Aalto is an enigmatic Information Broker, known for his elusive nature and welcoming smile. Rumor has it he'll provide any information at the right price.
To learn more about Aalto check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Video guide
This character has no video guide yet.
Update tracker
Last review update
Patch 1.0
Last major build/calcs update
Patch 1.3
Last profile update*
December 11th, 2024
*Profile update means smaller edits to echoes, stats, synergies or teams that don't require new calculations.
To learn more about Aalto check the sections below. Use the tabs to quickly switch to the kind of information you're looking for.
Profile
Review
Build
Gameplay and teams
Calculations
Profile
Skills
Active skills
Passive skills
Concerto skills
Basic Attack
Half Truths
Basic Attack
Aalto fires up to 5 consecutive shots, dealing Aero DMG. Basic Attack 4 will spread the "Mist" forward, which lasts for 1.5s.
Heavy Attack
Aalto enters the aiming state for a more powerful shot. The aimed shot fired after charging finishes deals Aero DMG.
Mid-air Attack
Aalto consumes Stamina to perform consecutive shots at the target in mid-air, dealing Aero DMG.
Dodge Counter
Use Basic Attack after a successful Dodge to attack the target, dealing Aero DMG.
Lv. 1
Part 1 Damage
16.00%
Part 2 Damage
26.67%
Part 3 Damage
24%*2
Part 4 Damage
25.34%*2
Part 5 Damage
90.40%
Mid-Air Attack
30%
Aimed Shot Damage
18.00%
Fully Charged Aimed Shot Damage
40.50%
Dodge Counter Damage
107.70%
Mid-Air Attack Stamina Consumption
5
Resonance Skill
Shift Trick
Mist Avatar
Casts "Mist" and 1 "Mist Avatar(s)" to taunt the surrounding targets. The avatars inherit a portion of Aalto's HP and generate 6 Mist Bullets around them, dealing Aero DMG.
Mist Missiles
Deals Aero DMG, considered as Resonance Skill damage.
Lv. 1
Mist Missile Damage
30.00%
Mist Avatar HP
100%
Mist Avatar Duration
8
Cooldown
10
Con. Energy Regen
15
Resonance Liberation
Flower in the Mist
Generate a "Gate of Quandary" in front of you dealing Aero DMG. When bullets pass through the "Gate of Quandary", ATK is increased. "Gate of Quandary" lasts for 10s.
Lv. 1
Skill Damage
200.00%
Gate Of Quandary ATK Increase
10.00%
Cooldown
20
Res. Energy Cost
150
Con. Energy Regen
20
Forte Circuit
Misty Cover
When Aalto passes through "Mist" or "Gate of Quandary", he enters "Mistcloak Dash".
Mistcloak Dash
Movement speed increased; During this period, "Mist Drops" are continuously consumed, and for each 1 "Mist Drop" consumed, 1 Resonance Skill Mist Missile is generated.
Mist Drops
Aalto can hold up to 6 Mist Drops. When Basic Attack or Mid-air Attack passes through "Mist" and hits the target, 1 "Mist Drop" is recovered.
Lv. 1
Mist Missile Dmg
30.00%
Movement Speed Increase
40.00%
Inherent Skill
Perfect Performance
Aalto's Heavy Attack will always critically hit, triggered once every 30 seconds.
Inherent Skill
Mid-game Break
Aalto will continuously recover Stamina when he is in the Forte Circuit Miscloak Dash state.
The next character (or other characters on a nearby team that activates an Outro Skill) gains 23%Aero DMG Deepen for 14 seconds or until the Character is switched.
Resonance Chain (Dupes)
S1
Sequence Node 1
The cooldown of Resonance Skill Shift Trick is reduced by 4s.
S2
Sequence Node 2
"Mist Avatar" inherits 100% more HP from Aalto. When Aalto attacks targets taunted by the "Mist Avatar(s)", his ATK is increased by 15%.
S3
Sequence Node 3
When Aalto's Basic Attack or Mid-Air Attack passes through the "Gate of Quandary", 2 more bullets will be generated, dealing 50% of the DMG of Basic Attack or Mid-Air Attack.
