The new Season of Forza Horizon 5’s Series 4 has arrived, as Autumn’s storms give way to Winter’s dry spell.
Continuing the theme of S4, the Horizon World Cup is again front and center of this week’s challenges and prizes. The event sets players into a variety of specific cars from six nations — France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA — to tackle the Playlist events.
Every time you complete an event, you’ll score points towards the nation represented by the car you chose. Race in a German car and you’ll earn points for Germany, drive a British car to score for the UK, and so on. These points accumulate across Series 4, with a special prize car given to all players depending on which country gets the most.
In fact the prize cars have already been revealed, so if there’s a specific vehicle you want to get your hands on, you’ll need to race for the right nation. The prizes will be the Aston Martin Vulcan for the UK, the Bugatti Divo for France, the Lamborghini Veneno for Italy, the Mercedes CLK-GTR for Germany, the Nissan GT-R LM for Japan, and the Shelby Cobra for the USA.
The Playlist is a little shorter this month then, focusing on the Seasonal Championships. There’s slightly fewer online race events too, helping out players who don’t have Xbox Live Gold (or a PC), and there’s no PR Stunts at all. Don’t panic though, as these will return from Series 5. There are, after all, Accolades for Seasonal PR Stunts!
You’ll also find slightly fewer points across the Series, and the target scores for Season and Series rewards are lower too. PG has also shifted the reward cars about so that all the Playlist-exclusive cars are now the lower 25-point rewards, and the events you’ll race in will give you cars that you can use in the playlist for the next season.
Series 4
By now all of you diligent players should have picked up one of the two Series rewards. With 116 points available so far, that 100-point mark to win the Saleen S7 should be a distant memory.
The S7 was arguably the USA’s first ever supercar, featuring a monster seven-liter Ford V8 stuffed into a lightweight spaceframe chassis and carbon-fiber body designed by Phil Frank. It was one of the fastest cars on the planet when it came out, and gained more power across its life to become faster still.
If you’ve been maxing out your points, you should close out this Season on 166 points, which means the 160-point reward car — the Koenigsegg Jesko — should also arrive in your collection.
While the S7 is fast, the Jesko is even faster. Named for company founder Christian von Koenigsegg’s father, the 1,300hp V8 hypercar has a projected top speed of 300mph.
Series 4 will run through to 1430 UTC on Thursday, March 3, with Winter lasting until the same time on Thursday, February 25.
Winter
This season’s playlist brings along a pair of performance cars with different purposes but sharing six-cylinder power.
First on the list is the Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, which was the ultimate version of the naturally aspirated 997-generation of Porsche’s classic sports car.
Packing an enlarged 4.0 flat-six (hence the name), the GT3 RS 4.0 bumped up the car’s power by almost 50hp, and the GT3 RS wasn’t exactly lacking in the first place.
Produced only in a limited run of 600 cars, it’s one of the most sought-after cars in an already desirable range, and it’s yours for 25 points this season. The car is also exclusive to the Playlist, so if you miss out now you might not get another chance for a good long while.
The Jaguar XJ220 is available as the 40-point prize, though it’s not a car you can just buy from the Autoshow either; other than as a Playlist prize you can only get it through the random chance of Wheelspins, or in the Forzathon Shop or Season Events if it appears.
Once the fastest road car in the world, the XJ220 was planned to hit 220mph, though recorded 212mph in final form. It was highly controversial too, as Jaguar switched from a 6.2-liter version of the XJR9 Le Mans racer’s V12 to a compact turbo V6, resulting in some customers cancelling their orders.
That meant that only a handful were ever made — 275 in total — but the XJ220 is still a pretty special car, and it took a McLaren F1 to beat its performance.
There’s 54 points on offer for the third week in a row, so you’ll need to get through most of the Playlist to get both cars.
Forzathon Events
This week’s Forzathon Weekly Challenge, worth five points towards your total and 80FP, continues the Horizon World Cup theme.
Firstly you’ll need to pick up any car from Italy or France to get the Country Rivals event started. Take it along to any Road Racing Series Sprint event — that’s point-to-point, not circuits — and win to complete the second stage.
You’ll need plenty of speed for the next stages. First you’ll have to earn a total of six stars from any Danger Signs you can find dotted around Mexico. Then you need to hit the highway and rack up five Ultimate Speed Skills to clear the final step.
Of course you don’t have to use the same car for all four stages, and you are allowed to tune the car as you see fit too — you will need something rapid to clear the final two steps, as Ultimate Speed Skills require you to hit 200mph. Sustaining that speed for more than 30 seconds should be good enough.
The Daily Challenges all offer one point each towards your season total and 10FP. One arrives each day, and you’ll have seven days to clear them all. Again, a couple of them this week use online multiplayer events which will require Xbox Live Gold, or to play on PC.
