The latest season change in Forza Horizon 5 is now live, bringing with it a new set of challenges and rewards for players across the next seven days.
It’s the second season in Series 3, as autumn comes to Mexico, bringing with it the stormy spell. That means rain, wet roads, and swollen streams and rivers that can dramatically affect the driving experience.
Series 3 sports a new set of “Evolving World” Accolades too, centered on celebrating the New Year and the vehicles you can collect across the Series.
Of course FH5’s seasons differ from FH4’s by offering clearly marked points rather than percentage completion. The rewards are also slightly easier than before, with the 50% and 80% markers replaced by 25 and 45 points — roughly equivalent to 37% and 67% on average.
This season will see you scrapping for 65 points in total, out of the grand total of 266 available across the entire Series.
Series 3
This second week of Series 3 should put one of this month’s two exclusive cars in reach for the most diligent players.
By the time the Autumn season ends, you’ll have had the chance to score 141 points (133 plus a further eight for the Monthly Rivals), and you only need 120 of them to win the Zenvo TS1.
It’s not actually clear what real-world Zenvo model this is. The Danish supercar brand originally launched the car as the ST1, updating it in 2016 with a new engine and subtle styling changes to become the TS1 GT. This car looks identical to the ST1 as seen in earlier games though, so we’ll assume it’s a typo. Whichever one it is, it packs 1,100hp from a twin-supercharged V8, so perhaps the sheer torque has rearranged the letters on the back.
You won’t pick it up this week, but the 200-point prize you can look forward to in the Winter season at the earliest is the Ford Mustang Mach 1. It’s a facelifted first-gen car, stuffing a seven-liter V8 under that famous ram-air hood, in combination with a bunch of “Mach 1” performance pack upgrades.
Both cars are Playlist exclusives, which means you can’t, for a while at least, pick them up anywhere else — they may perhaps make an appearance in the Forzathon Shop at some point in the future. That means you’ll need to max out your points to pick them up now, and there’s a Series 3 Accolade that includes ownership of these vehicles.
Series 3 will run through to 1430 UTC on Thursday, February 3, when it’ll be replaced by Series 4. The Autumn/Storm season itself will last until 1430 UTC on Thursday, January 20 when the Winter/Dry season rolls in.
Challenges
This week you’ll be racing to pick up points for two rather different machines. Pick up 25 of the 65 points available and you’ll win the Donkervoort D8 GTO, an Audi-powered rocket based on the 65-year old Lotus Seven. Score 45 points and you’ll also win the Arctic Trucks-converted Toyota Land Cruiser AT37 — which is vital for some of the new Accolades for Series 3.
The Challenges for this week start with the usual three events — Photo Challenge, Horizon Open, and The Eliminator — but they’re joined by a Treasure Hunt too.
Treasure Hunt events have proven problematic in the past, with PG still looking at a fix for issues caused by one event from Series 2, but we have high hopes that this week’s won’t be as glitchy.
You’ll need to solve the clue first, which is “Cause a wreck in the Nissan GT-R ’17, matching the generation number for tries”. That clearly points to Wreckage Skills, and with the GT-R’s generation number being R35, you’ll need to pick up 35 of them while using the 2017 car.
That will then create a zone on the map — similar to Barn Find or Arcade zones, but in red — in which you’ll find a treasure chest, which this week is located in Valle de las Ranas, near The Eliminator. Smash that to win the three points and 50,000 credits.
This week’s Photo Challenge will send you hunting for big cats in the jungle. Photograph the Ford Racing Puma 1999 (not the Forza Edition car) anywhere in the “La Selva” (Spanish for “the forest”) region of the map — clearly marked to the south near the airport — to complete this for two points and an “I’m In The Zone” Forza Link message. These can sometimes be tricky to trigger, so you might need a few shots.
For the Horizon Open challenge this week, you’ll just need to score three Clean Racing Skills during Horizon Open Racing events to win two points and the White Skinny Jeans clothing item. Hit pause, go to the Online tab, select Horizon Open, then Horizon Open Racing. To earn a Clean Racing Skill, drive between two checkpoints without hitting anything solid.
Finally there’s the usual challenge for The Eliminator, simply requiring you to finish 30th or better in any round. That’s often a matter of just surviving for a couple of minutes, and you’ll win two points and a Gong car horn for doing so.
Both the Eliminator and Horizon Open require online multiplayer access, so you’ll need to play on PC or have an Xbox Live Gold membership to take part.
If you haven’t already completed it, the Monthly Rivals challenge is in its usual spot all Series. Complete a clean lap of the event at the Plaza Circuit in the provided Ferrari 488 GTB to win four points added to every Season in the Series — 16 in total.
