How to defeat Romina, the Saint of the Button in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

By James On Jun 26, 2024

Romina, Saint of the Bud is a boss fight Elden Ring’S Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that might fool you. Romina is a deadly threat with a range of fast attacks, but much of the tension in her battle comes from keeping Scarlet Rot at bay. On the plus side, Romina also has plenty of weaknesses that you can exploit.

Us Elden Ring DLC guide explains how to beat Romina in Shadow of the Erdtreeincluding what these 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 Buda remote location, tucked away in the western part of Rauh Ruins. She’s a mandatory DLC boss, and you venture into this as part of it Shadow of the Erdtree‘s main quest. It’s hard to get to and sits on top of some rock caves, with Hornsent waiting to invade you along the way, but you can’t miss it.

Romina weaknesses and how to prepare

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon

Romina has quite a few weaknesses for a legendary boss. She is susceptible to bleeding and frostbite, and she takes extra damage from attacks targeting the Sacred Line. If you want to build faith, you might want to pick up some of the new DLC Incantations to exploit that last weakness.

A Cold of Bleed infused sword, like Milady or the Backhand knife, is excellent for this battle, although non-elemental swords also deal heavy damage to Romina. However, avoid hammers and other blunt weapons. These seem to do less damage, and because they have a shorter range, you run the risk of putting yourself in more danger anyway. To hold Glintstone ice crag, Adula’s GreatswordAnd Zamor ice storm equipped if you specialize in sorcery, and bring Frozen Lightning Spear if you practice faith instead.

The Frost Stomp of the Divine Beast is also a very useful Ash of War for this battle, as it covers a wide area and Romina is quite large.

The Mimic a tear is, as always, a strong Spirit Ash choice capable of resisting attacks and exploiting Romina’s weaknesses in the same way you can. If you’re focused on Frostbite, you might also want to try the Dung Eater doll or better yet: the Jolan and Anna Marionet, because they are both excellent at causing bleeding. Complete Count Ymir’s quest and find Rabbath’s Rise to find Jolan and Anna. Even the Great shield soldier is useful in this battle, thanks to its Frost-influenced ranged attacks and high defense.

You can summon Dry-leaved Dane again for this battle, and even though this improves Romina’s HP a bit, you should still bring him along. He is a valuable asset and will keep her attention away from you.

Try to find enough Scadutree Fragments to raise 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 one of the following devices Immunizing horn charm Talismans to slow down how quickly Scarlet Rot builds up, and to have neutralizing bolus items in one of your shortcut slots to remove any rot buildup that occurs.

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

Romina’s attacks hit hard and gradually increase the rot meter, but she is slower and more deliberate than 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 focus on one attacker for a while, magic users should be able to complete the fight from a distance while keeping their summons and NPC ally to stay. Romina busy.

The good thing about Romina is that her buggy extensions provide quite a large hitbox. You don’t have to be near her human form for your hits to count, so holding on to the tail stalk while Romina and the centipede attack a summon is a perfectly viable strategy.

Romina boss fight phase 1

Romina almost always starts the fight by rushing you and cutting twice with her giant polearm. The way she moves and the power of each hit means that if the first attack connects, you probably won’t be able to dodge the second. Dodge forward or backward to avoid both attacks, 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.

Romina’s centipede portion has a few unique attacks of its own. Sometimes it will lunge forward and strike, an attack that you can dodge sideways to avoid. If it leans back and snaps its mandibles together, that indicates a different type of attack: it dashes forward and sideways in a snake-like motion, then repeats this as it moves forward. The direction is usually right then left, but either way you can avoid this by dodging backwards to the right as it’s about to strike.

Romina will sometimes wrap her tail and the centipede around her and then spin around and spread them out. Dodge backwards to avoid getting caught by this one. She will also roll into a wheel and race towards you twice, before unfolding herself again and attacking with the centipede and a quick strike of the throwing arm. Dodging forward is your best chance to avoid this, although there is also a small safe space directly in front of Romina where the throwing arm doesn’t hit you — on purpose or accidentally.

She’ll attack with her stinger tail if you get too close, and if the centipede makes contact with its single forward swipe, Romina will ambush you, dealing damage with her stinger and building up the rot meter for a few seconds.

The last is a strong attack where Romina leans back and rises slightly into the air, then whirls forward and hits you one after another with her stinger, poleblade, and centipede. If you dodge forward, you can avoid the three-hit combo entirely.

However, things change a bit once her health reaches the halfway point.

Romina boss fight phase 2

Romina becomes much more agile and gets a few new attacks in her second phase, including some that cause an extensive buildup of Scarlet Rot. However, when she’s not in the air, her attacks are just 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 stays focused on one attacker at a time, only switching targets after completing a combo or if you attack her repeatedly without stopping.

The phase begins with Romina summoning rotting energy around her, rising into the air and creating multiple butterflies in rings around the arena. These explode after a few seconds, causing damage and causing rot. You can position yourself in an area without butterflies or try to dodge when the explosion happens.

Romina will repeat this attack intermittently, and there’s a strange quirk you can take advantage of after the first time. She only summons the butterflies from a specific location and she will cross the entire battlefield to return to it if necessary. That’s a few seconds where she doesn’t attack, meaning you can hit an easy target before she creates the field of decaying energy around her.

Romina uses her poleblade slashes more often 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 does it again, ending with a whirling slash as she crashes into the ground. There’s a rhythm to this attack, and you have about a second between each attack to dodge the next one, in any direction.

This combo creates more butterflies on the field, which explode after Romina falls to the ground. Romina herself remains silent for a second after the final attack, giving you time to run in and land one yourself.

She occasionally uses two polearm slashes if you stay too close, which deal regular damage instead of magic and rot damage, and she won’t often fly into the air and land on top of you or an ally after hovering for a second.

If you beat Romina you will earn the Commemoration of the Saint of the Budwhich you can trade for her polearm or for a spell that summons rotting butterflies – or both, if you duplicate Remembrances.

The point of no return is just past the Church of the Bud, so complete any quests from NPCs associated with Miquella that you haven’t completed yet before continuing.

For more Elden Ring DLC bosses, check out our guides on all Remembrance bosses and learn how to duplicate Remembrances. Do you need to power up? We have location guides on where to find Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, and an interactive Elden Ring DLC map.