Participation Cup starts the challenges, and you’ll need to drive five miles (or eight kilometers) in Horizon Open Racing. This is a multiplayer event you’ll find under the Online tab in the pause menu, and is pretty easy to complete in just a couple of races.
You’ll need to get crafty for Friday’s challenge, Take a Brake, which will have you painting the brake calipers on any car. Unlike some other challenges this won’t auto-complete if you have already done it previously, so head to a house or a festival site and get the rattle-can out.
The weekend starts with Winter As In Ice. You’ll need to head up to the summit of La Gran Caldera and earn five Drift Skills while you’re up there.
Heated Tournament follows on Sunday, with the requirement to win any Dirt Race in a Super Hot Hatch class vehicle. It’s not clear if both circuit and point-to-point races are permitted — which can be an issue with some of these events — but we’ll check back to find out.
Next week gets underway with Front Runner, which has some very specific requirements. You’ll need to grab a Lotus Elan Sprint 1971 and tackle Speed Zones with it. Grab eight stars from any Speed Zones — you can do the same one over and over again if you like — to beat the challenge.
The season ends with two more online events. Firstly you’ll need to smash up five pinatas during a Horizon Arcade Wreckage event to complete the Horizon Mascot challenge. You’ll need to be in Horizon Life and locate a Horizon Arcade event (pink zones on the map) of the Wreckage type and then, if the Pinata Pop round is part of the three rounds, break five of the scoring pinatas.
Finally there’s Winning Streak, which requires you to beat three opponents during head-to-head races in The Eliminator. You don’t need to do this in a single round, so you can take your time over it, and combine it with the Eliminator challenge for efficiency!
Season Events
With two weeks remaining in the Horizon World Cup there’s still a focus on races, so again we have no PR Stunts to worry about. Instead we have the three Seasonal Championships — worth five season points each — with specific car lists of eligible A Class (701-800 PI) vehicles from the USA, UK, Japan, Italy, Germany and France.
Each of these events also gifts you with prize cars that will help you out with the events that will come in the final week of the World Cup in the Spring season.
The All Star Style Street Scene series will have players racing their choice of BMW M2, Dodge Challenger Hellcar, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lotus Exige S, Peugeot 207 S2000, and Toyota GR Supra, with the 2017 Ford GT as the reward for a series win.
Going for Gold is a Road Racing Series event, featuring the Audi TTS, Caterham R500, Ford Mustang GT 2018, Maserati Gran Turismo S, Peugeot 207 S2000, and Toyota GR Supra. You’ll need to beat the AI across the three-race championship to win a (or rather “the”) Nissan R390 Road Car.
Finally there’s a Cross Country event, Running Cool. This three-race event pits the Bentley Bentayga, Honda Civic Type R, Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, Lamborghini Urus, Peugeot 207 S2000 (again), and Porsche Cayenne Turbo against one another, with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS as the prize.
If you’re looking for inspiration in your vehicle choices, Japan still leads the way in the Horizon World Cup but it has slipped to 24% — while Germany and the UK are second and third on just over 17% and separated by tenths. France and the USA are both just below 15%, and Italy lags behind on 11%.
There’s also an Event Lab to tackle this week. You’ll need an S1 Class (801-900 PI) vehicle from the Rally Monsters class to take on this custom hillclimb event. It uses a unique set of rules which will see you making three runs of the route, aiming to get the lowest score possible — though you only need to complete it to get the points and a McLaren 570S.
Event Lab: Mulege Hillclimb
- Car: S1 Class, Rally Monsters
- Location: Mulege
- Challenge: Complete the challenge
- Reward: 3 points, McLaren 570S
Seasonal Championship: All Star Style
- Car: A Class, “Country Rivals: Street Racing”
- Location: Guanajuato, Guanajuato Sur
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Ford GT 2017
Seasonal Championship: Going for Gold
- Car: A Class, “Country Rivals: Road Racing”
- Location: Palacio Azul del Oceano, Emerald Circuit
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Nissan R390 Road Car
Seasonal Championship: Running Cool
- Car: A Class, “Country Rivals: Cross Country”
- Location: La Gran Caldera, El Descenso
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Porsche 911 GT3 RS 2016
Finally there’s the two online multiplayer events. Again, you’ll need to either play on PC or have an active Xbox Gold subscription to take part in these.
You’ll be playing games at the airport this week, down on the southernmost edge of the map. If you’re not familiar with Playground Games yet, it’s a co-op, team-vs-team event that pairs you with up to five other players to challenge team of other players in a best-of-five set of Zombies, King, and Flag Rush games.
This week’s car selection is identical to Running Cool, using the A Class cross country racing vehicles from the six nations involved in the World Cup. Completing the event — winning isn’t necessary — will get you the five points and a Lamborghini Huracan.
