Romina, Saint of the Bud Guide and Location (Elden Ring DLC Boss)

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.

Afte this guide, head to our Promised Consort Radahn guide.

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 things:

• Her weapon, the Poleblade 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

• • 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 to 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 poleblade.

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.

Notable Attacks

Attack Name	Description	Counter
Rotten Butterflies	Phase Transition. Romina will float into the air summoning a myriad of butterflies that explode in a chain reaction after a short delay, dealing some damage as well as Scarlet Rot build-up.	Roll away from her as she creates the butterflies and then unlock your camera in order to look for a section of the arena that does not have butterflies, that will be a safe zone where the explosion will not hit.
Romina’s Purification	Phase 2 only. Romina flies into the air and dashes at the player 3 times, leaving behind a trail of rotten butterflies after the final dash.	Rolling forward for the first dash and then rolling again with a tiny delay after the first roll, then waiting until after her first spin to roll the final dash.
Double Centipede Strike	Romina will use her centipede appendage to strike at the player twice from right to left.	Rolling the first strike to the back and right and then rolling the second at a slight delay to the back and left.
Roll	Romina will curl into a ball and roll at the player for a short period of time and then end her roll by swiping her tail and poleblade one after the other.	Roll past her initial roll toward you and then roll backward as she swipes her tail at you to create enough distance to dodge the poleblade.
Scorpion Sting	Romina quickly lifts her scorpion tail and then stabs at the player, creating a small splash where it hits the ground.	Rolling forward will give you enough time to deal damage or heal.
Flying Stinger	Romina will leap into the air and hover over the ground, then a high-pitched noise will sound and she will quickly thrust toward the player.	Rolling backward as you hear the high-pitched noise will give you a window to attack or heal.
Jumping Poleblade Slash	Romina will leap towards you and swing her poleblade, then after a short delay, will swing again.	Rolling to the right for the first swing and then rolling forward for the second swing after the delay will give you a window to attack or heal.
Flying Poleblade Swipes	Romina flies into the air and then spins twice swiping her poleblade toward the player.	Rolling the first spin backward and then the second spin forward and to the right.
Triple Tail Swipe	Romina will coil up and then swing her tails at you three times.	Can be avoided by backing away as she coils up and then rolling backward twice and then rolling forward for the final swipe.
Double Poleblade Slash	Romina will swipe her poleblade at you from close range.	The first swipe can be avoided by standing right up against her, and the second can be avoided by rolling forward.
Romina’s Fury	Romina unleashes a long string of attacks where she bites at the player with the centipede head and then immediately follows up with two swipes of her poleblade, then after a short delay, bites at the player again and does a final swipe with her poleblade immediately after.	Walk backward and then roll backward twice as the centipede first comes to bite you and then as the centipede comes to bite you again, roll forward and left at the last second.
Coil Grab	Romina will posture upward and spin her poleblade and then the centipede will attempt to quickly grab you.	Roll forward as she stops twirling and points the poleblade at you.

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.

I would advise against attempting to run away and heal because this boss is very quick and will dash at you if you are too far away.

Phase 2 (<55% HP)

Romina will fly into the air and summon a myriad of rotten butterflies that explode in a chain reaction after a short delay. Romina gains new attacks that she can use in this phase that leave trails of rotten butterflies that explode and cause Scarlet Rot.

She keeps all of the moves from her first phase, which means you can still punish the same moves is before.

As for her new attacks, you can attack her after she completes the final dash of Romina’s Purification and you roll the chain explosion.

You can also heal while she is suspended in the air during the Rotten Butterflies attack once you have reached a safe zone.

You can make this phase easier by using the Immunizing Horn Charm +2 which can be acquired by defeating the Lesser Ulcerated Tree Spirit in the sewers of Belurat, Tower Settlement.

This talisman will make it significantly harder for her to apply Scarlet Rot on you.

General Tips

If despite your best efforts, you continue to have some trouble evading this boss’s attacks, there are a few ways to make the fight a little easier.

Scadutree Fragments

Although the recommended Scadutree level for this boss is 10, there is absolutely no shame in attempting this boss later once you have collected more fragments and are at a more comfortable level.

Defense!

• If the damage is still feeling a little too high, there are many different ways to increase your damage absorption in this game.
• With a well-optimized build, it is possible to take up to 80% less physical damage while keeping your light-roll.
• One setup I am quite fond of using requires investing 30 points into faith and using the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman(20%), Opaline Hardtear Physick (15%), Golden Vow (10%), Black Flame’s Protection (35%), Braggart’s Roar (10%), equipped on a straight sword, and Endur e(45%)
  • Also equipped on a straight sword which can be cold or blood infused. This setup will give you the speed and damage of the power-stance straight sword moveset, as well as an insane amount of tankiness from all the damage resistance.