S4
Sequence Node 4
The damage of Resonance Skill Mist Bullets is increased by 30%; Aalto receives 30% less damage in his Forte Circuit Mistcloak Dash state.
S5
Sequence Node 5
In the Forte Circuit Mistcloak Dash state, Aalto's Aero DMG Bonus is increased by 25% for 6s.
S6
Sequence Node 6
Resonance Liberation Flower in the Mist now additionally increases Crit. Rate by 8%. When Aalto's Heavy Attack passes through the "Gate of Quandary", the damage dealt is additionally increased by 50%.
Minor Fortes (Total)
Aero DMG
+12%
ATK%
+12%
Stats
Include minor fortes
Lv. 90
HP
9850
ATK
263
DEF
1076
Max Energy
150
CRIT Rate
5%
CRIT DMG
150%
Healing Bonus
0%
Aero DMG
0%
Upgrade Materials
Character Ascension (total)
4xLF Howler Core
12xMF Howler Core
12xHF Howler Core
4xFF Howler Core
46xRoaring Rock Fist
60xWintry Bell
170 000Shell Credits
Skill Upgrades (total)
25xLF Howler Core
28xMF Howler Core
40xHF Howler Core
57xFF Howler Core
25xImpure Phlogiston
28xExtracted Phlogiston
55xRefined Phlogiston
67xFlawless Phlogiston
26xMonument Bell
2 030 000Shell Credits
While the source of the materials can be quickly found in the game, when it comes Wintry Bell you will have to gather them from the map. Check our Interactive map to find them quickly:
Can execute a fast concerto rotation when cooldowns are managed effectively,
Becomes smoother to play with more damage with higher Sequences,
Spawns clones that taunt enemies improving endgame survivability,
Cool Sunglasses.
Cons
Interesting Forte Ability but very hard to use properly in endgame,
Inherent abilities that essentially do nothing,
Underwhelming Resonance Liberation at S0 outside of concerto generation,
Has no place in the meta currently due to being overshadowed in his main team composition.
Review
Aalto is a Hybrid character who has a unique playstyle - he creates misty gates that empower his attacks when he shoots through them and he can also jump through the gates to turn incorporeal, increasing his movement speed. This combined with the ability to create mist clones that taunt nearby enemies, make him a trickster that is hard to catch if you know what you're doing.
The strongest part of his kit is definitely his Outro skill that provides the next ally with Aero DMG% Deepen, making him a good partner for Jiyan and any other future Aero Main DPS. Unfortunately, to balance out this powerful and generic outro as S0 he takes up quite a bit of field time to access his concerto while also having just “ok” damage output putting him a decent bit behind other hybrid characters in 1.0.
With just these points considered, it’s not enough for Aalto to be placed low performance-wise but what makes him rank him quite a bit lower at S0 than alternatives is his playstyle and immensely high ultimate energy cost (150). To play Aalto effectively, you must shoot through his Mist Gate and then after accumulating 6 charges, dash through it. But doing so, puts him in between the gate and the targets you were just shooting, forcing him to either reposition, create another gate with his skill (which has a long cooldown), or do a full basic string without gaining any charges. All of these options aren’t great and are needed to perform an optimal rotation making Aalto a little awkward to play at S0.
Fortunately for Aalto, he gains a lot of power, utility, and most importantly quality of life from his Sequences which will help him later on in the lifetime of players' accounts. In conclusion, Aalto has some interesting utility and a good generic outro buff but falls short a bit at S0.
Ratings
This tier list assesses characters based on their combat potential in Wuthering Waves current most demanding content Tower of Adversity (ToA). ToA is a mode similar to Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss or Honkai Star Rail’s Memory of Chaos and requires multiple teams, strong Echoes and good Weapons. This mode offers a reasonable mix of Boss encounters (single target), Elite packs (2-3 targets) and AoE scenarios (5+ Targets), allowing multiple characters to find a niche but in the end, there's a bias toward single target focused characters at the top-end.
