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Contents hide Romina, Saint of the Bud location Recommended gear and our build Romina, Saint of the Bud boss guide Romina, Saint of the Bud move list Romina, Saint of the Bud rewards ✓ at a glance
  • Romina uses a lot of Scarlet Rot in this fight, but it is easy to deal with.
  • Bleed is effective against Romina, especially with the Rivers of Blood.
  • A lot of Romina’s attacks can miss you due to her range. Try not to roll forward into her attacks and back up instead.

Romina, Saint of the Bud is a major boss fight in Shadow of the Erdtree, guarding the way to the final Legacy Dungeon in the DLC. For when Romina is fought, this boss was actually very easy for us to beat. They can hit you with scarlet rot, but it was never bad enough to cause us problems. Here’s how to beat Romina, Saint of the Bud.

Romina, Saint of the Bud location

At the end of the nightmare-scape that is the Rauh Ruins, you will come face-to-scorpion with Romina, Saint of the Bud. As always, the closest Grace – the Church of the Bud, Main Entrance – is directly outside the boss room just up from the hell hole of Pests below.

You can find Romina here, at the end of the Rauh Ruins. Image taken by VideoGamer

Recommended gear and our build

This might just be us, but we had the easiest time in the world beating Romina, Saint of the Bud. This boss is very weak to bleed, which is why the greatest weapon of all time, the Rivers of Blood, to avoid confusion, was instrumental to our success. Outside of this, we also forgot to summon our Spirit Ash until halfway through the fight. For whatever reason, the Scarlet Rot never bothered us nor did most of the attacks. Here’s our build:

  • Level: 196.
  • Rivers of Blood +10, Messmer Soldier Shield, Leda’s Sword +10
  • Winged Serpent Helm, Oathseeker Knight Armor, Rellana’s Gloves, Blaidd’s Greaves.
  • Crimson Seed Talisman, Erdtree’s Favor +2, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +2, Assassin’s Crimson Dagger (Oops).
  • Mimic Tear +10.

Romina can use Scarlet Rot, so it could be good to gear for this if you have trouble. We didn’t find it difficult to deal with, but your experience might be different. As a note, the Assassin’s Crimson Dagger was, yet again, another wasted Talisman on our part. Slot in something for more DPS or survivability if you find you need it. The Mottled Necklace +2 would be good for more status resistance.

Romina, Saint of the Bud boss guide

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that Romina is pretty disgusting. More importantly, she will utilise the heck out of her centipede legs to move around the arena a ton. Generally, this isn’t a problem unless she is doing an attack during this movement. She can curl up into a ball and then twist out to reposition, hitting you in the process. Romina seems to want to keep close to you, so you don’t have to chase around as much as other bosses.

These attacks can be blocked easily, doing only physical damage. Image taken by VideoGamer

Romina will use several attacks at range to close the distance. One of them, which is the attack you want to see a lot, is a double sweep with her spear. Before the attack, Romina will usually back up and her spear will glow before she lunges forward. Dodge over the top of the first swing and stay close enough while circling around to the back that the other swing will miss entirely. During this, you can get in a lot of hits.

✓ Give us a break

In close range, Romina will swing that spear like there’s no tomorrow. With well-timed rolls, you can stay close to her by evading into the attacks. Equally, you can use this time to roll away and restore some HP if you need it.

Our best advice for this fight is to let Romina come to you. You want to stay pretty close to the entrance of the arena and try to basically switch positions with Romina. You want to face the boss fog while Romina has her back to it. By positioning like this, you can shut down a lot of her backwards movement, since she can get caught on the walls and the entrance to the arena when she’s trying to dodge back or reposition. Make sure she doesn’t switch it around on you; having your back up against the wall will be very bad.

✓ Is something rotting?

While Romina can hurt you with Scarlet Rot, it shouldn’t be a problem until her butterfly phase. While her weapon glows purple, hits will inflict rot buildup, but you can easily stay on top of this. Even if it triggers, time your healing wisely. Or pop a Bolus.

If you keep Romina near the entrance as we suggest, you can exploit her moves for a lot of free damage. Specifically, when you see her moving around is your cue to strike at her. Keep close and keep aggressive. If you want, you can do this without a Spirit Ash. The main thing you want to be careful of is her powering-up ability.

Keep Romina around this location if you can. Her attacks can get caught. Image taken by VideoGamer

Again, it’s beyond stupid that every single boss has a powered-up phase, but whatever. You know the drill: at half HP, the boss will begin using an AoE attack to charge up. During this time, Romina will swirl purple around her and it will hit you multiple times. It’s hard to get away from, so make sure you react quickly and move away as soon as you see her start rising up and summon purple butterflies. Each tick of this attack will build Scarlet Rot. When you get clear, heal up and use any other consumable like a Physick or Bolus to remove the Rot.

✓ do as we say, not as we do

Don’t be like us. We took this time to summon our Spirit Ash because we forgot to do it at the start. If you want, this is a good time to do it, but you should always summon at the start.

