A renowned hunter from another game, Aloy arrives in Genshin Impact in search of new challenges, and to test her mettle in this new vast world she’s now in. Aloy is the main protagonist in Horizon: Zero Dawn, an action role-playing game developed by Guerilla Games. Thanks to their collaboration with miHoYo, Aloy is becoming a playable character that players can freely obtain. All it requires is having an Adventure Rank of 20 or above.

Aloy is a 5-Star Cryo Bow user who specializes in both bursts and barrages of Cryo damage towards enemies. She’s quite similar to Yoimiya, who both have elemental infusion on their attacks. Aloy benefits greatly from being a Cryo character, making great use of the Blizzard Strayer artifact set, and Cryo resonance. With the right investment, she can turn out to be one of the best free characters to date, and will surely help beginners or F2P players have an edge in more difficult content.

Abilities Overview

Frozen Wilds is Aloy’s Elemental Skill. Aloy throws a Freeze Bomb towards a target, exploding on impact and dealing Cryo DMG. After the explosion, it will split up into many bomblets that will explode on enemy contact, or after a short delay, dealing Cryo damage. When the Freeze Bomb or a bomblet hits an enemy, the enemy’s ATK is reduced, and Aloy gains 1 Coil stack. Each Coil stack increases Aloy’s normal attack DMG, and when Aloy reaches 4 Coil stacks, she gains Rushing Ice. Rushing Ice lasts for 10 seconds, and it enhances Aloy’s normal attacks along with infusing them with Cryo. 

This is her defining skill, which makes Aloy seem like the Cryo counterpart of Yoimiya. Aloy being Cryo gives her the edge of being able to use the Blizzard Strayer set, which works perfectly with a perma-freeze build. 

Prophecies of Dawn is Aloy’s Elemental Burst. A Power Cell is thrown at the target, which Aloy detonates with an arrow, dealing AoE Cryo DMG. This ability is as straightforward as it gets, but has great stats to boot. It has respectable damage, a very low cooldown of 12s, and a very low Energy cost of 40.

Best Weapon Choices for Aloy

Thundering Pulse – It’s pretty obvious. If it’s best-in-slot for the self-infused normal attack Pyro bow user (a.k.a. Yoimiya), it should also be for the Cryo counterpart. This weapon actually has everything that Aloy needs. Since Aloy’s artifact set, Blizzard Strayer, provides a ton of Crit Rate, Thundering Pulse fits like a glove, providing a massive Crit DMG substat. It also increases Aloy’s ATK and Normal Attack DMG by a large amount, so it’s nothing short of exceptional for her.

Rust – This weapon provides good ATK, while also increasing Aloy’s Normal Attack DMG hugely, in exchange for a bit of Charged Attack DMG reduction. Aloy will rarely use Charged Attacks anyway, so Rust’s large boost to her normal attacks is very welcome. 

Hamayumi – For players who don’t have either of the two weapons, this Inazuma craftable is a great alternative. It provides a lot of ATK%, while increasing Aloy’s Normal Attack DMG. The boost to her NA DMG is doubled when Aloy’s Energy is full, which is very easy to accomplish with her 40-cost Burst.

Best Artifact Set for Aloy

Blizzard Strayer (4-Piece) – No other set makes sense if we’re trying to optimize Aloy’s damage output. Whether she’s Main DPS or Burst Sub-DPS, Blizzard Strayer’s passive is too good to pass up. Having a lot of free Crit Rate makes room for more Crit DMG in her artifacts, and maintaining a balanced Crit Ratio (preferably 70% Crit Rate : 140%+ Crit Damage) is so much easier with this set. The ideal stats for this are ATK% on the Sands, Cryo DMG Bonus on the Goblet, and Crit DMG on the Circlet. 

Best Team Composition for the Savior From Another World

Perma-Freeze/Morgana – A lot of Ayaka and Ganyu players prefer this team, because it easily trivializes fights, and has a unique ‘tech’ that massively boosts the damage output of the Cryo carry. 

Morgana Tech: The Omen (damage amplify) from Mona’s Burst should only last for a short duration, but the Illusory Bubble that inflicts the Omen unusually doesn’t pop when enemies are Frozen. This means that the damage amplify lasts for much longer, allowing for a higher damage cap. 

If you don’t have Mona, then you can opt for a simpler Perma-Freeze team, replacing Mona with Xingqiu. Don’t forget to bring another Cryo character (like Diona) to activate the Cryo Resonance, and provide even more Crit Rate for Aloy. For the last slot in the team, Kazuha is the best option, but Sucrose is also a good alternative.

Quick Swap Burst Team – Aloy can also act as a sub-DPS, specializing in burst Cryo damage. Her Burst’s low cooldown makes it so easy to spam it, which is great for teams that want to chain Elemental Bursts. An example of this team would be Bennett, Diluc, Mona, and Aloy. These four characters have very spammable Elemental Bursts, which also synergize with each other quite well. You can also experiment with your own quick swap team, and see how Aloy fits into it.

Aloy is a free 5-star character who’s actually good to use especially on harder content. Players will be delighted that a strong character like her is going to be free-of-charge, which is also good news for beginners and F2P players, who are struggling with difficult content and needing a strong character.