally use two polearm slashes when you stay too close, which deal regular damage instead of magic and rot damage, and she’ll infrequently fly into the air and slam down on top of you or an ally after hovering for a second.

Defeating Romina earns you the Remembrance of the Saint of the Bud, which you can exchange for her polearm or for an Incantation that summons rot butterflies — or both, if you duplicate Remembrances.

The point of no return lies just beyond the Church of the Bud, so wrap up any questlines from NPCs with ties to Miquella that you haven’t finished before proceeding.

For more Elden Ring DLC bosses, see our guides on all Remembrance bosses and learn how to duplicate Remembrances. Need to power up? We’ve got location guides on where to find Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, and an interactive Elden Ring DLC map.