Photo Challenge: #Purfect
- Cars: Ford Racing Puma 1999
- Location: La Selva
- Challenge: Photograph the 1999 Ford Racing Puma in La Selva
- Reward: 2 points, I’m In The Zone Forza LINK
Horizon Open: Clean Up Nicely
- Cars: Any
- Location: Horizon Open Racing
- Challenge: Earn 3 Clean Racing Skills in Horizon Open Racing
- Reward: 2 points, White Skinny Jeans clothing item
The Eliminator: Battle Royale
- Cars: Any
- Location: The Eliminator
- Challenge: Finish 30th or better
- Reward: 2 points, Gong Horn
Treasure Hunt: Lucky Skills
- Cars: Nissan GT-R (R35) 2017
- Location: Any
- Challenge: Score 35 Wreckage Skills, find the Treasure Chest
- Reward: 3 points, 50,000cr
Monthly Rivals: Plaza Circuit
- Cars: Ferrari 458 Italia
- Location: Plaza Circuit, Guanajuato
- Challenge: Post a Clean Lap
- Reward: 16 points (4 added to each season)
Season Events
As it’s a 65-point week, it’s the usual set of challenges without any bonus EventLab shenanigans. That means three Seasonal Championships, three PR Stunts, Seasonal Playground Games, Horizon Tour, Horizon Open, and the Trial.
This week’s three PR Stunts take in a Danger Sign, a Speed Zone, and a Speed Trap, all located in the south-east corner of the map. As usual they’re worth two points and a Wheelspin each.
For the Speed Trap you’ll need to pick up a Ferrari F40 and tune it into A Class (although it is A Class as standard) at no more than 800PI. All you need to do then is set a 148mph speed through the Swamplands camera trap, which is easy enough in either direction.
The Speed Zone will be a little more challenging, as it’s set on a dirt track and involves two passes through a fast-flowing river. Take any Classic Rally class car tuned to B Class (601-700PI) and average 82mph through the Watersplash zone to complete it.
Your weekly Danger Sign challenge will see you flying through the air into the Ek’Balam temples. Getting up to speed in your B Class (601-700PI) Mitsubishi should be easy given the fast road on the south of the map leading up to the Eagle’s Perch sign, but you’ll need to watch your landing to complete the 234m jump as there’s plenty of trees that can result in failure.
This week’s three Seasonal Championships take in Cross Country, Dirt, and Street Racing disciplines, and could be quite tricky.
Probably the most awkward of the three is Calm Before The Storm, which will involve S2 Class (901-998PI) Extreme Track Toys. These are not particularly easy cars to drive, and the AI won’t have much of an issue blocking and sideswiping you off the track. Nonetheless, come out on top in the three-race championship and you’ll take the five points and an Ariel Atom V8 as a bonus prize.
The Cross Country event, Welcome the Jungle, is dedicated to the Jeep Trailcat, which you’ll need to tune to A Class (701-800 PI). As it’s effectively a one-make race you’ll need to be on top form to beat the Highly Skilled Drivatars, and the prize for winning the three-race event is five points and a Tiger Roar horn. Keep hold of the Trailcar for later too.
Lastly there’s the Underground Overground Dirt Racing challenge for B Class (601-700PI) Hot Hatches. You’ll likely want to swap in AWD, if your car doesn’t already have it, for extra traction against the AI cars. Win the most points across the three races and you’ll take five season points and a Volkswagen Scirocco 2011.
With the remaining events being online multiplayer only, you’ll need to either play on PC or have an active Xbox Gold subscription to take part.
There’s the usual two Horizon Tour and Horizon Arcade events, which sees you trying to work with a team to either beat the AI across a championship (Tour) or beat mini-challenge score targets (Arcade). These are worth the usual three points, with no additional prizes — and a glitch means that the Tour might be showing as already complete for some players.
For Playground Games you’ll head to the apparently popular Ek’Balam location this week. It’s the usual team-vs-team event, where you’re paired with up to five other players against a rival squad, facing a best-of-five set of Zombies, King, and Flag Rush games.
All you need to do is finish a set, this week using B Class (601-700PI) Retro Rally cars, rather than win, and you’ll take the three points and a Mitsubishi Lancer GSR 1999.
That leaves the Trial, with Unlimited Offroad cars in A Class (701-800PI) — so you could use the Trailcat from earlier on. You’ll race with up to five team-mates against a squad of “Unbeatable” AI Drivatars, needing to outscore the AI as a team across three races.
This is usually pretty tricky, as players need to work together to promote their blue team-mates while hindering the red Drivatars, and the off-road nature of this week’s race might lead to some wilder driving than usual.
Pull it off though and you’ll win ten points and a Super Wheelspin as a reward.
