The seasons keep coming as the second Series of Forza Horizon 5 continues today, with the stormy Autumn season changing the Mexican landscape.
As usual, there’s a selection of new and exclusive cars to race for over the next seven days, while the festive Secret Santa mode continues through to the end of the season — rewarding all players for their gifting spirit during Series 2.
This is the sixth week of playlist events since the official launch, so most regulars should be familiar with FH5’s reworked points system. For those that aren’t, where FH4 gave percentage points for completing each playlist task, FH5 gives a clearly marked points reward, and a points target for each prize.
There’s another 65 points to aim for this week — assuming everything functions as it should — towards the Series total of 266 (or 263 if you were affected by last week’s Treasure Hunt glitch).
Series 2
Naturally the Series prizes remain as they were, but those of you who complete the playlists religiously will receive the lower-order reward during this season — if only just.
That’s the “Legendary” Gingerbread Man outfit — a weird, browny morph suit with gingerbread man-style decoration in icing and gumdrops. Players can only pick this reward up here, in this playlist, for 120 points across the four seasons so don’t miss out if you want your post-race celebrations marked with a dancing biscuit.
You won’t be picking up the second exclusive reward this week though, or indeed next week either. There’s simply not enough points on offer for players to rack up the 200 needed until the final season, Spring/Hot, starting on December 30.
That’s the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, an extreme version of the “ordinary” V12 supercar, packing active aero, more power, and less weight. Still, good things come to those who wait, right?
Finally we have Horizon Secret Santa running across this Series. It’s a community gifting challenge that will have players spending their hard-earned Forzathon Points to send gift cars to each other at a special Christmas market in Mulege.
All you need to do is head into the Forzathon Shop, buy a car, and select from the gifting options instead of taking it for yourself. Once player have sent enough vehicles to each other, the entire playerbase will receive a Santa Outfit. If they hit the maximum target — which is unspecified — everyone will get a “mystery car” which looks rather like it’ll be a Peel P50.
By our calculation, players aren’t currently being generous enough to secure that second prize, with the progress bar sitting at 17%, with 25% of the time already elapsed. Get gifting!
Series 2 will run through to 1430 UTC on Thursday January 6, 2022, when it’ll be replaced by Series 3. For the Autumn/Storm season challenges below, you have until 1430 UTC on Thursday December 23 to pick up as many points as you can.
Challenges
There’s a slight shorter list of challenges this week, with only the three regulars and a Collectibles challenge.
For that, you’ll need to locate and smash 15 snowmen from around the Mexican landscape, in order to secure the Snowman Outfit (which looks to be just the head piece) and three points.
These are pretty hard to find, but there are five dotted around the volcano caldera itself. You’ll either need to break them all and then go away for a while so they reload or — and this is sneaky — head into Horizon Solo mode and Rewind every time you break one. As they can be finicky whether they count or not when smashed, don’t feel too bad about this method.
For the Photo Challenge, #HolidaySpirit, you’ll want to head into the center of Guanajuato and find the giant Christmas tree in front of the bright yellow basilica. Snap a Mazda RX-7 Spirit R there to complete the task for Sleigh Bells horn and two points.
All that remains then is the two multiplayer events. The Eliminator again requires you to finish in 30th or better for the two-point reward, and a 50,000cr cash injection this week. It may be worth holding off on this to match it with Sunday’s Daily Challenge.
Finally there’s the Horizon Open challenge, which needs you to head into the Online section in the pause menu and select “Playground Games”. The challenge is to deny five flags by tagging your flag-carrying opponents during Team Flag Rush sessions. That will win you the two points and 25,000cr.
Of course the Monthly Rivals event remains if you haven’t already done it. You’ll race a lap (or as many as you want) of the Cathedral Circuit in Guanajuato in a DeLorean DMC-12. Set a clean lap — easier said than done with the tight tunnel walls — to pick up four points on all four seasons at once.
