The best Genshin Impact Aloy build

Want to learn how to create the best build for Aloy in Genshin Impact? Aloy is Genshin Impact's first crossover character: you'll probably recognise her as the protagonist of Horizon Zero Dawn and its upcoming sequel Horizon Forbidden West.

Aloy's guest starring role in Genshin Impact was time-limited, and as of November 24th, 2021 she's sadly no longer available to claim if you don't already have her. However, if she is in your party already she's yours to keep, so read on below for our suggestions on how to put together the best Aloy build in Genshin Impact.

Best Aloy build: Weapons

If you're familiar with Horizon Zero Dawn, you'll know Aloy is a skilled archer in that game, so you'll be unsurprised to learn that she wields a bow in Genshin Impact as well. With her established combat prowess, it's also no wonder that she's well-suited to a role as your party's main DPS character.

Aloy's skilled enough with a bow that almost any weapon of that type in Genshin Impact becomes pretty elite in her hands, but to really strengthen her build we recommend the Thundering Pulse as her top choice. It comes with a suite of benefits, including a 20% increase to Attack DMG, and also grants Thunder Emblem for another 12-40% Attack DMG (stacking up to 3 times). Thunder Emblems can be obtained by performing Normal Attacks with Elemental DMG, performing Elemental Skill attacks, or any time Aloy's Energy dips below 100%.

Best Aloy build: Artifacts

Aloy has access to some top-notch Cryo Talents, so boosting these further with Artifacts from the Blizzard Strayer set is a good call. With two pieces equipped, Aloy's Cryo attacks gain a 15% DMG bonus; while with four pieces, Crit Rate goes up 20% against enemies affected by Cryo, and another 20% again if the enemy is Frozen.

Alternatively, since it's not a bad idea to give some love to Aloy's pure archery skills, consider switching out two pieces of the Blizzard Strayer set for two from the Gladiator's Finale instead. You'll lose out on the higher levels of Elemental Reaction bonuses from having a full set, but you will gain an enviable +18% to Aloy's Normal Attacks.

Best Aloy build: Ascension Materials

To fully ascend Aloy, you will need the following materials: 168 Crystal Marrows, 46 Crystalline Blooms, 36 Spectral Nuclei, 30 Spectral Hearts, 18 Spectral Husks, 9 Shivada Jade Chunks, 9 Shivada Jade Fragments, 6 Shivada Jade Gemstones, and 1 Shivada Jade Sliver.

Other than the Shivada Jade pieces, Aloy's ascension materials are all rather rare finds. Crystal Marrows can be picked up by foraging in the wild, but only in areas of Inazuma affected by the Tatarigami curse; while Crystalline Blooms are exclusively dropped by Cryo Hypostasis enemies at Lvl 30+. It's the Specral pieces that are the trickiest to get, however: they're only obtainable from defeated Spectres in Inazuma, and the higher-level materials require you to defeat enemies of Lvl 40+ and Lvl 60+ respectively in order to collect them.

Best Aloy build: Talents

All of Aloy's Talents are honestly pretty good, unsurprisingly, but her best ones are those that make use of her bow skills. That means you probably want to focus on either her Normal Attack Rapid Fire or her Elemental Burst Prophecies of Dawn, depending on whether you're building her first and foremost around her bow damage or her Cryo damage potential.

Here's a full list of Aloy's Talents in Genshin Impact:

• 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 - Aloy fires off a shower of arrows in mid-air before falling and striking the ground, dealing AoE DMG upon impact.
• 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 Attack is decreased and Aloy receives 1 Coil stack. Each Coil 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. Aloy can gain up to 1 Coil stack every 0.1 seconds.
• 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.
• 1st Ascension Passive: Combat Override - When Aloy receives the Coil effect from Frozen Wilds, her Attack is increased by 16%, while nearby party members' Attack is increased by 8%. This effect lasts 10 seconds.
• 4th Ascension Passive: Strong Strike - When Aloy is in the Rushing Ice state conferred by Frozen Wilds, her Cryo DMG Bonus increases by 3.5% every 1 second. A maximum Cryo DMG Bonus increase of 35% can be gained in this way.
• Utility Passive: 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.

Best Aloy build: Constellations

Uniquely among all Genshin Impact's playable characters, Aloy has no Constellations. Attempting to view them reveals that all six levels share a name ("Star of Another World") and a description ("The time has not yet come for this person's corner of the night sky to light up"). In other words, there's nothing to be done in this area of Aloy's build, so my advice would be to focus on what else you can do with her.

How to get Aloy in Genshin Impact

Aloy was available for free for a limited time (October 13th-November 23rd, 2021 on PC) to players who had reached at least Adventure Rank 20. Anyone who picked up Aloy during that time will get to keep her; but unfortunately if you didn't play Genshin Impact during that period, or didn't reach AR20 in time, then you've missed the opportunity to add her to your party. Furthermore, as a promotional crossover character it's unlikely she'll be returning periodically like the game's other limited-time heroes.

However, if you booted up Genshin Impact at any point while she was available and you were eligible to claim her, but you didn't yet do so, there's some good news! She should still be waiting in your mailbox ready to download if you want her. In-game mail takes a whole year to expire, so just be sure to get her before October/November 2022.

That's everything you need to plan your Aloy build if you were quick enough to nab her before she went away! If you weren't so lucky, don't worry: there are over 40 other heroes in the game who are more than worthy of a place in your party. If you want a thorough comparison of every hero in the game, check out our Genshin Impact character tier list to see where everyone stands.