Forza Horizon 5 Tips and Tricks - Forza Horizon 5 Guide - IGN (2024)

IGN has the tips and tricks, strategies, and secrets you need to succeed in Forza Horizon 5. Whether you're a new player or veteran, these tips will help your cross the finish line first and earn your place in the Hall of Fame.

The video below will highlihgt useful tips for both new players and returning fans of the series. Scroll down the page for even more FH5 tips!

Forza Horizon 5 offers a ton of ways to customize your driving experience to fit your exact playstyle. In the Advanced Controls settings, you’ll find all sorts of options to change deadzones for your thumbsticks or triggers that can affect how your car accelerates, turning sensitivity, and how the E-brake responds to button presses. Also, in the difficulty settings, you can also alter how arcade-y or simulation-like you want your car to feel - with arcade giving you much more leeway to make risky maneuvers and simulation requiring you to master cornering.

There’s even a toggle that lets you set damage to cosmetic (damage doesn’t affect performance) or simulation (wear and tear will impact performance). You also gain bonus CR depending on the difficulty of the Drivatars and how much driving assistance you need. It's a true choose-your-own-adventure approach.

Expanding the Festival is what unlocks more events on the map, so try to do the opening mission for each festival event to open up new race types. It won’t be long before your map is filled with every race type, giving you a TON of things to do.

Further, if you want to compete in marquee events, make sure to keep unlocking new missions on the map as you earn Accolade Points. The special Showcase Races and Story Events are also mostly locked behind that AP paywall.

When you buy a certain number of cars from a specific manufacturer you'll unlock a bonus prize. Many of these manufacturers only have one car in the game, which is often relatively cheap. One quick way to unlock XP early in the game is to purchase some of these as soon as you have the Credits to do so.

When trying to find a barn in the big circle radius, instead of driving around looking for it, instead switch to your drone and fly around. You’ll find it faster not having to drive, and when you find it, it’ll even mark it on your map for you to drive to.

If you still need help, make sure to give our guide on Barn Finds a look. It includes a detailed map of where to find all 14 classic cars.

If you really mess up during a multiplayer race, the rewind feature still works online, but you’ll only rewind yourself - unlike in playing solo where it rewinds all opponents and NPCs/traffic. That means using it will likely leave you far behind your competition.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have its place in online races, you just need to only use it if you really mess up. Basically, unless you've found yourself careening over a cliff or have missed a crucial checkpoint, it's best to leave this feature for AI races.

Many Forza Horizon 5 races require you to drive through checkpoints to stay on the course. However, some don't have that restriction. Take advantage of this by plowing through the Mexican scenery on your way to an incredibly quick lap time. In fact, some of the mission times can only be completed by using this strategy.

Most of the houses available for purchase automatically unlock a perk to help you out, so take a look at what’s available and try and buy the Player Houses you think will help you out the most. For example, we highly recommend buying the Buenas Vistas property on the west coast of the map once it’s available since it unlocks the ability to fast travel to any road on the map. This is a huge timesaver, but…

… you should also make sure to smash as many Fast Travel boards as possible to bring down the in-game cost of fast traveling. Smash them all and the cost becomes zero, so be sure to check out our interactive map to make sure you don’t miss any!

That said, don’t stress over seeing XP or fast travel boards in seemingly impossible-to-reach places during your first few hours. The vast majority of the PR stunt jumps aren’t placed on the map until you open the Horizon Rush festival expansion; after that, new ramps will appear on the map, making smashing tricky signs possible

Once you’ve unlocked all of the adventures, your map can become extremely cluttered. Use the filters to sort out a specific type of race or even just make it where you can only see the activities you’ve yet to complete.

This tip seems pretty obvious, but with how much starts to pop up on your map once you've unlocked all the Expeditions, it's worth pointing out. A clean map makes traversing Mexico much easier.

As you unlock mastery points you can spend those points on your favorite car to unlock things like increases to speed skills, improved skill multipliers, and even wheelspins.

However, we recommend sticking to just a few cars for your perks. Pick a car or two to max out for races and drifts and then save the rest. You can then use those perks to quickly build up cash. Check out our How to do the Money Glitch guide for more.

Make sure to always stay on top of checking your accolades and mail. A lot of the rewards you receive for completing all of the wide-ranging Accolades in Forza won’t actually be given to you until you actively take steps to collect them.

When racing in single-player, pick the car you’re most comfortable driving. It doesn't matter if it's slower, all of your opponents will be put in the same type of vehicle.

This lets you take things a little easier if you'd like. Sometimes we all just want to stroll through an offroad race in an old-school Ferrari, after all.

Before each race, make sure to note the weather. This can have a major impact on your car's performance during the race. For example, if it's rainy out, the track will be wet, causing you to slip if you don't take turns more carefully.

This extends to the Seasons system, which can introduce even more weather-based challenges. Check the forecast to put you in the best position possible.