Genshin Impact Aloy guide: Best build, weapons, artifacts, tips, and more

Genshin Impact’s 2.1 update “Floating World Under the Moonlight” will bring a tonne of new features to the game with the addition of the Watatsumi and Seirai islands, as well as a new fishing system, more powerful bosses, and most importantly, four new characters.

While we already covered everything about the supreme ruler of Inazuma, the Raiden Shogun, as the featured character for the “Reign of Serenity” banner available from 1st to 22nd September, there is another big arrival coming in this new update right from another world.

So with that said, it’s time to introduce you to the first-ever crossover character for Genshin Impact, being none other than Aloy from “Horizon Zero Dawn”.

Aloy - Backstory and origins

Aloy grew up in a harsh mountain wilderness near the tribe that shunned her, fostered by an expert hunter. Here, she trained to hunt with cat-like grace and deadly accuracy, but the things she never got to learn from her master and she wanted to face the most, were the circumstances of her birth.

Aloy desired to learn about her parents, what happened with her before being an outcast, and why she was shunned from the tribe, but in her quest for answers, she was swept into a wider and more dangerous world than she could ever imagine, encountering strange and powerful tribes, mysterious ancient ruins, and lots of dangerous enemies

Eventually, she learned her origins and destiny were deeply tied to the fate of the world itself, as she had to fight an epic battle to save it from the evil forces of artificial intelligence, from the ancient past.

Now that she has arrived in a new world full of never-before-seen challenges, Aloy will throw herself again gladly into the hunt with her sharp arrows and bow, while she tries to uncover the secrets of Teyvat and support all those who need her helping hand.

Aloy - Talents

Her normal attack, Rapid Fire, allows her to perform up to four consecutive shots with her bow, while with her charged attack, she can perform a more precise aimed shot with increased DMG. While aiming, she will accumulate a biting frost above her head, that will deal Cryo DMG if fully charged before impact.

With her elemental skill, Frozen Wilds, Aloy will throw a Freeze Bomb that explodes upon impact and divides into many Chillwater Bomblets. These bomblets will explode upon contact with opponents or after a short delay, dealing Cryo DMG.

Whenever a bomb or bomblet explodes, it will reduce the opponent’s attack and she will receive a Coil stack, which will increase Aloy’s Normal Attack DMG up to four times. Once she gets four stacks, all these will be consumed making Aloy enter the Rushing Ice state, which further increases her Normal Attack DMG and convert it into Cryo DMG.

With her Elemental Burst, Prophecies of Dawn, Aloy will throw a Powered Cell filled with Cryo in the targeted direction, then detonates it with an arrow dealing Cryo DMG around its area of effect.

Aloy - Best weapons

Predator

We must open this list with her signature weapon, the Predator Bow. Being specially designed for Aloy, its Strong Strike skill increases its wielder's Normal and Charged Attack DMG by 10% for six seconds, when dealing Cryo DMG to opponents up to a maximum of two stacks. Additionally, when equipped with Aloy, her ATK will be increased by 66.

While all this makes it sound like a really powerful weapon for her and even for Diona or Ganyu, this skill will only be effective for players on "PlayStation Network", so if you play on PC or mobile, you will not take full advantage of this weapon’s power.

The Predator Bow will be available for free via in-game Mail during versions 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, exclusively for PS players.

Thundering Pulse

Next up we will find the Thundering Pulse, a 5-star weapon that is part of the Inazuma Series, blazing a fierce violet light providing great stats and an incredible offensive power, with eternal lightning crackling all around it.

This bow comes with a special passive called Rule by Thunder, which increases ATK by 20/25/30/35/40% and grants the might of the Thunder Emblem. At stack levels 1/2/3, its Thunder Emblem will increase Normal Attack DMG drastically.

Its wielder will obtain a stack of Thunder Emblem in each of the following scenarios: Normal Attack deals DMG (stack lasts five seconds), casting Elemental Skills (stack lasts ten seconds); or Energy is less than 100% (stack disappears when Energy is full), with each stack's duration being calculated independently.

Rust

Moving on to the 4-star weapons, we will find among the most recommended the Rust, an ancient bow as hard as cast iron, that once belonged to a famed archer who slew monsters and bandits like silver grass in the wind.

This famed bow has become one of the favourites for many archers in Genshin Impact due to its stats and lore. Its passive, Rapid Firing, increases Normal Attack DMG by 40/50/60/70/80%, allowing for some fast offensive strategies against hordes of enemies, however, it decreases Charged Attack DMG by 10%

The Stringless

To close this section, and if you are looking to use Aloy as a Burst DPS unit, we will suggest The Stringless, a 4-star bow available through gacha that once served as an extraordinary instrument, although it’s no longer capable of getting people up and dancing.

This exquisite weapon comes with a skill called Arrowless Song, which increases Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG by 24/28/32/36/40%, allowing you to turn your surroundings into a massive minefield.

Aloy - Best artifacts and stats

Blizzard Strayer

As the main choice for her artifacts, we will recommend the Blizzard Strayer set, a series of artifacts introduced during the addition of the Dragonspine Mountain, as it will considerably increase the power of your Elemental skills by giving you a 15% Cryo DMG Bonus with two pieces.

If you manage to get four pieces of this set, whenever Aloy attacks an opponent affected by Cryo, her CRIT Rate will be increased by 20%. If the opponent is Frozen, her CRIT Rate will be increased by an additional 20%.

Noblesse Oblige

In case you don’t have all pieces of the Blizzard Strayer set, you can also take with you the Noblesse Oblige set, for an extra 20% Elemental Burst DMG with two pieces of it.

To complement it, you can either choose Gladiator's Finale or Shimenawa's Reminiscence artifacts, to increase her ATK by 18%.

Artifact Stats

As for the artifacts stats, these will be focused on increasing her critical attack chances and damage, as well as exploiting her Elemental skills to take full advantage of these in the field:

Main Stats:

• ATK
• Cryo DMG Bonus
• CRIT

Sub Stats:

• ATK%
• CRIT DMG
• CRIT Rate
• Energy Recharge
• Elemental Mastery

Recommended team composition and release date

Despite being a free-to-play character, Aloy will be a great option for those players who lack a strong archer like Ganyu or Venti, or a good Cryo character like Eula or Kamisato Ayaka, as she can be used both as a DPS or Sub-DPS dealer.

So, to compliment her playstyle, you can choose between the following characters based on what suits you best for the battle:

• Kamisato Ayaka (Cryo),orGanyu (Cryo): Talking about these two, both of them will take great advantage of the Elemental Resonance from Aloy’s Cryo affinity, while also being used as extra DPS dealers against all kinds of enemies.
• Mona (Hydro), or Xingqiu (Hydro): With Aloy’s Cryo skills at hand, using any of these Hydro characters will allow you to control more dangerous mob packs by their freezing Elemental Reactions.
• Lastly, you will want to add a Pyro character to hit all enemies around with Melt reactions. You can choose between Diluc for a stronger offensive, Klee to combine her explosive abilities with Aloy’s, or Bennett for some occasional healings and boosts.

And that’s all we gotta share about Aloy. Remember, she will be available for free for PlayStation users on 1st September, and then for other players on 13th October, via in-game mail.

• Read more: Genshin Impact Aloy: Character ascension, talent level-up materials required, and how to get them

In the meantime, don’t forget to join our community of travellers on our Genshin Impact Twitter account, where you will find tips, tricks, guides, and more.