How to Beat Romina, Saint of the Bud in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

How to Beat Romina, Saint of the Bud in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

Dive into our Romina, Saint of the Bud guide for the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree expansion to get everything you need to beat the DLC boss.

This is likely the fifth boss you will face from the new DLC, after you defeat Divine Beast Dancing Lion, Rellana, Twin Moon Knight, Golden Hippopotamus, and Messmer.

If you need a DLC build instead, check out our Elden Ring build guides.

Location

Romina, Saint of the Bud can be found within the Church of the Bud by entering the fog gate at the main entrance.

The Church of the Bud is found in the final area of the Rauh Base region.

Reward

After killing this boss you will be rewarded with 380,000 runes and the Remembrance of the Saint of the Bud which can be traded in for one of two Items:

Her weapon, the Poleblade of the Bud

pole blade of the bud

This is a halberd with the alternate halberd moveset, which has higher DPS than a regular halberd's moveset.

It requires 14 Strength, 22 Dexterity, and 20 Arcane to wield.

Has a unique Ash of War that imbues the bud-blade with Scarlet Rot butterflies before unleashing two sweeping slashes. This Ash of War has a large range and can be very useful in NPC boss fights as the follow-up tends to always connect and stagger.

This weapon has innate rot build-up, which can deal significant amounts of damage throughout the course of a boss fight.

An Incantation, Rotten Butterflies

rotten butterflies incantation

This is an incantation wielded by the Saint of the Bud that summons a myriad of butterflies while performing a gentle twirl. The butterflies linger a while before exploding, setting off a chain reaction.

It requires 33 Faith to cast and takes up 1 spell slot.

It has a very long casting animation where you are incredibly vulnerable to attacks and also does very little damage and rot build-up

This spell is very visually appealing, but you will have a difficult time finding any other use for it other than to “look pretty”, so I would not recommend choosing this as your reward.

Recommended Level for Attempt

The recommended level for this boss is level 150. Regarding the DLC's leveling system, I recommend being at least Level 10 for your Scadutree Fragments level.

Damage Types

Strong Against

Romina is very resistant to Scarlet Rot and Poison build-up as well as Slash damage, so I do not recommend using a build that relies on applying Poison or Rot as its main damage source.

Weak Against

Here are a few damage types she is weak against

Bloodloss

Frostbite

Fire

Stance-Breaks

Bleed and Frost are likely among the most powerful damage types in the game as applying these status effects immediately deals a large portion of a boss's health bar and can be applied repeatedly throughout a fight, but if you are not too keen on using a bleed or frost build, fire builds will also melt this boss extremely quickly.

Another fatal weakness this boss has is its low stance. She only has 80 stance health so she can be easily stance-broken and stun-locked with Ashes of War such as Square Off or Glintblade Phalanx which deal high stance damage.

Two Phases

Romina, Saint of the Bud has 2 phases. Her second phase begins once she has lost around 55% of her HP.

This boss primarily deals physical damage but is also capable of inflicting Scarlet Rot if you are hit too many times.

In her first phase, she is fairly aggressive and will attack the player with a combination of tail swipes with her centipede body as well as Slashes with her pole blade.

In her second phase, she gains access to a couple of new attacks that create lingering rotten butterflies that explode in a chain reaction after a short delay, applying rot build-up. Apart from gaining these two attacks, all other aspects of the boss fight remain the same.

Phase 1

Romina is a fairly aggressive boss and will constantly be attempting to attack you. The best way to damage this boss is to take advantage of the long recovery time she has after all of her attacks. If dodged properly, most of her attacks should give you a large enough opening to get 1 or 2 hits in.

If you roll away from her and are not quite close enough to her during her recovery to do a normal attack, you can run toward her and jump attack which can cause many of her attacks to pass overhead and completely miss you.

Timing windows to attack/heal

The best opening to attack or heal is after her Jumping Poleblade Slash. This is her most telegraphed attack and it is the easiest to react to and dodge perfectly so you will have the best time taking advantage of her recovery on this attack.

Some other fairly good windows for attacking come after her Double Poleblade Slash and Flying Stinger.

These attacks give you a fairly good window to attack or heal but it is slightly shorter than after her Jumping Poleblade Slash.