When this attack ends, there will be little explosions of lingering butterflies that will catch you out if you try and get close to her to deal some damage. Wait for these to disappear and let Romina come to you again. Most likely, she will now charge up a spear attack and lunge at you. If she uses an attack where she sweeps into the air, it seems like she has a hard time targeting you. She can miss, so you are very safe to keep backing up instead of rolling forward. This attack ends in a spinning slash where she lands leaving Rot buildup behind her.

As you can see, Romina might need her eyes testing. GIF created by VideoGamer

We’ve noticed that a lot of her attacks can miss you if you simply move backwards. It might be that devs are trying to trick you into rolling forward, but we were able to avoid a lot of spear swipes by simply moving back. Give it a try and see how you get on if dodging is getting you hurt.

To put it simply, Romina uses a lot of spin-to-win attacks. She will utilise both tails to do sweeping attacks or she will curl up and roll at you like Sonic. You can easily block these attacks if you have a shield and then get close to her to keep up the attack. Her spin attacks end in a spear swing, so watch out for these if you are in close quarters. A lot of the time, you can get caught in her tail movements and this will help you stay close. Keep attacking and only pause to heal or back off when needed.

✓ Pretty butterflies

She has an attack while powered-up where she will spray purple clouds of butterflies in front. These will explode for a lot of damage, so make sure you roll to the side to avoid them.

More than anything, we highly recommend bringing a shield that has 100% physical block with you in this fight. Blocking is lowkey amazing against Romina and it can be the difference between missing an opportunity to attack and being unceremoniously slapped to the ground. We used the Messmer Soldier Shield and its Guard Boost of 54 was perfect for this fight with our 30 Endurance. Better yet, use a shield with no Ash of War to whip out your main weapon’s skill in a hurry.

Romina, Saint of the Bud move list

This Saint is no bud of mine. The attacks from Romina aren’t too difficult to deal with if you know what’s coming. We saw a lot of attacks, but we may have missed being snagged by her grab attack. These are the attacks we’ve encountered, take a look to learn the best strategy for avoiding them.

AttackDescriptionStrategyLunging SwipeRomina’s spear will glow purple and she will close the distance with two sweeping slashes.If you dodge forward through the first swipe, she will miss the second one completely. This gives you a chance to deal damage.Spinning BallRomina will jump into the air and spin around in a ball in a circle.Watch out for the jump, as it will hurt you when she lands. The spin will also hurt you. If you have her near the arena entrance, she will get stuck on the wall and you can safely move in to hit her when she’s done.Centipede Lunge / SwipeRomina will attack in front of her with the centipede limb. She can also do a swipe to clear you away.This is a single lunging attack. Roll to the right to avoid it and get in a small combo. Don’t get greedy.Forward SweepThis spear swipe will propel Romina forward and make some distance between you. The swipe will be on her left side, so watch out for her holding her spear in two hands if you are near her side. If you turn off lock-on and roll away from the boss, she will miss.Scarlet Rot SwingThis move is a single swing while her spear glows purple.This is another side swipe. If you favour her left side, she will use this a lot. Try and mix it up and approach from the right if you can.Tail ComboRomina will curl up and swipe out three times. The first is a sweep with the centipede tail, the second is the scorpion stinger, and the third is a lunge with the stinger. Rolling perfectly forward can see you leap over these attacks safely. The third hit needs to be evaded by going to the side, preferably to the right.Jumping SlamRomina will jump into the air and come crashing down, spreading a small AoE of Scarlet Rot when she does.If you’re close to her when she does this, try and roll away from the attack. The camera makes it hard to see, but try and keep your HP topped up.AoE Power-UpWhen you get her HP low enough, Romina will spin into the air gathering a lot of purple towards her. It will create butterflies that will explode a moment later.This is Romina powering-up. The purple she gathers around her will hit you several times if you get caught and build Scarlet Rot. When the attack ends, the butterflies will fade to the ground and explode again, catching you if you try and get closer to her.Flying ComboAfter powering up, she can use a flying attack where she strikes several times with her spear. It ends with a sweep to the ground, spreading rot butterflies behind her as she lands.This attack is awkward and it can miss you if you keep backing away. It looks like the game is trying to trick you into dodging forward. Try not to dodge and the attacks should miss if you move backwards. For the final sweep, roll to the side.AoE ButterfliesRomina will spread butterflies in front of her that will explode.These cause Rot to build on you. Try and roll to the side or keep backing away to get away from them.

Romina, Saint of the Bud rewards

For beating Romina, the monster centipede, scorpion, fairy… thing, you get the Remembrance of the Saint of the Bud. If you’ve gotten this far in the game, you should really take a beat to recognise how well you’ve done. This DLC is not easy in any way, and it will continue to be a challenge even if you’re well into level 200. In terms of the story, you should have one major boss left and one optional super boss.

Now you can enter Enir-Ilim, the final Legacy Dungeon of the DLC. If you have somehow found yourself here before beating Messmer, you will have to backtrack and kill him before you can enter Enir-Ilim. Messmer drops Messmer’s Kindling, which clears the way into the dungeon.

About the Author

Jack Webb

Jack Webb is a guides writer for VideoGamer.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X
  • Genre(s): Action, RPG
  • Read Review
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Related Topics

  • Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

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