As usual there’s the always-tricky Trial. This challenge will also pair you with up to five other humans, but you’ll be trying to beat six “Unbeatable” level AI Drivatars.
That’s difficult enough, but the real challenge is finding a team of players who know what they’re doing. You’ll need to work together not only to put yourselves in the best points-scoring positions possible, but also to block the AI from scoring.
It’s another World Cup event, this time featuring Dirt Series cars. You’ll have a choice of the Ariel Nomad, Honda Civic Type R, Hoonigan Escort RS Cosworth, Lamborghini Urus, Peugeot 207 S2000 (yet again), and Porsche 959 Rally Raid, all in the A Class (701-800PI).
Beat the bots over the three races and you’ll take ten season points and a Bugatti EB110 for use in next week’s events.
Seasonal Playground Games: Play It Cool
- Car: A Class, “Country Rivals: Cross Country”
- Location: Aerodromo en la Selva
- Challenge: Complete the championship
- Reward: 3 points, Lamborghini Huracan
The Trial: Full Throttle
- Car: A Class, “Country Rivals: Dirt Racing”
- Location: Mulege, Mulege Town Scramble
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 10 points, Bugatti EB110
Challenges
Treasure Hunt makes a return to the line-up this week, as one of the three challenges, and it looks like quite a tricky event to complete
The clue is “Look! Rallying beasts chasing five bulls!”. That rather firmly hints that the challenge is to smash five of the targets you’ll find in Horizon Arcade Air events and some Event Lab creations, while using a Rally Monsters car (the one you just used for the Event Lab challenge this week would be ideal). If you’re not willing to wait around for an Air event, we’ve made a Blueprint (697 769 187) to help you hit the mark as quickly as possible.
Complete that and you’ll receive the Treasure Chest map marker, a red circle indicating where you’ll find the prize. This one is up near Estadio Horizon, and you’ll find the chest on top of the trucks near the yellow (south) entrance to the stadium. It contains 50,000cr and three points.
The Eliminator returns this week, with its usual requirement to finish 30th or better — usually a case of just waiting around for a while. Succeed and you’ll take two point and a Forza LINK message straight from Gladiator: Are You Not Entertained?
Your Photo Challenge for this week, Ahead of the Game, simply requires you to snap the Range Rover Velar over at the Baja Circuit offroad course near the west coast. There’s two points and a Banjo-Kazooie Spiral Mountain musical horn for clearing it.
Last of all is Monthly Rivals. This challenge runs across all four weeks of the Series, but you only need to set a clean lap time once during any Season in the Series to complete it. You don’t need to pick up the car either, just select the event from your Festival Playlist menu.
This month you’ll be driving the new NIO EP9 around the Estadio Circuit — looping round the outside of the stadium. It’s pretty unforgiving for barriers, especially in this 1,341hp EV, so you’ll need to take care to get a lean run.
Completing the event gives you four points to each Season in the Series, for 16 points in total. Even if you complete it late in the Series, the points backdate to earlier Seasons.
The Eliminator: Battle Royale
- Cars: Any
- Location: The Eliminator, Valle de las Ranas
- Challenge: Finish 30th or better
- Reward: 2 points, Are You Not Entertained? Forza LINK
Photo Challenge: #AheadOfTheGame
- Cars: Land Rover Range Rover Velar
- Location: Baja Circuit
- Challenge: Photograph the Range Rover Velar at the Baja Circuit
- Reward: 2 points, Banjo-Kazooie Spiral Mountain Horn
Treasure Hunt: On Target
- Cars: Rally Monsters
- Location: Any
- Challenge: Smash five targets, find the Treasure Chest
- Reward: 3 points, 50,000cr
Monthly Rivals: Plaza Circuit
- Cars: NIO EP9
- Location: Estadio Circuit, Estadio Horizon
- Challenge: Post a Clean Lap
- Reward: 16 points (4 added to each season)
Forzathon Shop
As usual the Forzathon Shop has updated for the week, with a selection of lesser-seen items.
The store page featured car is the Ferrari 599XX Evo, an even more track-focused version of the already madcap 599XX. Developed from the 599XX, it featured new aerodynamic additions, a new exhaust system, tweaked electronics and specialist tires, as well as being lighter than the original.
Usually priced at 2.6m credits in the Autoshow, the 599XX Evo comes in at 600FP, which is a decent deal, but beaten by this week’s 400FP offering.
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport was once the fastest car in the world, clocking in at 267mph at the Volkswagen test track Ehra-Lessien — though the road car is electronically limited to a mere 258mph just to stop the tires from flying apart.
Items this week are the Halo Theme Part 2 Horn and a Blue Stripe Casual Shirt for your avatar, at 75FP each. The Wheelspin (80FP) and Super Wheelspin (300FP) take their usual spots too.
See more articles on Forza Horizon 5 Season Change.
