How to beat Romina, Saint of the Bud in ER Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring has introduced its fair share of new bosses in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and FromSoftware has definitely gone above and beyond with some of the foes it has cooked up. Take Romina, Saint of the Bud for example. A humanoid saint with a scorpion’s stinger, centipede’s head, and butterflies wings; it’s safe to say Messmer has put this maiden through a lot.

When you’re not busy admiring just how distressingly beautiful the fight between Romina and the Tarnished is, you’ve got your work cut out for you avoiding her weapons and arachnid or arthropod limbs. To help you out, here’s how to beat Romina in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

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

Romina, Saint of the Bud is one of the more grotesque enemies you’ll come across in Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. She’s no Metyr, Mother of Fingers, that’s for sure, but there’s still a lot to take in once you enter her arena, Church of the Bud, for the first time.

Not only that, but she’s one of few required bosses in the DLC, so you have to beat her whether you want to or not!

Romina is a humanoid creature adorned with butterfly wings, with her lower half being made up of the head of a centipede and the stinging tail of a scorpion. During the fight, she uses the Poleblade of the Bud and the Rotten Butterflies Incantation, which both inflict Scarlet Rot, while also using her body to simultaneously attack you.

As a result, it’s easy enough to be overwhelmed by Romina or caught out by an unexpected stab of her scorpion stinger, or lunge of her centipede head. She’s also immune to the effects of Scarlet Rot and Poison, so if you’re using these, you might want to swap them out for something more viable. For example, Fire and Frostbite perform well against Romina, and Bleed isn’t too bad against her.

Due to how mobile Romina is, and how aggressive her attacks can be, you’ll want to be prepared to dodge… a lot. I recommend entering her arena a few times just to study her moveset before making a legitimate attempt at fighting her. Once you know Romina’s moveset and the right timings for dodging her attacks, the fight is quite breezy.

Melee players can stick close by Romina for the most part, keeping a careful eye (and ear) on the visual and audio cues for her attacks. Throughout the fight, you can actually stick by her side — right in between her scorpion and centipede limbs — while dodging into most attacks.

There are a few attacks you’ll want to look out for, and first, let’s talk about Romina’s poleblade. Using the poleblade, she can perform two different combos. The first sees her sweep the blade at you twice; this is quite slow and you can easily dodge into her to avoid it. The second sees her perform a much more aggressive trio of sweep attacks; the first two sweeps of her blade are easily avoided by dodging through them and into her, while the third will see Romina fly up slightly before spinning into you with the blade. Again, you can dodge through this!

Amidst Romina swinging her poleblade about, you’ll also need to watch out for the attacks she performs using her body. Her centipede head will often lunge at you, making a horrible skittering noise just before it does so. In other instances, she’ll fly away before trying to lunge her scorpion stinger into you.

Another attack of Romina’s sees her fly into the air before crashing down at you. To avoid this, you simply need to dodge into her as she lands. Timed right, you won't take any damage and will be able to quickly attack her.

The same goes for her rolling attack, which you could compare to the rolling attack of a Godskin Noble. This can be avoided by staying out of Romina’s way as best you can, but you can also roll into it to avoid taking damage; timing this correctly is admittedly difficult, though, so be sure to have the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman equipped to help with damage negation if you’re struggling. There’s also the Mottled Necklace Talisman, which provides a bunch of status damage negation including Scarlet Rot, if that’s something you’re struggling with!

Last, but not least, Romina will begin summoning butterflies as she goes into her second phase. These butterflies explode after a short interval, inflicting Scarlet Rot if you’re within range of them. Your best bet for avoiding this is by simply running away and steering clear of them until they’ve exploded. Though, there’s no harm in bringing along a few Preserving Boluses, just in case you need to alleviate any Scarlet Rot build-up in a pinch.

Though as Romina conjures these butterflies, you will find that you have a rare moment of respite. Once you are a safe distance away from the butterflies, use this moment to pop some Flasks or use buffs. Once the butterflies explode, she’ll quickly begin attacking again.

Ranged players will have a much easier time of this fight if they’re able to maintain their distance from Romina, while also avoiding her Rotten Butterflies Incantation. The Fallingstar Beast Jaw’s weapon skill is great for this, capable of breaking Romina’s poise and preventing her from flailing about too often. Similarly, the Blasphemous Blade’s ranged skill, Taker’s Flames, dishes out Fire damage at range, making relatively light work of Romina if you can keep yourself safe.

What to do after beating Romina, Saint of the Bud in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

After beating Romina in Shadow of the Erdtree, you’ll receive the Remembrance of the Bud which you can trade at Roundtable Hold for either the Poleblade of the Bud, or the Rotten Butterflies Incantation. If you fancy owning both, make sure to duplicate the Remembrance!

Behind Romina’s arena, you’ll find the sealing tree. To access the next area of the DLC and ultimately conclude your journey in the Realm of Shadow, you’ll need to burn the sealing tree using Messmer’s Kindling. Surprising absolutely nobody, you can get your hands on this by beating Messmer, the Impaler in Shadow Keep.

For more on Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, take a look at our walkthrough of Thiollier’s quest and Count Ymir’s quest to run into some other interesting bosses found in the Realm of Shadow.