Please keep in mind Wuthering Waves is a skill-based game and each character has a different playstyle, difficulty level and even special tricks and combos. Wuthering Waves is also a team based game and it's only by combining both these factors to the highest level a character can reach optimal performance.
T3
Tower of Adversity
Video guides
Aaltoguide videos aren't available yet.
Build
Best Weapons
100%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 587 | CRIT Rate: 24.3%
Best gun in the game by a landslide, offering main stat CRIT RATE, granting better Crit ratios (and as a result scaling), great base damage, and a good amount of Energy Regen (which saves you at least 1 sub-stat on gear). Also currently the only weapon in the game that offers any form of team-supportive ability granting the next character to switch in via intro an ATK boost synergising immensely with the hybrid playstyle.
83.1%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 462 | ATK: 18.2%
-
83%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 387 | ATK: 36.4%
Alternative gun option to Undying Flame for Resonance Skill focused damage characters, assuming they weave in several Basic Attacks in their rotation.
82.95%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 412 | ATK: 30.3%
Usable gun by all Resonators offering good bonuses to ATK but reliant on dodging 3 times during your rotation for maximum value with continual dodges after that. Should only be used by those willing to perform dodges at the start of their rotation and consistently after. Calculations assume you perform dodges as soon as possible and maintain the buff.
82.11%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 387 | ATK: 36.4%
Generic gun option usable by all characters but with a significant ramp-up time on its bonus. Also requires the player not to be hit to extract full value. If you do get hit this weapon will fall behind (calculations assume you don't get hit even once).
80.57%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 412 | ATK: 30.3%
One of the top gun options for Resonators that deals primarily Resonance Skill DMG with little to no conditions to worry about thanks to its effect being tied to Intro skills. Almost all characters make use of Intros in their rotation and the bonus lasts for 15 seconds - long enough for most Main DPS to finish their burst window making this a strong consistent option.
70.98%
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 325 | ATK: 24.3%
Easily accessible 3★ weapon that despite having lower base attack makes up for it with a high ATK% bonus at higher dupes. It does not have enough stats to compete with 4-star weapons but is a reasonable option if it's all you have. The only downside is that the buff only lasts 10 seconds, meaning it may fall off in the hands of a Main DPS character who takes up more field time.
Best Echo Sets
1
2 Set:Aero DMG increase by 10%.
5 Set: Upon using Intro Skill, Aero DMG increases by 30% for 15s.
Best Main Echoes
Echoes in Wuthering Waves are an essential part of the character rotations, granting a large amount of Resonance Energy and damage but at the cost of high field time for the most powerful ones. But by using some Echoes right before you're about to switch out on the character, you're able to move to your next character while your previous one is still in the echo animation - it’s what we call an Echo Swap Cancel.
Echo Swap Cancel is almost always the optimal way to use Echoes, and will result in big reductions in character field time and large increases to DPS, but not all of the most powerful Echoes can be swap cancelled in this way. For example, the Feilian Beringal (Aero), Dreamless (Havoc), Tempest Mephis (Electro), Mourning Aix (Spectro), and Infernal Rider (Fusion) Echoes can all be Swap Cancelled.
The remaining element, so Glacio while having powerful Echoes has none powerful enough that can be swap cancelled, and to make things worse, no Echoes that generate sufficient Energy and damage for their field time investment.
The result of this is that you can expect Glacio characters to have higher field time and lower DPS in calculations than their other elemental counter parts until they receive better Echoes to use.
Sierra Gale
One of the best pure DPS echos in the game, capable of dealing good damage while also being swap cancelled and still granting it's boosting effect. Use this echo in the warm-up phase just moments before you plan to enter your Main DPS burst window and swap cancel it after it performs its first punch (it will continue and use the follow-up even after you switch). After that trigger your Hybrid or Supports concerto and then swap back to your damage dealer to perform your rotation with the buff active.
Important! CRIT DMG has base value of 150% and Energy Regen has a base value of 100% when you check them in game. The recommended values below don't include the base value but rather show how much on top of it you need to obtain.
