Aalto Guide – Builds, Teams, and How to Play

Shift Trick will also spawn an instance of Mist (Basic Attack 4 also spawns one, but with a shorter duration), which can then be interacted with via his Forte. Whenever Aalto’s shots pass through Mist, Aalto gains a stack of Mist Drop, holding up to 6 of them at a time. The shots only count when hitting a living entity, however, so hitting boxes won’t grant any stacks.

Passing through the Mist with a dash or dodge turns Aalto into a cloud of mist for up to two seconds and causes his Mist Drop stacks to be rapidly consumed over one second. Upon leaving his mist form, Aalto will release a Mist Bullet for every stack consumed. Those are the same projectiles as the ones released by his Resonance Skill, though these ones take their damage multiplier from his Forte Circuit node instead.

What the game does not tell you, however, is that each attack in the chain only counts once per Mist for the purpose of gathering the stacks, meaning that you cannot abuse his Forte with mid-air attacks. Bummer. But in return, Basic Attack 5 gathers two stacks instead, so one chain is still enough to fill his Forte bar. Additionally, the game doesn’t list it anywhere, but Mist created with Shift Trick lasts 4 seconds - half of the duration of Mist Avatar.

Next, the Resonance Liberation. Upon cast, (besides dealing damage of course) Aalto generates the Gate of Quandary in front of himself for 10 seconds - a moderately wide wall of fog that increases the damage of attacks passing through it. In practice, this amounts to just conditionally increasing Aalto’s ATK bonus by 10%, but free damage is free damage.

Contrary to what logic and the Roseshroom laser indicator would suggest, the Gate isn’t an actual physical object and it won’t block enemy projectile attacks, but it counts as Mist for the purposes of Aalto’s Forte, which can sometimes prove useful if you’re forced to reposition despite the taunt.

Finally, there are two things that need a special mention. Firstly, Aalto’s Inherent Skills. To say they are almost worthless is putting it lightly, as they offer extremely little combat benefit since pistoleers generally don’t use their charged attacks (Perfect Performance) and stamina management tends to be of little issue (Mid-Game Break) as long as you’re not dashing like a maniac.

Secondly, Aalto’s Resonance Chain sequences. While they’re generally different flavours of “whatever,” Resonance 3 stands as a highlight of the chain, being able to single-handedly boost Aalto’s damage output by up to 77% (!). This doesn’t always prove better than just buffing your main DPS harder by effects such as Sanhua’s Resonance 4 or Mortefi’s Resonance 6, but at the very least it puts Aalto in a very competitive spot among his equal-rarity peers.

Aalto has been dealt a bad hand to play, but it’s not entirely the issue of his kit design. Part of the reason seemingly everyone tends to write him off is also Jiyan’s fall into mediocrity and Kuro Games’ unwillingness to release more Aero element characters in the near future. Does this mean Aalto’s unsalvageable? Hardly. Despite his shortcomings, he is still perfectly capable of supporting Jiyan or any future Aero characters down the line, regardless of their individual gimmicks.

Aalto Rotations

Rotations should always be taken with a grain of salt. Enemies are NOT sandbags and WILL ATTACK YOU. Several factors such as Parries, Dodge Counters, and being knocked back will affect how you approach the rest of your rotation.

Forte Circuit Loop

This is Aalto’s primary skill rotation, used in the sub-DPS role. When executing it, it’s important to allow for all Mist Drops generated by his Forte to be consumed, as cancelling the dash too early will result in less Concerto Energy generated and a delay before you can swap Aalto out. A slightly less important (but still worth the mention) is Aalto’s position after dashing the Mist he generates. After dashing through, remember to loop back to not pass through his Gate of Quandary and miss out on the damage buff.