Collectibles
- Cars: Any
- Location: Any
- Challenge: Smash 15 Snowmen
- Reward: 2 points, Snowman Outfit
Photo Challenge: #HolidaySpirit
- Cars: Mazda RX-7 Spirit R 2002
- Location: Guanajuato
- Challenge: Photograph the Mazda RX-7 Spirit R at the giant tree in Guanajuato
- Reward: 2 points, Sleigh Bells Horn
Horizon Open: Dream Team
- Cars: Any
- Location: Horizon Open Playground Games
- Challenge: Deny Five Flags in Team Flag Rush
- Reward: 2 points, 25,000cr
Monthly Rivals: Cathedral Circuit
- Cars: DeLorean DMC-12
- Location: Cathedral Circuit, Guanajuato
- Challenge: Post a Clean Lap
- Reward: 16 points (4 added to each season)
The Eliminator: Battle Royale
- Cars: Any
- Location: The Eliminator
- Challenge: Finish 30th or better
- Reward: 2 points, 50,000cr
Season Events
There’s another slightly thinner offering this week, with no EventLab to take part in. Instead it’s the regular offering of PR Stunts and Seasonal Championships.
You’ll have a Danger Sign, a Speed Trap, and a Speed Zone to run through for this week’s stunts.
Take any A Class (up to 800PI) Ford to the Cascadas Danger Sign, near Agua Azul. You’ll need to fling it over 213m to get the points and a Wheelspin, which is a pretty solid two-star distance so might pose some problems. Approaching it from the direction Anna suggests should see you clear.
The Speed Trap might not be too easy either. You’ll need a specific car this week, in the shape of the Audi RS6 saloon from 2003, tuned to S1 Class (up to 900PI). The trap itself is on the dirt road to the east of the Teotihuacan drag strip, so you’ll a good run up to hit the 120mph required for two points and a Wheelspin.
Finally the Speed Zone is also set on dirt, over at the south end of Dunas Blancas. Any vehicle from the Unlimited Buggies class tuned to A Class stats (up to 800PI) is eligible, but you will need to average 100mph — way above the 90mph three-star time for the zone.
The three Seasonal Championships start with a classic round of Street Race events, in the Chevrolet Bel Air tuned to B Class (700PI). Come out on top in the three-race championship Carol of the Bel Airs and you’ll take the five points and a Holiday Sweater clothing item.
Drivin’ Home for Xmas is a Cross Country event, with any car you have eligible so long as it’s a B Class (up to 700PI) machine. Take the most points across the three races for a cheerful “Merry Christmas!” Forza LINK message, and five seasonal points.
Finally there’s a set of three Road Race events for any car in the Hypercars category tuned to S1 Class (up to 900PI). This gives you the exclusive Lamborghini Aventador J for all your roofless hypercar needs, and of course five more points.
As usual, the final four events require either an active Xbox Gold subscription or playing the game on PC in order to access the online multiplayer modes required.
Horizon Tour and Horizon Arcade sit in their usual spots. In both cases you’ll need to co-operate with other players to either beat a selection of AI Drivatars (Tour) or to pick up points for Skills working towards a common target (Arcade).
The Trial is also ever-present, and one of the game’s harder events. Again, it’s a co-op race event, but it’s against the toughest Drivatars possible, the “Unbeatable” level. You need to not only beat the unbeatable, but help your team-mates to do so too — so you’ll need to work as a team to hinder the AI and not each other.
This week you’ll be racing A Class (up to 800PI) Super Saloons, for the rest of the Snowman Outfit and 10 points.
Playground Games this week sends you across to the Baja Circuit for a best-of-five, team vs. team co-op match in games of Zombies, King, and Flag Rush. Win, lose, or draw (if that’s even possible), simply completing the game rewards you with a Penhall “The Cholla”, and three points towards your total.
Danger Sign: Cascadas
- Car: A Class, Ford
- Location: Cascadas de Agua Azul
- Challenge: 213m
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Speed Trap: Pyramid of the Sun
- Car: S1 Class, Audi RS6 2003
- Location: Teotihuacan
- Challenge: 120mph
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Speed Zone: Costa Rocosa
- Car: A Class, Unlimited Buggies
- Location: Dunas Blancas
- Challenge: 100mph
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Seasonal Championship: Carol of the Bel Airs
- Car: B Class, Chevrolet Bel Air, Hoonigan Bel Air
- Location: Cascadas de Pantano
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Holiday Sweater Clothing
Seasonal Championship: Drivin’ Home for Xmas
- Car: B Class
- Location: Copper Canyon
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, “Merry Christmas” Forza LINK
Seasonal Championship: Getting Hyped
- Car: S1 Class, Hypercars
- Location: Bahia de Plano
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Lamborghini Aventador J
Horizon Arcade: Mini Games
- Car: Any
- Location: Horizon Arcade (any)
- Challenge: Complete the Event
- Reward: 3 points
Horizon Tour: Co-op Championships
- Car: Any
- Location: Horizon Tour
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 3 points
Seasonal Playground Games: Snowball Fight
- Car: B Class, Unlimited Buggies
- Location: Baja Circuit
- Challenge: Complete the Championship
- Reward: 3 points, Penhall “The Cholla”
The Trial: Make it Rein
- Car: A Class, Super Saloons
- Location: Tierra Prospera
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 10 points, Snowman Outfit
Forzathon Events
Offroading is the theme for this week’s Forzathon Events Weekly Challenge, and you’ll need to pick up the Unlimited class Trophy Truck from RJ Anderson to get things started.
