What is Car Mastery in Forza Horizon 5?

Forza Horizon 5 Car Mastery is a perk system that’s used on every single car in the game and allows you to unlock permanent and temporary upgrades for individual cars. These upgrades usually include improvements to their ability to generate points for Skill Chain tricks, one-off instant rewards – XP, CR, #Forzathon Points, or Wheelspins – and XP boosts for a limited number of races. Every Car Mastery perk for every car is unlocked using Skill Points. The Car Mastery menu, which shows all the available perks for a car, is accessed by pausing Forza Horizon 5, navigating to the ‘Cars’ tab, and then selecting the ‘Car Mastery’ page.

Forza Horizon 5 Drift Zones

Find a car that with improved drift tricks and take it to one of the Forza Horizon 5 Drift Zones

Each car on the Forza Horizon 5 car list has a fixed set of perks that are generally suited to the kind of tricks you’ll be performing. For example, the Warthog has perks that increase the score you gain from performing Wreckage, Wrecking Ball, or Air tricks and can temporarily gain an extra 25% XP for the next 10 Cross Country races. Meanwhile, a fast supercar like the Lamborghini Huracán has mastery perks associated with with Drafting, Passing, and Speed tricks since it’s good for fast road races in Forza Horizon 5. A few cars have Car Mastery Car perks that instantly unlock a completely different car instead of granting some other benefit. For example, you can unlock a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo GTR from the 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV’s Car Mastery.

Each car you own has its own Car Mastery perks, but any Skill Points you earn can be spent on perks for any car, not just the one you’re currently driving. The perks on the Car Mastery page are arranged in a grid pattern but are unlocked a bit like a traditional skill tree, in that unlocking a perk causes surrounding perks that are more expensive to become available for purchase too. The perks at the bottom of the mastery grid are usually the cheapest at one Skill Point, but they increase to three, then five, and then 10 Skill Points towards the top. Every car has an ‘extra life’ perk that causes Skill Chains to break on the second collision rather than the first which costs 25 Skill Points.

How to gain and spend Forza Horizon 5 Skill Points

To gain Skill Points, you need to perform Skill Chains which are scores that build up as you perform tricks while driving, whether that’s in a race or in free roam. Your Skill Chain score is visible at the top of your screen. You can get points for destroying objects, getting air by going over a hill or ramp, overtaking, near-misses, driving at high speed, drifting, slipstreaming another car ahead of you, doing J-turns, and more. Performing any trick increases the score and multiplier, but it seems like performing strings of unique tricks gets your score and multiplier up faster. Your Skill Chain multiplier caps out at 5x your current score, but this doubles to 10x during a Skill Song.

A good strategy for getting your combo up is to drive your fastest car up and down the central highway that runs across Mexico. These are some of the Forza Horizon 5 best cars you can use for high-speed driving. As you drive, you’ll get Speed and Near-Miss tricks, but once you reach the end and the road narrows, turn as hard as you can and smash into stuff to get Drift, One-Eighty, and Wreckage Tricks. Accelerate back up to top speed as quickly as possible back the way you came to keep your Skill Chain going with more Speed tricks.

If you end your chain by not performing a trick for a few seconds, you’ll be awarded your total score and any Skill Points you earned as a result – a higher score means more Skill Points. Crashing your car will cause the chain to break and you’ll lose all your points. Listen out for Skill Songs after you’ve bought the Casa Bella house as your final scores for any Skill Chains you perform during the song will get doubled.

You should spend your Skill Points as soon as you get them so that you’re always unlocking new perks. This will improve your car’s ability to perform Skill Chains and earn Skill Points as you go and will get you lots of nice and useful rewards along the way. Performing Skill Chains and spending Skill Points will also grant you XP which contributes towards your player level. Once you’ve levelled up a fair bit, for any new cars you get, you could try saving your Skill Points up to unlock the extra life perk which will make performing Skill Chains much more forgiving, helping you to power through the rest of the perks later.

Hopefully those were some useful tips on what Car Mastery is and how you can spend your skill points, but we’ve got more Forza Horizon 5 tips here too.

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Forza Horizon 5 New Year Accolades

You can now find three special Accolades in Forza Horizon 5 themed around the Lunar New Year under the ‘Evolving World’ Accolades category. Each Accolade that you complete awards varying amounts of Accolade points and sometimes exclusive awards that we’ve listed below. You’ll notice that these Accolades are also grouped with some Christmas-themed ones, although these can’t be completed any more as Series 2 has expired – although it’s likely that they’ll be available around the Holidays later this year. Any that mention ‘the New Year’ can only be completed in Series 3, which ends on February 3, 2022.

Happy New Year! Accolade

Rewards: 50 Accolade points

For this easy Series 3 Accolade, you need to drive into Guanajuato during the Happy New Year series to find some nice, red Chinese lanterns. That’s it. You’ll find lots of these lanterns hanging around the central areas of Guanajuato, particularly near the cathedral.