Danger Sign: Eagle’s Perch
- Car: B Class, Mitsubishi
- Location: Eagle’s Perch, Ek’Balam
- Challenge: 234m
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Speed Trap: Swamplands
- Car: A Class, Ferrari F40
- Location: Swamplands, Pantano de la Selva
- Challenge: 148mph
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Speed Zone: Watersplash
- Car: B Class, Classic Rally
- Location: Watersplash, Gran Pantano
- Challenge: 82mph
- Reward: 2 points, Wheelspin
Seasonal Championship: Calm Before the Storm
- Car: S2 Class, Extreme Track Toys
- Location: Teotihuacan
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Ariel Atom V8
Seasonal Championship: Underground, Overground
- Car: B Class, Hot Hatch
- Location: Gran Puente
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Volkswagen Scirocco 2011
Seasonal Championship: Welcome to the Jungle
- Car: A Class, Jeep Trailcat
- Location: Ek’Balam
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 5 points, Tiger Roar Horn
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: Temple Runner
- Car: B Class, Retro Rally
- Location: Ek’Balam
- Challenge: Complete the Championship
- Reward: 3 points, Mitsubishi Lancer GSR 1999
The Trial: Baja California
- Car: A Class, Unlimited Offroad
- Location: Dunas Blancas
- Challenge: Win the Championship
- Reward: 10 points, Super Wheelspin
Forzathon Events
This week’s challenge, “Blower Bentley”, will have you driving around in the pre-war classic racer; although the challenge states a 1931 car, we’re assuming it’s the 1930 model available in the Autoshow.
Normally we’d say “simply buy and drive” the car to get started, but if you don’t already have one it’s a 4m credit vehicle so you might want to save up a bit, stalk the Auction House, or redeem a bunch of wheelspins.
However, once you do have the car the rest of the challenges aren’t too difficult. Firstly you’ll need to pick up nine stars in total from any Speed Zones around the map. Then you’ll have to win any three Road Racing events — circuit or point-to-point — to complete the third chapter.
The final stage isn’t tricky, but it is onerous. Take your Bentley on a 100-mile drive around the map to complete it and earn your five seasonal points and 80 Forzathon Points.
There’s the regular Daily Challenges to get through too, with one new one each day, and seven days to complete each. They’re worth the usual one point and 10FP apiece.
That starts with Getting Started. All you need to do here is drive ten miles in Horizon Tour events, which you can of course pair with the Horizon Tour season event. As players drive between events, you should easily tick this one off in a single Tour.
For Friday you’ll be asked to go deeper, by completing any Festival Playlist activity in Playception. Obviously any event apart from this one will count, so even if you do manage to do everything else beforehand, completing any subsequent Daily task will also complete this one.
The weekend starts with Rawrsome, requiring you to win two Road Racing events of any type in any Jaguar.
Sunday’s task, Ultimate Talent, is to earn and bank an Ultimate Skill Chain. If you’re not familiar with the terminology here, you need to drift, smash, and speed to a raw skill score — without counting the multiplier — of 20,000 or more.
Next week starts with Waterways, a photo challenge requiring you to take a picture at Sierra Verde Dam. If you’ve not discovered that yet, it’s the structure just east of Mulege between the river and the lake that covers the Temple of Quechula in the wetter seasons. These photo challenges can be tricky regarding what triggers completion, so you might need to take a few shots.
After that there’s Taking Stock on Tuesday. If you have any money left after buying the Blower Bentley, spend 50,000cr on tuning part upgrades to complete this.
That only leaves Lightning Speeds, which will need you to enter — or re-enter — any Horizon Expedition and hit 100mph during the event. It’s pretty easy to achieve this in any of them.
Lastly we have the Forzathon Shop, which has two very different ways of going incredibly fast.
The first is a pretty traditional approach, with Koenigsegg’s never-raced CCGT race car. Developed from the CCX, the CCGT used a five-liter, naturally aspirated version of the supercharged 4.6 V8 to generate 600hp on a chassis weighing barely 2,500lb.
Sadly the FIA changed the rules on GT1 racing to require 350 examples produced for homologation, so the car never saw competition action, but for 600FP you can rectify that on the streets of Mexico
Ford’s Supervan 3 is a considerably different approach to the concept of speed. It paired a Ford C100 Group C race car chassis with a 7/8ths scale fiberglass replica of a Transit commercial van.
Originally powered by a Cosworth F1 engine from the C100, Ford swapped it out for an easier-to-service V6 to keep the Supervan running as an exhibition toy. At 400FP it’s a bit pricey but a fun way to muck about.
In addition to the speed machines, there’s a rare “Wah Wah Wah Wahhh” car horn (which sounds like the sad trombone, though the Sad Trombone is a completely different item) for 75FP, and a legendary set of red round shades for living out your avatar’s John Lennon fantasies at the same price.
As usual there’s two spots for the Wheelspin (80FP) and Super Wheelspin (300FP) all week.
See more articles on Forza Horizon 5 Season Change.
