How to Beat Rom the Vacuous Spider in Bloodborne
Rom the Vacuous Spider is a Great One in Bloodborne. To be exact, she is implied to be a woman who turned into a Great One, which raises some very interesting questions about what has happened in Yharnam. However, for a lot of players out there, the most important part is that Rom is one of the six Great Ones that can be fought in Bloodborne.
How Can You Beat Rom the Vacuous Spider?
Speaking bluntly, Rom isn’t the most impressive boss that can be found in Bloodborne. Yes, she is a huge monster with a head that resembles nothing so much as a block of pumice with eyes embedded in the holes, meaning that she is bound to prove unpleasant for people with trypophobia. However, Rom is called the Vacuous Spider for a reason, so it should come as no surprise to learn that she isn’t the most proactive of bosses. Still, a Bloodborne boss is a Bloodborne boss, meaning that interested individuals shouldn’t underestimate her lest they be caught offguard.
For starters, it should be mentioned that Rom has weaknesses to both Arcane and Fire. However, the player’s best option is to bring Bolt because she is even weaker to that than she is to the other two kinds of damage. Be sure to direct this damage against any part of Rom so long as it isn’t the head because that happens to be her least vulnerable point. As for surviving Rom’s attacks, interested individuals should know that it is a good idea for them to bring something that can reduce Arcane damage because her Arcane attacks are the most threatening.
Moving on, one of the most stand-out characteristics of the Rom fight is that she will summon spiderlings. To be exact, she will summon spiderlings at the start of the fight. Furthermore, she will summon more spiderlings as she loses health. On their own, the spiderlings aren’t particularly threatening. Unfortunately, they come in significant numbers. Even worse, they are powerful enough to take out huge chunks of the player’s health whenever they manage to get in a good hit, thus making them a true threat rather than a nuisance to be managed.
As a result, there are a couple of approaches that interested individuals can take. One, they can focus on Rom while staying away from the spiderlings as much as possible. This is pretty risky, not least because players don’t have eyes on the back of their head to keep track of where everything is situated relative to their position. However, it can be a preferable choice for those who are feeling a touch impatient. Two, players can prioritize the spiderlings before moving on to Rom. This choice will take up much more time, but it ensures that interested individuals will have a safer time fighting the Great One herself.
In any case, for those who want to fight the spiderlings before moving on to Rom, there are some points that they should know. First, they are very similar to Rom in that their head is very well-protected. Sure, interested individuals can shatter that protection before smashing their head in, but that is a very inefficient strategy. Instead, they should take the spiderlings from either their back or their flanks. For the first, it can be very useful to dodge a spiderling when it attacks by jumping because that will cause them to expose their backside by falling on their head. As for the second, interested individuals should take whatever opportunities come to them while keeping a watchful eye for a couple of attacks. One, when a spiderling jumps sideways, it will follow up by jumping forward. Two, when a spiderling raises its legs, that signals a continuous combo that can be avoided by just moving backwards. On the whole, so long as players are aggressive but not too aggressive, they should have no problems thinning the spiderlings’ numbers before moving on to the main threat.
As stated earlier, Rom isn’t the most impressive boss in Bloodborne. Due to this, interested individuals don’t need to remember as many attacks and thus the counters to those attacks. In fact, she doesn’t do anything in the first phase of the fight, meaning that players are free to use whatever they feel like so long as they are clear of the spiderlings. Eventually, Rom will curl up before teleporting elsewhere, which is when the real challenge starts up. First, she can send chunks of ice shooting at the player from above in a diagonal manner, which can be avoided by using the pattern of dodging to the left and then dodging to the right until everything has come down. Second, she will perform a roll signalling that she is attacking from the ground up, which can be avoided by watching the lights showing where the chunks of ice will come up. Third, Rom has an area of effect explosion that will start with her tail pointing upwards, meaning that players should move away as soon as they see that happening.
So long as players continue doing damage, they will see Rom move into her third phase. In this phase, her Arcane attacks will become more painful as well as more numerous, thus making dodging everything that much more difficult. On top of this, Rom will start attacking with charges as well as wiggles, which can be avoided by just moving out of the way.
Summed up, there are a number of important points to watch out for in the Rom fight. First, there is the barrier created by Rom’s spiderlings. It is possible for players to slip through the barrier to focus on Rom, but this is very much a high-risk, high-reward move. In contrast, the more measured method would be taking down the spiderlings one by one before moving on to the Great One, which will take up more time but should provide more reliable results. However, while Rom isn’t the most challenging Bloodborne boss, her Arcane attacks are still quite damaging. Thanks to that, interested individuals should make sure that they always have some stamina remaining in them so that they can move away if that proves to be necessary.