ATK: 1700-2000+
HP: 14000+
DEF: 1000+
AERO DMG%: 52%-82%+
CRIT RATE%: 50-70%+
CRIT DMG% 100-140%+
Energy Regeneration: 30-40%
Aalto's ultimate is essential for achieving his optimal Concerto rotation as such we recommend getting 30-40% Energy Regen so he'll have it every time you need it.
Skill Priority
Below you can find the order of leveling the abilities for Aalto.
Basic Attack
Forte Circuit
Res. Liberation
Res. Skill
Intro Skill
Gameplay and teams
Rotation
Below you can find optimal rotation (or rotations) for Aalto. The total time needed to perform it is 3.75 seconds. When selecting the rotations we prioritized achieving 100 Concerto as fast as possible and once that condition was fulfilled, we focused on maximizing the damage output. As or if new and more optimal rotations are found, we'll update the characters calculations as needed.
Aalto’s primary aim is to spend minimal field time while fully generating his Concerto, in order to grant another character a powerful 23% generic Aero Amplification buff with least chance of failure. Due to his trickster build, he has many quirks and play styles available but to best suit his endgame role - we have settled with the fastest and most consistent Concerto rotation. Presented below is some information on how to play Aalto and how his rotation works:
His Resonance Skill: Mist Avatar, generates absurd amounts of Concerto Energy along with decent Resonance Energy and taunts the enemies with a Mist Clone.
The quickest and most efficient method to generate his Outro is to use his Skill twice alongside his Ultimate and sequence of Basic Attacks. Due to his Skill having a long cooldown of 10 seconds at S0, longer than any rotation he would want to employ itself, it is best to weave in his skill into rotation of your other support characters to refresh its cooldown, thus allowing you to use it again for his main Concerto rotation.
His Forte Skill: Mistcloak Dash, is an excellent but difficult to use mobility tool in actual combat situations, more so when attempting to generate Concerto quickly under pressure. Given this issue and challenge of generating Forte Gauge charges to begin with, we have opted for no Forte rotation and found it working the best, however feel free to weave in this Forte where you find it to be effective if given a chance!
His Resonance Skill : Mist Avatar, requires a target to generate most of its Concerto and Resonance Energy and features a slight delay in their gain due to bullets needing to hit the target first. This can lead to delay in Outro and as such should be used as early in rotation as possible.
In the given rotation, you don’t need to worry about firing through or positioning for his Mist Gates as the same is not required to achieve the Concerto threshold for his Outro.
Skill: Mist Avatar (Use during another character's rotation to allow for cooldown)
Intro
Ultimate
Skill: Mist Avatar (Can be used after Basic Attacks if still on Cooldown)
Basic P1
Basic P2
Basic P3
Basic P4
Basic P5
Echo (Impermenance Heron)
Outro
Synergies
Below you can find a list of some of the stronger synergies between this character and others.
Jiyan - Aalto isn't Jiyan's best support but he certainly gets the job done coming close enough to the total team damage output of Mortefi teams when all units are at S0 albeit with a few downsides. Aalto's main claim to fame is his 23% Aero DMG Amplify buff that like Mortefi's is a special multiplier boosting up Jiyan's entire burst window. This alone matches the Heavy Amplify bonus from Mortefi as not all of Jiyan's attacks are Heavy but all of them are Aero. While Aalto's Aero buff is excellent, he doesn't have many other damage focused synergies with Jiyan and has a slightly longer rotation, requires some positional maneuvering around his Gates and is harder to play overall. If you like Aalto and or don't like or get Mortefi he is a good substitute.
Sanhua - Aalto's best option for his Main DPS playstyle. Sanhua has the shortest rotation of any hybrid, as well as an incredible 38% Basic Attack DMG Amplify, making her the best option to buff Aalto's damage, mostly being of the Basic Attack type.
