Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn is a 5* Cryo Bow user and the first-ever promotional crossover character to come to Genshin Impact. She is also the first-ever 5* character that players will be able to obtain for free.
Technically, the main character is also a free 5* character, but when we look at their stats we can see that the developers really didn’t want the Traveler to be too good. Hence, the Traveler functions more like a 4.5* character.
The purpose of this guide is to see how good of a 5* character Aloy is and how players should build her to unlock her full potential.
Table of ContentsShow
Talent Priority
| Talent | Description | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Attack (Rapid Fire) | Normal Attack: • Perform up to 4 consecutive shots with a bow. Charged Attack: • Perform a more precise Aimed Shot with increased DMG. While aiming, biting frost will accumulate on the arrowhead. A fully charged frost arrow will deal Cryo DMG Plunging Attack: • Fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact. | Aloy’s base ATK is very low—not as low as the Traveler’s, but still lower than that of several 4* characters. On top of that, her multipliers aren’t great either. In terms of Normal Attacks, you should expect her to perform more like Fischl than actual 5* bow users like Childe or Ganyu. On its own, this talent looks bad, but Aloy’s Elemental Skill and passives do buff her Normal Attacks by a lot, making this her 2nd priority talent. |
| Elemental Skill (Frozen Wilds) | Aloy throws a Freeze Bomb in the targeted direction and triggers an explosion, dealing Cryo DMG. After it explodes, the Freeze Bomb will split up into many Chillwater Bomblets that explode on contact with opponents or after a short delay, dealing Cryo DMG. When a Freeze Bomb or Chillwater Bomblet hits an opponent, the opponent’s ATK is decreased and Aloy receives 1 Coil stack. Aloy can gain up to 1 Coil stack every 0.1s. Coil • Each stack increases Aloy’s Normal Attack DMG. • When Aloy has 4 Coil stacks, all stacks of Coil are cleared. She then enters the Rushing Ice state, which further increases the DMG dealt by her Normal Attacks and converts her Normal Attack DMG to Cryo DMG. | Frozen Wilds is similar to Klee’s Elemental Skill. You throw a bomb that explodes and leaves behind mini-bombs. This Skill does little DMG, but that’s not important. The fact that it can infuse Normal Attacks with Cryo and buff their DMG is what it’s all about. The Normal Attack buff does scale with levels, but it’s still more important to level up the Normal Attack talent. Overall, this is Aloy’s least important talent. |
| Elemental Burst (Prophecies of Dawn) | Aloy throws a Power Cell filled with Cryo in the targeted direction, then detonates it with an arrow, dealing AoE Cryo Damage. | Aloy’s Elemental Burst is as devastating as it is simple. It has a large DMG multiplier, low cooldown, and low energy cost. This is easily Aloy’s most important talent. |
Passive Talents
| Talent Name | Description | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Easy Does It | When Aloy is in the party, animals who produce Fowl, Raw Meat, or Chilled Meat will not be startled when party members approach them. | This passive is largely inconsequential. At best, it can help you obtain some cooking achievements more easily. |
| Combat Override | When Aloy receives the Coil effect from Frozen Wilds, her ATK is increased by 16%, while nearby party members’ ATK is increased by 8%. This effect lasts 10s. | Combat Override helps make up for Aloy’s low base stats while also lending her some support capabilities. |
| Strong Strike | When Aloy is in the Rushing Ice state conferred by Frozen Wilds, her Cryo DMG Bonus increases by 3.5% every 1s. A maximum Cryo DMG Bonus increase of 35% can be gained in this way. | This ascension talent helps propel Aloy into the realm of respectably powerful DPS characters. |
Aloy’s base ATK is pretty low for a 5*, but her passives give her enough ATK and Cryo DMG bonuses to where she can become a frightening DPS. The plan is to give her the Cryo infusion and soon as possible and then go to town on the enemies. Since her Cryo DMG will increase for the first 10 seconds after obtaining the infusion, it would be ideal to have her be the last link in your rotation.
As a support, Aloy can contribute to the team with her massive Burst DMG and party-wide ATK% buffs.
Constellations
Aloy is the first and only character in the game not to feature any constellations… yet.
It looks like miHoYo doesn’t want to commit to the idea of cross-over characters having no constellations. They may change this in the future, but for now, once you obtain Aloy, that’s it.