Another One Lights the Dust Smash Lanterns Accolade

Rewards: 50 Accolade points, Camo Utility Epic Trousers

For the “Another Lights the Dust!” Holiday Accolade, you must destroy 25 Lanterns while driving the 2014 Toyota AT38 or the 2016 Toyota AT37. You can get the AT37 in Autumn and the AT38 in Winter during Series 3 only. Both cars are the 45-point rewards for their respective seasons, however, which means they’re not particularly easy to get and you’ll have to complete a lot of seasonal challenges to get the necessary points.

Series 3 Collector Accolade

Rewards: 1,000 Accolade points

To complete this New Year Accolade, you need to own all the exclusive reward cars from the seasons and challenges of Series 3. All the cars in this series are unlocked by earning enough points in each season or the entire series, so you’ll need to play a lot of the Forza Horizon 5 seasonal activities to unlock them all. If you miss any, you’ll have to buy one through the Auction House from a fellow player. Here are the cars you need to own and how to get them:

• 2016 Zenvo TS1 – Series 3 reward for earning 120 points
• 2015 Jaguar XKR-S – Spring reward for earning 25 points
• 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 – Series 3 reward for earning 120 points
• 1989 Lotus Carlton – Spring reward for earning 45 points
• 2016 Toyota Land Cruiser Arctic Trucks AT37 – Autumn reward for earning 45 points
• 2014 Toyota Hilux Arctic Trucks AT38 – Winter reward for earning 45 points
• 2003 Toyota Celica SS-I – Summer reward for earning 45 points
• 2013 D8 Donkervoort GTO – Autumn reward for earning 25 points

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Forza Horizon 5 tips | Forza Horizon 5 car list | Forza Horizon 5 Barn Finds | Forza Horizon 5 Drift Zones | Forza Horizon 5 Car Mastery

Where to find Forza Horizon 5 solar panels

There is a solar panel facility which can be found just south of the main highway that runs almost the length of the map. The solar panels are southeast of the main Horizon Festival Site and northeast of the town of Mulege. They are visible on the map as a little cluster of light dots arranged in a rectangle.

How to complete the Forza Horizon 5 Lights Out Series 3 Summer Seasonal Challenge

You might be on the lookout for solar panels if you need to complete a challenge or the Total Eclipse Accolade. To complete the new Lights Out challenge, which is found under the Summer tab of Series 3 within the Festival Playlist menu, you need to drive to the solar panel facility and just drive into 25 solar panels. While this challenge is easy, it’s only around until January 13 when the season changes to Autumn.

We recommend choosing a large, off-road car that will allow you to build up decent speed on the dirt track so that you can plough through the solar panels. Something like the Ford Bronco or Warthog – which we reckon is one of the Forza Horizon 5 best cars, especially for free roam activities. There are so many solar panels in this area that you’ll get this challenge done in no time. It’s a good idea to drive in a straight line through as many panels as you can and then turn around for another strafing run through more panels.

If you still need to do the Total Eclipse Accolade, you should head to the same place. For the Accolade, you need to destroy 100 solar panels while driving the 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX although. Like the Lights Out challenge there is no time limit, so you can destroy the required solar panels whenever. You can find this Accolade under the ‘Discovery’ tab within the ‘Discovery & Collections’ page of Accolades.

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FAST FACTS

Release Date: November 5 (early access) / November 9
Platform(s): Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios 

After smashing steam vents, driving through water, and completing other optional objectives as part of an expedition at the top of the La Gran Caldera, you’ll be careening right back down the mountainside in an off-road buggy. The expansive landscapes of Mexico unfold in impressive detail as you soar off the edge of a steep incline and land directly into a race at a new festival outpost. The entire drive is an exhilarating spectacle from start to finish, and it’s just one example of the many thrilling high-speed adventures you’ll be going on in Playground Games’ most exciting and beautifully crafted Forza Horizon entry yet. 

Hall of famer  

Forza Horizon 5 already has a tough act to follow with its polished predecessor set in Great Britain, but there’s so much on offer in Playground Games’ take on Mexico. As the biggest and most expansive map in the series so far, you really are spoilt for choice when it comes to what you want to spend your time doing. There are also some fantastic new additions that really bring renewed life to the experience and strengthen what already makes the series so great. With the arrival of the Horizon festival in this new Mexican setting, your core Horizon adventure revolves around setting up various outposts throughout the different regions, and unlocking events by earning accolade points. Not unlike the way you gain influence in Forza Horizon 4, points can be earned by completing set accolade objectives that are tied to the various stories, races, playlists, seasonal challenges, multiplayer games, and activities you can take part in. 

Each outpost you establish will unlock a specific racing style or activity, with all of the familiar series staples such as Road Racing, Cross-Country, Dirt Racing, and Street Racing, and PR Stunts like Danger Signs, Speed Traps, Drifts Zones, and Trailblazer courses. The end goal objective of the adventure is to get yourself into Mexico’s Hall of Fame by accumulating enough accolade points and completing all of the major events. While I’m already initially driven by my desire to unlock everything the world has to offer and become a hall of famer, the accolade system delivers a satisfying sense of progression and accomplishment. The many objectives and challenges to achieve also gives you additional incentive to keep taking to the roads after you’ve opened all of the outposts and major events. 

