Forza Horizon 5 PS5 beginners tips  

In a surprise move, Forza Horizon 5 has launched on PlayStation 5, with Microsoft’s flagship racer no longer an Xbox or PC exclusive.

This will be the first step into the series for many players around the world, especially those who have had their boots deep into the Gran Turismo series. As we have experienced the Mexican-based Festival for over three years, here are a bunch of our tips to maximise your journey, as well as provide an easy start for newcomers.

The fundamentals

Let’s start off with the fundamentals. After going through the introductory cutscenes and tutorial at the start of the game, you’re given three cars to choose from: the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C8, Ford Bronco and Toyota GR Supra.

The Chevrolet is the fastest car of the three, but there isn’t a wrong choice here. Not only will you race against cars within the same class and car type, but you will also receive all three of the cars later.

After this, you will go through a few more mandatory events, which will lead to what Horizon does best: non-linearity.

Your options will be broadened to different events, each with their own individual colours and logos within their icons throughout the landscape. There are five different race events to participate in: Road Racing, Dirt Racing, Country Racing, Street Racing and Drag Racing, as well as PR stunts, which are Trailblazers, Speed Zones, Speed Traps, Drift Zones and Danger Signs.

These events are explained within the game, and information on how to earn three stars for every PR stunt is available when scrolled over on the map.

Having a wide array of events to participate in can be overwhelming, but as this game is non-linear, there is no wrong or right path to take. Every event you see on the map except for festival playlist events  are always available, and there are plenty of things to do outside of the events, such as exploration, barn finds, and treasure hunts. Take your time and do whatever you fancy – it’s a long journey.

Accolades

With the fundamentals dealt with, you should have a basic understanding of what the main gameplay loop is all about. The focus at this point will be all about accolades, which can be gained from just about everything in the game, and we have a bunch of general tips that can help improve your experience throughout the world.

There are a multitude of ways to find out which events have them on offer. Select the Accolades option in the pause menu and select one of the categories. These will have information on how to unlock, as well as the number of points you will earn from each one. You can also pin these onto the HUD, allowing for easier tracking if you’re going for something like a time-based accolade.

On top of that, going into the map and only keeping the ‘Accolades Available’ filter checked will show the events on the map with accolades that you may have missed. Scrolling over these events will also show which accolades are on offer. For example, you may have completed a race event, but it may have a Rivals event that has yet to be completed.

Car class tips

As for the different disciplines, it is worth having a car you enjoy that is specific to each one. We recommend having one car for road racing, another car for dirt racing and another for country racing.

This will provide a reliable experience throughout each event, as switching cars for each one can be fun, but they may share different characteristics. For example, one might have lower grip and another might have more top speed.

On top of that, maxing out the car class is also incredibly important for gaining an advantage over the competition. Each race is restricted to a car class and type, where the AI will also be restricted.

So, for example, if your car was S2 998, the AI could range from S2 950 to 998, where you will have the advantage with a maxed-out class. It may be tempting to jump into the fastest X and S2 classes, but these cars can be hard to control with their immense power, which will lead to a higher chance of a crash, and a lower finishing position within a race. We recommend aiming for the S1 900 class, as it provides a great experience for racing and perfectly strikes the balance between speed and handling.

Tune your car

Reaching this maxed-out class in an untuned car is rare, and we cannot understate this enough, but tuning the car will do absolute wonders for its performance. There are countless guides you can go through to personalise your car, but this will take a long time if you are motivated to craft one from scratch.

Thankfully, however, other players have already spent time creating tunes that you can easily applied to your car.

To do this, head to the cars tab in the pause menu, select ‘Tune Car,’ then press the options button to access the tune browser. From here, a multitude of suggested tunes will be shown and available to download, with each of them providing a short title on what the tune is built for. All you need to do is pay for the tune, and it will be instantly applied to your car.

Car maseteries

Another feature you should pay attention to is car masteries. Each car has its own mastery try, which allows you to apply certain skill buffs. These include higher skill multipliers, wheelspins to earn rewards, not having the skill score reset after a crash, and, with some particular cars, the ability to unlock other vehicles. F

For example, the Lamborghini Diablo SV has the ability to unlock the Lamborghini Diablo GTR within its mastery. This can be valuable towards progressing through the game, as the skill points naturally add up quickly through races and free roaming.

However, there are a few limitations to this. Firstly, the maximum amount of car mastery points you can have is 999. It may seem like a lot, but it adds up very quickly, so spend these whenever you have them built up. Secondly, you can only gain a maximum of ten skill points within a skill chain, which is obtained by reaching a skill score of 500,000, so any amount over that is wasted.

If you are looking to grind out some car mastery points, however, we would highly recommend travelling to the Aeródromo en la Selva, which is the abandoned airport located within the south-western area of the map.

This spot is perfect for reaching a high skill score, as there are very few obstacles in your way to prevent crashes and, in turn, failing a combo. Jump into a car with a drift tune and aim to keep the chain going by drifting down the runway, turning around at each end and heading back down.

Aim to reach the “Ultimate Drift” skill, as well as aiming for combination skills for an easy 1,000 points. There are a multitude of combination skills to earn, but the easiest one to aim for is the Sideswipe skill, which requires you to earn a drift and wreckage skill at the same time.