Parry Windows

Character Synergies

	Verina, Shorekeeper and Baizhi
	There are only so many ways to say “dealing damage is good, dealing more damage is better”. All three premier supports will boost Aalto’s damage output in slightly different ways when put in the same team together with her.
	Buffs
	Everyone: • 15% Team-wide All DMG Amplify • Rejuvenating Glow and Bell-Borne Geochelone OR Fallacy of No Return Verina: • 20% Team-wide ATK Bonus Shorekeeper: • 5%~12.5% Team-wide Crit Rate Bonus • 10%~25% Team-wide Crit DMG Bonus • Stagger breakout Baizhi: • 15% Team-wide ATK Bonus

	Jiyan
	The most obvious choice of a character to support, Jiyan greatly benefits from Aalto’s Outro, albeit with its effect more spread across his entire kit rather than doubling down on the Resonance Liberation window as would be the case with Mortefi.
	Buffs
	• N/A

	Jianxin
	The less obvious choice of a support target, primarily because Jianxin usually isn’t cast in the main DPS role. Even so, Aalto’s Aero DMG Amplify effect won’t be wasted on her as at the end of the day, all of her attacks are still of Aero element.
	Buffs
	• Gather • Shields • 38% Resonance Liberation DMG Amplify

Team Comps

As sub-DPS

As main DPS

Skill Priority

1. Basic Attack
2. Resonance Skill
3. Forte Circuit
4. Resonance Liberation
5. Intro Skill

Aalto’s damage contribution is unusually evenly split between his Basic Attack, Resonance Skill and Forte Circuit, with each node contributing about a quarter of the rotation’s total damage. However, this changes upon reaching Resonance 3, which scales directly from the damage dealt by Aalto’s basic attacks and can dramatically boost Aalto’s damage output. As such, the Basic Attack node should take priority over the Resonance Skill and Forte Circuit.

Weapons

Aalto’s weapon choices look about the same as they did in version 1.0, with Static Mist being his best-slot-weapon - partially because it plays directly into the sub-DPS’ role of buffing the next character, and partially because Kuro really hates pistoleers. Credit where it’s due though, this might change with Carlotta’s release in 2.0, but until then...

In the 4★ department, things are rather stale. Relativistic Jet find themselves at the top of the budget game with their high base ATK, supplemented by a respectable ATK% bonus and extra Resonance Energy. Novaburst and Thunderbolt are both a decent alternative if readily available, though this is more because of their raw stats, rather than their active effects. Finally, Pistols#26 offer Aalto almost nothing besides their raw stats, with the active effects kicking in just as he is leaving. Still, it proves to be just enough to keep them a viable alternative.

If none of these options are available, Pistols of Night are a more than reasonable stand-in until a better weapon can be acquired.

Weapon Name	Comparison	Notes
Static Mist	100%	The generic 5★ handguns quite unsurprisingly find themselves at the top of the game for Aalto and all other pistoleers in the game as of version 1.4 due to being the only 5★ pistols in the game. High base ATK, crit rate secondary stat, some energy regen and attack bonus for the next character swapped in - everything a sub-DPS would want in a compact, ice-blue package.
Relativistic Jet	81.68% (Rank 5: 84.43%)	The single best choice for a budget stat stick pair of pistols in the game, featuring high base ATK that’s further increased by their secondary stat and active effect. The extra Resonance Energy provided with the latter also helps maintain team rotation consistency.
Novaburst	78.14% ~ 81.30% (Rank 5: 78.72% ~ 85.02%)	A curious case of pistols that require multiple dodges to harness their full benefit. In practice, this means delaying the rotation for a rather small benefit before reaching rank 5. Better used as a stat stick if Relativistic Jet is unavailable.
Thunderbolt	78.06% (Rank 5: 81.22%)	A fancier set of handguns exclusive to the battlepass. A decently strong alternative to the other listed handguns, although as far as Aalto is concerned, not scaling with ranks as well as one would wish them to. Good enough as stat sticks, but not much more.
Pistols#26	76.92% (Rank 5: 77.17%)	Another flavour of stat stick, this time featuring an active bonus with ramp-up time long enough to catch Aalto leaving just as it kicks in. Not a great choice for a sub-DPS job overall, but they certainly look fancy.
Pistols of Night	70.50%	Reasonable alternative if no other offensive options are available.
Undying Flame	69.65% (Rank 5: 71.98%)	A pretty good set of pistols that for Aalto specifically are just Pistols of Night in a different colour due to buffing only his Resonance Skill damage with their active skill.
Guardian Pistols	67.35%	Undying Flame Lite. Same active bonus, 3★ rarity, less base stats and wooden finish.
Originite: Type III	65.79%	An overall terrible pair of handguns that in practice end up making you play without an active effect while also providing much less ATK than Pistols of Night.
Pistols of Voyager	64.68%	Handguns so sad and bottom-of-the-barrel that even their active skill’s name lies to you, as the journey to the nearest recycle bin is pretty short. About 50 base ATK short of being serviceable. Best fed to a better weapon and forgotten about.
Cadenza	59.84%	A utility-focused pair of handguns that enable faster rotations for certain characters by granting them more Concerto energy. At rank 2 and above, they cut one basic attack from Aalto’s ability rotation, which isn’t enough to make a substantial enough difference to justify annihilating his individual damage contribution.