In order to establish an outpost in the first place, though, you need to complete one of the new expeditions in Forza Horizon 5. Just like the volcanic adventure that took me to a lava-filled crater at the mountain’s peak, each and every expedition takes you on a different memorable miniature adventure that showcases the regions of Mexico. Taking place in areas where some of the major landmarks and visually impressive landscapes can be found, you’ll be met with some unique optional objectives – like setting up an earthquake thermometer or finding a flight suit by smashing into a treasure chest – to complete before you finish off the adventure with a final drive. Some of the expeditions were so downright fun, I couldn’t resist hitting restart just to experience them all over again. 

Not unlike Forza Horizon 4, the latest adventure also features a wealth of different Stories, which consist of multiple chapters. There’s plenty of excitement and variety to be found, with stories that bring you closer to certain aspects of Mexican culture and the game’s regions. Vocho, for example, follows the story of Alejandra who needs your help finding an old car that’s beloved in Mexico. The stories are a great break away from the standard races that take you through some engaging and colorful challenges. 

Stepping it up a gear  

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One of the aspects I’ve always loved about the Forza series is the ability to customize your driver character, but in previous iterations, it has been somewhat limiting. While you still select from preset characters this time around, there are far more presets to choose from, and you now have the option to change up their hairstyle and hair color. Along with some fantastic inclusive options like the choice of pronouns and prosthetic limbs, you can also once again change up your style with a collection of new outfits. It’s always great to see more customization options, and Forza Horizon 5 has it across the board with fantastic new additions that allow you to really personalize your experience.

Throughout all of the stories, races, expeditions, and every else in between, I’m consistently impressed with just how smooth and responsive all of the controls are. With a wealth of settings and accessibility options to fine-tune your experience and make it suit your requirements or preferred style of play, Playground Games really puts you in the driver’s seat in more ways than one. I also can’t overstate how good it feels to drive. With a huge library of cars to collect and earn – through wheelspins, accolades, races, and more – you can feel the difference between each set of wheels you get behind and it’s just such a joy to drive around Mexico to the tunes of your favorite radio station as you head to different events. To top it all off, a slight update to livery customization makes it even easier to add decals and, and with the return of tuning, you can once again make the car of your dreams. 

It really is incredible to see first-hand just how stunning the graphics are in Forza Horizon 5, too. I can’t stop marveling at the way light bounces off the bonnet of a car I’m driving, or how I can see the world reflected in the back window as I speed down the colorful streets of Mexico. Every time I get to a high point in the world, I also have to stop and appreciate the gorgeous vistas. From the way the sand glitters in the desertland to the shimmering waters of the ocean beaches and the hyper-realistic look of the cars in Forza Vista, you can really see how the latest entry in the series is making the most of the Xbox’s hardware. 

The gift of giving 

With these beautifully realized graphics, you can really appreciate the colorful creativity of the custom experiences you and other players can make using the new EventLabs toolset. With a blueprint library full of different props, ramps, platforms, flags, and festival decorations, you can let your creativity run free and make your own unique races, challenges, and unique modes with a ruleset tool to publish and share. One EventLab blueprint event I try out by another player sees me go through a track that brilliantly pays homage to Jurassic Park, where you need to hit a series of boxes behind the wheel of a Jeep. The tools are very easy to use, and it’ll be exciting to see just what else the community can come up with in the future. 

New social features introduced in Forza Horizon 5 also encourage such a lovely community spirit and a friendly atmosphere from the get-go. Gift drops, for example, is a feature that allows you to send cars to other players, with options on who you want to send it to and whether you want to send it anonymously or show your Gamertag or name. At the first opportunity, I send a rare vehicle to welcome in a new player with the preset message: “Welcome to Horizon! I hope you enjoy your adventures!”. 

The next time I jump in, I get a reply thanking me for the gift, and it’s not long before I receive a new car of my own from another generous player. Your kindness is rewarded in Kudos, which is a way of recognizing when you’ve done something that another player appreciated. Kudos is shown in your My Horizon menu, so you can always be reminded of your good deeds. Other online features that also encourage a sense of community include the Forza Link which allows you to ask nearby players if they know the location of a barn you’re trying to hunt down. Gift drops are such a great way to brighten someone’s day with a shiny new car, and I can already see how Forza Link will bring players together and encourage teamwork. 

The expansive new setting of Mexico really does have so much to offer, and longtime players and newcomers alike are sure to have a blast discovering everything you can get stuck into. I’ve lost count of the number of races I sped my way through that I immediately wanted to experience all over again. As another fantastic entry in what is already a very strong series, Playground Games delivers impeccably detailed graphics, stellar audio design, and smooth controls that all work together to make Forza Horizon 5 an utter joy to play. I’m already itching to get right back into the driver’s seat. 

Forza Horizon 5 was reviewed on Xbox Series S with a code provided by the publisher.

The Verdict

5

5 out of 5

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is a stunning and beautifully crafted entry in the series that’s full of memorable races, creativity, and fantastic additions

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