Before you know it, you’ll reach the ten point mastery cap. Once you’ve reached 500,000 skill score, stop where you are and wait until the score is banked. Rinse and repeat until you’re satisfied, and be sure to spend those points wisely.

Invest in houses

Another safe place to invest your credits will be in houses. Not only can they provide a suitable location for quick access to nearby events, but they also provide buffs towards the experience, such as wheelspins or car unlocks.

We recommend investing in two specific houses. Firstly, the Buenas Vistas house is worth two million credits and unlocks the Fast Travel perk. This allows you to select anywhere on the map to instantly travel to, allowing for quick access to certain events, and is just incredibly useful throughout the experience.

At first, this will come with a monetary cost at 10,000 credits per teleport, but this is reduced by 200 credits for every fast travel board you have smashed. Eventually. once all 50 boards have been destroyed, fast travelling will be completely free.

The second house we would highly recommend is the Casa Bella, which is automatically unlocked after earning 7,000 accolade points, and gives you the skill songs perk. Once a skill song is activated at random points by listening to the radio, your skill score is worth double,

You can use this time to bank a quicker skill chain to reach the ten-point skill cap. These houses may be a costly price up front, but the investment is worth it for the buffs you can earn from them.

Check the Auction House

As your journey progresses, there will be a point where you will want to unlock a certain car. This can be down to personal preference, or it might be required for certain accolades. If they are too pricey in the Autoshow, or simply unobtainable to buy, you should always check the Auction House for a better price, as they might be at a lower value than what the Autoshow is asking for.

It can take some time depending on the rarity and demand of the specific cars, but it is worth taking that time if it means saving a substantial number of credits. This also comes with some hidden benefits, as they contribute towards your car collection, which can also unlock certain rewards.

Cars can also be sold back to the Auction House once you’re finished with them, so any duplicate, rare or unwanted cars can be auctioned off for some quick and easy credits.

Earn money easily

Speaking of easy credits, one way you can earn credits while not playing the game is to provide content for the community itself. This can be through self-made tunes, liveries or EventLabs.

Every time a player uses it or plays a certain EventLab, you earn a small number of credits – think of it as a commission. Earn a large number of downloads, and the credits will just roll in whilst you’re offline. This isn’t a reliable way of earning credits for everyone, though, as it relies on the quality of the provided content.

However, you might strike it lucky with an eye-catching livery or an EventLab map for an easy festival playlist completion. Just remember that it’s always nice to give back to the community and make their experiences just that little bit better.

Are the DLC expansions worth it?

Forza Horizon 5’s DLC is a minefield, but the two main expansions, Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure, are the most worthwhile. 

These are completely optional but provide great experiences. The Hot Wheels DLC provides a fun map expansion where you can unlock some diecast-aping cars for your arsenal, and the Rally Adventure DLC features an off-road-racing-inspired lineup, with anti-lag turbocharger upgrades that feature some incredible backfire pops.

Both contain a condensed map with fewer challenges and events to complete, each with its own specific rewards and experiences. However, they are not necessary for the full Horizon experience, but rather a small condensed version of the massive adventure you’ll gain throughout the Mexican landscape.

More tips and tricks

To round off, here are some smaller tips for your journey across Horizon 5. Firstly, you may come across events that require travelling through water, such as river crossings. You may notice your car slow down by a considerable amount, and this will be due to its height. If you’re losing too much time when traversing this obstacle, try a different car with a greater ride height, and the time loss throughout this section will be minimal.

Also, within a race, make sure to check your surroundings and use them to your advantage. There may be some moments where it’s faster to travel off-road between two checkpoints, rather than following whatever path the road takes, as the game only requires you to hit the checkpoints instead of taking a specific path.

This is especially useful in country races, where obstacles can be avoided, or a beeline could be taken towards the next checkpoint.

While we’re on the topic of Country Races, some of them may contain ramps, but while they may be fun to jump over, they slow you down by stunting acceleration, and cause a loss of speed upon landing. Avoiding them completely allows you to accelerate and gain a huge advantage over the competition.

When it comes to drifting, make sure the stability control and traction control assists are turned off, as these assists will hamper your ability to slide if turned on. These can be turned off by heading to the settings, and are within the difficulty tab. Also, turn shifting to manual, as being in the required gear is key, which you will find by experimenting with drifts.

While you are in the settings, an immersive setting you can experience is the drift camera, which is located within the “Hud and Gameplay” tab. Scroll all the way down to find the setting and turn it on, and you can tweak the camera just below that.

While in-game and using the first-person camera, you will now be pointing towards the direction you’re heading in, rather than where the car is pointing. It makes for a more realistic and immersive experience when drifting, and it just looks damn cool, just look at it! Honestly, you’ll be stuck in this view for hours, and I do not blame you one bit.

As for the collectibles, which include bonus XP boards, barn finds, and others located within the DLCs, struggling to find that last pesky board can be incredibly frustrating. For help finding their locations, check out our barn find and bonus board location guides.

Did you find our Forza Horizon 5 PS5 beginners guide helpful? Let us know in the comments below.