Returning to the Horizon Festival after a six-year hiatus, Midnight Battles are one-on-one street races taking place at midnight, that were previously held within Forza Horizon 3’s festival.
They arrived with this week’s Horizon 10-Year Anniversary update for Forza Horizon 5. Unless you’ve strolled into the accolades section within the game, it is unclear how these new races become available, but we’ll show you a quick and easy way of unlocking these events.
How to unlock Midnight Battles the fast way
To unlock every Midnight Battle, you must complete 16 Street Races, with one unlocking every time you win four of these races.
Unfortunately, previous street race wins before this update are not counted, so fresh new victories are required here. The midnight battles themselves don’t count towards the total races won, and each comprises of different requirements for extra accolades.
First of all, head to the accolades screen in the pause menu, select Street Racing and then select the Midnight Battles tab at the top. Search for the accolade “Night Owl” and pin it to keep track of your progress.
Now for the street races. At the time of writing, the quickest way to complete them is by using the Event Lab. This can be found within the pause menu, then selecting the Creative Hub tab, then Event Lab and finally Event Blueprints. Press the button at the bottom for a search, and put in “0 second street race” as the title.
This should display a bunch of options for Street Races that contain very fast finishes. Simply load one of your choosing, start the race and it should finish immediately. The progress is not counted until you’re back into free roam, and you can do this as many times as you require.
Unlock Midnight Battles the convenient way
These Event Lab maps may be patched out in a later update, so the other option is to do the normal street races available on the map. A quick and easy street race we’ve found is the Horizon Callejera Street Race, which is located directly north of the Horizon Street Scene Outpost, and to the southeast of Guanajuato.
With a fast car such as the Hot Wheels Bad to the Blade or the Koenigsegg Jesko, a clean drive may be in the range of a 1-minute and 35 seconds lap.
However, if you have yet to unlock some Street Racing-related accolades, this would be the perfect time to complete them. Check the Accolades screen for any you have yet to unlock, and complete these to knock out two birds with one stone.
The first Midnight Battle – 1971 Ford Mustang
After winning four races, you’ll unlock the first Midnight Battle which is located within Guanajuato. This race requires you to win this in a C-class car, with an extra accolade named “Midnight Rodeo”, which requires you to win the race in any Mustang.
Any C-Class Mustang will do, but if you don’t have one handy in your car collection, the Ford Mustang SVO 1986 can be bought from the Autoshow for 15,000CR, or if you don’t have the Car Pass, the Ford Mustang GT Coupe 1965 for 46,000CR and an auto-upgrade to C-class.
The second Midnight Battle – 1984 Honda Civic
After winning eight races, the second Midnight Battle is located near the Aeródromo En La Selva and south of Mulegé, which is to the southwest corner of the map, and requires you to win the race in a B-Class car.
The extra accolade named “What a Won-Da” requires you to win the race in any Honda, with a good option to choose being the Honda S2000 CR 2009 that is unlockable from the Autoshow for 25,000CR.
The third Midnight Battle – 2003 Toyota Celica
Next up after winning 12 races is the third Midnight Battle, located in the north-western area of the map, which is to the northwest of the La Gran Caldera mountain, and to the northeast of the Horizon Baja Outpost. This battle requires you to win the race in an A-Class car.
As for the extra accolade, “Celica You Later”, you’re required to win the race by using any Celica. A decent option to use here would be the Celica GT-Four RC ST185 1992 for 25,000CR in the Autoshow, combined with an A-Class auto-upgrade.
The fourth Midnight Battle – 2010 Lambo Murciélago
Finally, after winning 16 races and ending the grind, the fourth and last Midnight Battle is located within the southern area of the map, north of Uxmal and Gran Puente, and south of Cordillera. The requirement is to win this battle in an S1-Class car.
The last extra accolade “Bulls-eye” requires you to win this battle in any Lamborghini, The cheapest S1-Class Lambo available from the Autoshow is the Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 2014 which is available for 240,000CR, but you should hopefully have one in your collection by now.
Additional Midnight Battle accolades
How to unlock The Nighthawk Forza Horizon 5 accolade
Finally, there are three more accolades available. The Nighthawk accolade is unlocked after completing every Midnight Battle, simple enough.
How to unlock the Lock, Stock, Battle Forza Horizon 5 accolade
Lock, Stock, Battle requires you to win any Midnight Battle while driving a car that has no performance upgrades applied, so using a car straight from the Autoshow that we’ve mentioned in the previous entries is applicable here.
How to unlock the Chain Reaction Forza Horizon 5 accolade
Lastly, Chain Reaction requires you to earn four Ultimate Skill Chains in Midnight Battles. This can be completed by chaining together multiple different skills in the same combo, which means drifts, near misses, wreckages, burnouts and so on.
Don’t worry about the race, but let the other car pass and get that combo up. Once you’ve earned this skill chain, stop your car and wait for the combo to end, as you can only get one per combo. Repeat this three more times, and you’ll unlock this accolade.