Best Weapon
| Weapon Rarity | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Thundering Pulse 5* | A huge chunk of Aloy’s DMG comes from Normal Attacks, and no bow buffs up Normal Attacks quite like the Thundering Pulse. The extra CRIT DMG is also amazing, especially on a Cryo character who can effortlessly boost her CRIT Rate through set bonuses and resonances. |
| Skyward Harp 5* | Of all the Bows currently in the game, Skyward Harp has the highest Base ATK. This will significantly boost Aloy’s ATK scaling and DPS capabilities. The extra CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG don’t hurt either. |
| Rust 4* | Rust is Aloy’s BiS 4* weapon. The amount of extra Normal Attack DMG this bow provides cannot be understated, especially at higher refinements. |
| Blackcliff Warbow 4* | Blackcliff Warbow is the best F2P weapon for Aloy—it has a remarkably high base ATK, CRIT DMG as the substat, and the passive can even provide some extra ATK%. |
| Predator Bow 4* | Predator Bow is clearly meant to be the most fitting bow for Aloy, but unless you play Genshin exclusively on PlayStation, it’s just not worth it—it’s literally worse than a 3* since the passive doesn’t work on PC and Mobile. For PlayStation users, Predator Bow offers everything Aloy needs—more base ATK and a Normal Attack buff. Even then, it won’t outperform Rust. |
| Viridescent Hunt 4* | If you’re having trouble building CRIT Rate on Aloy, Viridescent Hunt is an okay option. The passive proc can also sometimes help with the mini-bombs left by her Elemental Skill. |
Best Artifacts – 4-Blizzard Strayer
When run as a main DPS, Aloy can bring the most pain using the 4-piece Blizzard Strayer set bonus. This will let you stack CRIT DMG on her without having to worry about CRIT Rate.
As far as stats go, Aloy wants ATK% on the Sands, Cryo DMG on the Goblet, and CRIT DMG on the Logos. If you don’t have a full 4-Piece Blizzard Strayer set on her, then you may need CRIT Rate on the Logos instead.
In terms of substats, you want CRIT DMG, CRIT Rate, ATK%, and Elemental Mastery.
If you don’t have a full 4-Piece Blizzard Strayer set for her, you can run her on 2-Piece Blizzard Strayer + 2-Piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence/Gladiator’s Finale. Alternatively, you should equip her with a 2-Piece Noblesse Oblige + 2-Piece Blizzard Strayer if you wish to run her as a Burst Support. In either case, you may need a CRIT Rate Logos.
Elemental Synergies
As a Cryo character, Aloy has great synergy with the following Elements:
- Pyro: Melt may well be the best Elemental Reaction in the entire game. Along with Vaporize, it’s certainly the most potent in terms of DMG multiplication.
- Hydro: Freeze may not offer the raw DMG potential of Melt or Vaporize, but turning enemies into helpless, immovable targets has its charm. Plus, you’ll get a ridiculous amount of CRIT Rate against Frozen enemies if you’re using the Blizzard Strayer set.
- Anemo: While not nearly as broken as Freeze or Melt, Swirl can boost your team’s overall DPS by a deceptively large amount.
Elements that don’t gel well with Aloy include:
- Electro: Overloaded is an amazing reaction for setting up Physical DPS characters for success, but since Aloy wants to fire off only Cryo-infused Normal Attacks it does nothing for her.
- Geo: Ranged characters are best kept away from enemies. Consequently, this means they won’t be able to pick up the Shields created by Crystallize. In a Freeze comp, Geo is even worse, as it may prevent you from keeping opponents Frozen.
Best Team Composition
Since Aloy wants to be left alone on the field to maximize the DMG of her Normal Attacks as a main DPS, she works best with characters that offer a lot of off-field support.
Free-to-Play
- Aloy
- Xiangling
- Diona
- Anemo Traveler
Xiangling provides heaps of off-field DMG and helps set up devastating Melt Reactions.
Diona does a bit of everything—shielding, healing, Cryo particle generation, you name it. As a second Cryo character on the team, she also unlocks the Cryo Resonance, raising Aloy’s CRIT Rate even higher. Those who don’t have Diona can instead use Xinyan. Her shield is weaker, but as the second Pyro character, she’ll unlock the Pyro Resonance, giving Aloy plenty of additional DMG.
The Anemo Traveler enables Aloy to consistently proc her Cryo infusion thanks to his Elemental Skill. If you find that you don’t have a problem activating Aloy’s Cryo infusion even without an Anemo support, you can replace the Traveler with Xingqiu for some Freeze shenanigans.
For Whales
- Aloy
- Xiangling
- Mona
- Kazuha
Xiangling is such a potent Off-field DPS that not even 5* characters can replace her.
Mona will help keep enemies away from Aloy and keep them Frozen. The DMG buff she provides on top of that is just the icing on the cake.
Kazuha is also here to help activate Aloy’s infusion, but he can also amplify her DMG by a lot.
Is Aloy Worth It?
In our other Genshin Impact build guides, this question relates to whether it’s worth it to spend resources on obtaining a certain character.
But Aloy is free.
All players who are at least AR 20 will receive her in either patch 2.1 or 2.2. If you’re not sure what AR is and how to level it up check out our Beginner’s Guide for Genshin Impact. So the question becomes whether or not Aloy is worth investing resources into.
And the answer to this question depends on the state of your account.
If you’re a beginner, then yes, Aloy is very much worth it. Thanks to her being a Cryo character with an Elemental Infusion, she’s able to outperform even some other 5* characters in terms of DPS. As far as the Standard Banner goes, only Diluc could do more DMG in the endgame. And even after you’re able to replace her with a more powerful DPS, you’ll still be able to use her as a Burst Support.
That said, once glance at our Character Tier List will reveal Genshin Impact features no shortage of S-Tier or A-Tier Cryo DPS characters like Ganyu, Ayaka, and Eula. So if you already have some of them leveled up, Aloy doesn’t look so amazing anymore. She can still make for a fun change of pace, but by no means will she outperform the three 5* Cryo characters listed above.