Echoes

Sonata effects

Set Effect	Comparison	Notes
Moonlit Clouds 5p	N/A	The primary choice of an active set for Aalto, used to buff the main DPS units on Outro with extra ATK. Impossible to stack with itself if multiple characters are using it.
Sierra Gale 5p	N/A	The less orthodox set for when you really want to have Aalto be the main DPS of the team. Provides a hefty amount of Aero% damage bonus tied to Aalto using his Intro, which equals to about a 23.26% individual damage increase at the cost of consciously handicapping your team.

Active Echo Recommendation

Moonlit Clouds: Impermanence Heron - The universally best choice of an active Echo for all characters in the sub-DPS role using the Moonlit Clouds set. While it does nothing to buff Aalto himself, it doubles down on the buffing aspect of the set, providing more ATK to the next character you’ll be switching them to.

Moonlit Clouds: Bell-Borne Geochelone - A strong choice of an Echo, providing a team-wide 10% All-DMG Bonus effect and a shield blocking 50% of incoming damage for the next three hits on use. It does not stack with itself if multiple characters use its active effect. Only really worth considering as an option if you want to have both it and Fallacy of No Return for whatever reason. In terms of buffing damage, it’s strictly worse than the Heron.

Moonlit Clouds: Whiff Whaff - A half-decent choice of an active Echo for when you’re just starting out and can’t easily farm Impermanence Heron, used mostly for its crowd-control and extra Resonance Energy generation.  It lacks any buffs, but its damage is slightly less terrible than usual due to benefitting from Aalto’s Aero Damage Bonus.

Sierra Gale: Feilian Beringal - The most viable choice of an Echo for the Sierra Gale set if you insist on using Aalto as the party’s main DPS. Deals a very respectable amount of damage and buffs the character’s Aero and Heavy Attack damage bonus by 12% each - the latter of which Aalto cannot effectively use. The attack animation can be swapped out of after the initial kick.

Main stats

Cost	Stat
4	Critical Rate % / Critical DMG %
3	Aero % / Energy Regen %
3	Aero %
1	ATK %
1	ATK %

When selecting your 4-Cost Echo main stat, be mindful of your equipped weapon’s secondary stat. Pistols with innate critical chance bonus will prefer Critical DMG%, while the rest will prefer Critical Rate%.

For 3-Cost Echoes, the preferable setup for Aalto, regardless of the weapon used, is that of double Aero%, in major part due to relative overabundance of ATK% buffs from other sources. While he can use Aero% + ER% instead, it should be treated mainly as a placeholder set so as to not compromise his damage output more than necessary.

Sub stats priority

Sub Stat Priority

Energy Regeneration (until 40%) > Crit Rate = Crit DMG > ATK% > Flat ATK > Basic Attack DMG > Resonance Skill DMG = Resonance Liberation DMG

Although 40% Energy Regeneration bonus should more than suffice, if your team composition has Aalto lag with his Resonance Liberation, you may prefer to increase the bonus to 50% or higher.