Stage two will make the beast feel quite at home, as you need to win two Cross Country Circuit events. Note the “circuit” part of that, as point-to-point sprint events won’t count toward the challenge.
Things will get a little bumpier for the next part, as you’ll need to pick up 15 stars from any Danger Signs you can find. This doesn’t require new challenges or personal bests (the Weekly Challenge has thus far proven resistant to the bug affecting other Playlist events), just a cumulative score of 15 stars or more from any Danger Sign attempts anywhere on the map.
The final stage is a bit of deja vu, as you need to win two Cross Country Circuit events. Yes, again. Once completed, that’ll score you five Playlist points, and 80FP — which you can use for Secret Santa!
This week’s seven Daily Challenges are each worth one point (and 10FP) as usual, with a new one arriving each day across the season, and seven days to complete each.
It starts with That’s An A Game, which requires you to beat three A Class times in Rivals Events. We’ll check whether it’s enough to beat one and keep lapping (as with the similar Accolades), or if you need to beat three different times.
Friday’s task, Flagman, is to score a flag in a Flag Rush game. This looks like you can pair it with this week’s Horizon Open challenge “Dream Team”, as noted earlier on.
Clean Fun pops up on Saturday, needing you to earn three “Clean Racing” skills (basically avoid hitting solid objects) in a Road Race; it looks likely that this is one single Road Race, but it’s not exactly an onerous task.
However Sunday’s challenge, Lucky, could well be a bit of a pain. You’ll need to drive a level 7 car in any round of The Eliminator, and that will almost certainly need you to be a bit… well, lucky, as well as eliminating a competitor or two. Whether the car needs to be level 7 or if a higher level 8-10 car meets the requirement is something we can’t answer right now.
All Hands On Deck starts next week off with an interesting challenge. You’ll need to win — as a team, not personally — a Horizon Tour event. This co-op race series has you driving against AI Drivatar races, then heading as a team across the landscape to the next race. Just come out on top with your team to complete this.
There’s a similar event for Tuesday. For High Roller, just enter and complete any Horizon Arcade event with any car that’s worth a million credits or more; this can be combined with the Horizon Arcade season event above.
That just leaves Collateral Damage, for earning five Wreckage skills in 20 seconds. You’ve probably already noticed, but you pick up Wreckage skills for driving into and breaking any breakable object. Should be easy!
Once you’ve picked up 25 points across any of the events this week you’ll unlock the Koenigsegg One:1, the insane Swedish hypercar named for its power-to-weight ratio of one metric horsepower to one kilogram. 45 points will see you receive the Forza Edition of the Exomotive Exocet Off-Road, which comes with a Destruction Skills bonus.
The Forzathon Shop is still the hub for Secret Santa this week, as it will be across in Series 2. That means you’ll find four vehicles in the Shop, rather than just two, and the ability to gift them to other players too.
All you need to do is buy the car as normal but select “Purchase as a gift”. Then choose who you want to send it to — a friend, or a random other player — and it’ll be counted among the Secret Santa gifts.
It’s a pretty varied mix this week, with the cheapest car, standing at 200FP, being the Porsche Panamera Turbo. Slightly more rapid is the 300FP Ferrari F12 tdf, while the madcap six-wheel drive Hennessey Velociraptor comes in at 400FP.
The final car is the rare Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am GTA Forza Edition. This car is only available through the Forzathon Shop, or as a random gift or future playlist prize, so the 600FP cost is certainly worth it. It packs in more than four times the power of the regular Firebird, and also comes with a Drift Skills boost.
Finally you’ll be able to pick up the regular Wheelspin for 80 Forzathon points, and a Super Wheelspin for 300FP, as usual.
See more articles on Forza Horizon 5 Season Change.