Verina as a healing support can easily accommodate running the 5P Rejuvenating Glow set alongside a Bell-Borne Geochelone echo, offering the team a wide array of offensive and defensive buffs already bringing a tonne of worth just from that alone. Additionally Verina's many rotational options to access her Ultimate and Concerto are all fast and relatively easy to execute, leaving ample field time for the rest of team mates to execute their combos. Verina's Outro is by far the most flexible and powerful Outro in the game granting all allies 15% generic DMG% Amplify for 30 seconds. Most units only grant 1 type and only for the very next unit to switch in locking them into staying on field less they lose the buff but Verina grants it to all allies completely unrestricted. On top of this Verina grants an additional 20% ATK and a Cheat Death ability preventing one death every 10 minutes. She's universal, flexible, takes little field time and outstanding in every team.
The Shorekeeper is incredibly flexible thanks to her generic buffs, lingering Outro amplification and relatively low field time requirements after her first rotation. Because of this, she can be played as a support in most team compositions to great effect.
Don't use the damage output calculations as an indication on who is worth pulling or investing as those are just simulations and in day-to-day gameplay there's a lot variables and also the skill of the player is important - if you can't consistently perform the character's rotation, their damage will suffer.
As usual, don't compare the numbers between characters - especially between Main DPS and Hybrids as they fulfill different roles in the team.
Additional information
The numbers below show the character's DPS (Damage Per Second) and DMG (total damage done). When selecting the rotations we prioritized achieving 100 Concerto as fast as possible and once that condition was fulfilled, we focused on maximizing the damage output. As or if new and more optimal rotations are found, we'll update the characters calculations as needed. Listed character calculations are done without buffs or any damage contribution from teammates (full solo). They only include what the character, their Weapon, Echo and gear are capable of during their ideal Burst or Concerto rotation when starting with their Intro and Resonance Liberation available.
Aalto in 1 Target scenario
Rotation time: 3.75s
Aalto (S6)
116,757 DMG (31,110 DPS)151.30%
Aalto (S5)
112,202 DMG (29,897 DPS)145.40%
Aalto (S4)
112,202 DMG (29,897 DPS)145.40%
Aalto (S3)
107,518 DMG (28,649 DPS)139.33%
Aalto (S2)
78,784 DMG (20,992 DPS)102.09%
Aalto (S1)
77,167 DMG (20,562 DPS)100.00%
Aalto (S0)
77,167 DMG (20,562 DPS)100.00%
Details about the calculations
Here's the rotation we have used to calculate the DPS (Damage Per Second) shown above. The total time needed to perform the rotation is 3.75 seconds.
Skill: Mist Avatar (Use during another character's rotation to allow for cooldown)
Intro
Ultimate
Skill: Mist Avatar (Can be used after Basic Attacks if still on Cooldown)
Basic P1
Basic P2
Basic P3
Basic P4
Basic P5
Echo (Impermenance Heron)
Outro
And here are the Echoes and Weapons used in the calculations.
Stats at Level 90: ATK: 587 | CRIT Rate: 24.3%
2 Set: Energy Regen increases by 10%.
5 Set: Upon using Outro Skill, ATK of the next Resonator increases by 22.5% for 15s.
Echoes in Wuthering Waves are an essential part of the character rotations, granting a large amount of Resonance Energy and damage but at the cost of high field time for the most powerful ones. But by using some Echoes right before you're about to switch out on the character, you're able to move to your next character while your previous one is still in the echo animation - it’s what we call an Echo Swap Cancel.
Echo Swap Cancel is almost always the optimal way to use Echoes, and will result in big reductions in character field time and large increases to DPS, but not all of the most powerful Echoes can be swap cancelled in this way. For example, the Feilian Beringal (Aero), Dreamless (Havoc), Tempest Mephis (Electro), Mourning Aix (Spectro), and Infernal Rider (Fusion) Echoes can all be Swap Cancelled.
The remaining element, so Glacio while having powerful Echoes has none powerful enough that can be swap cancelled, and to make things worse, no Echoes that generate sufficient Energy and damage for their field time investment.
The result of this is that you can expect Glacio characters to have higher field time and lower DPS in calculations than their other elemental counter parts until they receive better Echoes to use.
