Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges Guide Series 12 – Winter

Winter in Forza Horizon 5 may be seen as the Dry Season, but the new events and challenges on offer in the latest Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges are anything but. With Series 12 – Winter in house, it’s time to look at the latest cars, the best tunes and the easiest setups which will send you to victory. 

As you’d suspect, Winter of Series 12 very much follows the standard – Seasonal Championships, PR Stunts, The Trial, a Photo Challenge and more await. And yep, there’s not a hint of that stupid Eventlab this week.  

Part 1: #Forzathon Weekly Challenge – Total Eclipse

Looking at the names of the chapters in the Weekly Challenge this week did bring a wry smile to my face, as they are all lines from that fine piece of movie making, The Fast and The Furious, one of Vin Diesel’s finest hours.

Luckily, this week sees the return of the subject of the challenge being a prize for a championship, so if you want a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX (for this is the subject) for free complete the “Street Endurance” championship first. Otherwise, if you don’t have one in the garage, it will set you back a reasonable 25,000 credits from the Autoshow.

Chapter 1 – Tuna, No Crust

Pausing only to paint it bright green, set out in your Mitsubishi and complete step one.

Chapter 2 – Buster

Now for the big leagues, we have to earn 3 Lucky Escape skills by drifting in traffic. An AWD car, drifting? What could go wrong? Stock trim should be okay for this, so save your pennies. But stock trim is boring, so I tweaked it a little to make this share code: 715256536. Go nuts!

Chapter 3 – Winning’s Winning

Now we simply have to win a drag race, as in the films. Hopefully the car will cross the line in better shape.

Chapter 4 – Warning!!! Danger to Manifold

Finally, we just need to earn 100,000 skill score with our car.

Hit the roundabouts, shred the tyres, and we’ll be there in no time. And with the sound of tortured rubber, our mission is complete.

Part 2 – Weekly Challenges

Thankfully for the integrity of my joypad, there is no Eventlab nonsense this week, just a whole lot of racing goodness, with four championships to have a crack at. Shall we check out what is on offer?

The Trial – Street Safari

This is going to be an interesting contest.

The challenge this week is to grab some random drivers off the internet, as per usual, and then attempt to outdrive unbeatable driverbots in a van (insert Sabine Schmidt quote here, God rest ‘er) limited to C Class 600.

Well, there’s only one van for the job for a bloke who grew up in the ‘80s, the GMC Vandura, or the A-Team van as it should be known. The share code is: 734285428. It’s not the speediest van out there, but it handles pretty well.

Winning will get you a very nice Mosler MT900S, a bit of a step up from a clapped out van.

Seasonal Playground Games – Survival

We need to play a game to win a car, which seems like a fair trade to me, taking a Super Saloon, up to A Class 800, and then playing survival, basically by practising social distancing from enemy cars!

I chose an Audi RS6 Avant; famously not a saloon, but we’ll gloss over that. The share code is: 736888629.

Win or lose, we’ll get a Mercedes Unimog for our trouble.

Danger Sign – Colina

For this PR stunt, get in an S2 Class 998 car, of any flavour, and sail effortlessly through the air over 518 metres. Oddly specific, but there we go. 

I went with a Porsche Carrera S from 2019, tuned a tad to give this share code: 115257476. I hit the ramp at just over 230mph and flew 542 metres, but needed a good long run up from the left.

A super Wheelspin will be yours for flying.

Speed Trap – Los Arboles

We need to hit this trap at 170mph to win this challenge, in again, an S2 Class 998 car with no restrictions. So, clearly, I went with the same Porsche as the jumping challenge, and approaching downhill hit 188 mph with no issues.

Another Super Wheelspin? Don’t mind if I do.

Seasonal Championship – Street Endurance

Modern sports cars to a maximum of A Class 800 are called for here, and the Endurance part of the name comes from the fact that this is a chain of five events, instead of the usual three.

I went with something fast and lightweight, and the Toyota GR Supra was my weapon of choice. The share code for mine is: 984217186. And yes, the stupid bodykit is completely needed!

Winning this championship will get you a shiny Mitsubishi Eclipse, so you can be Fast and Furious to your heart’s content.

Seasonal Championship – Retro Street

Retro Hot Hatches to a Maximum of C Class 600? Sign me up!

I remember when Hot Hatches were almost uninsurable due to joyriders, so an excuse to go back to my youth is always welcome. From the choice on offer, I picked a classic Honda Civic Type R from 2004, mainly because it is already at the correct level for the event with no further work, and I couldn’t use an Escort RS Turbo as I’m not from Essex.

Winning will get you a more modern take on the Hot Hatch recipe, a Renault Megane R26.R.

Seasonal Championship – The Marathon

Sticking with the theme of “One massive race” from the previous week’s, for Series 12 Winter we are hitting the Marathon – as Snickers used to be called when the world was young!

Anyway, we need a Modern Supercar tuned to S1 Class 900, and so I went with a car I would buy in real life should I win the lottery, the Nissan R35 GT-R. My tune is: 972597860. It’s a long race, but only one lap, thankfully.

Winning will get us an Audi TT RS. Think I’ll stick with the GT-R, thanks.

Seasonal Championship – On The Move

Trucks. They are big and not that fast, unless they are racing trucks, in which case they are big and scary!

We need to use a Truck for this race, and as always there is only one choice, the Mercedes Benz Tankpool racing truck, but not  the Forza Edition version, weirdly. The share code for mine is: 625047114 and this thing is a hoot and a half; power sliding something this size should be illegal.

A HSV Maloo will be your prize for winning.

Part 3 – Other Challenges

A photo to take and a treasure to find, what more could you want? Some Horizon Open action? Well, we’ve got that too.

Photo Challenge – #STREETSCENE

Fancy getting the camera out and lighting up your Insta? That’s what the kids say, right?

Well, in this case, take your shiny new Megane R26.R that you won a moment ago (you do do this in order, right?) and take it to the Street Scene Outpost, and snap away. I’ll include my photo and the location below for you.

I’ve always wanted a pair of Watermelon Ankle Socks, and now my life is complete.

Treasure Hunt – Super Street

“Open the hatch and turn up the heat to top the podium of these super streets” reads the clue this week, and it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out we need to win a street race in a Hot Hatch.

Now, the choice of car seems to be a little odd here, as I won first in a Vauxhall Corsa VXR, but it didn’t complete the challenge. Using a Golf R from 2021 unlocked it however, and so all was golden.

I’ll show you where the treasure chest appears in the pictures below. It contains 100 FP, which is nice.

Horizon Open – Critical Success

This is one for me, as we need to score five Ultimate drift skills in Horizon Open drifting .I personally used the custom setting to select S1 Class, then used my fave Toyota Supra from Formula Drift to score this easily.

This will net us the Forzalink phrase “It’s Morbin Time”. Probably some cool phrase I am not aware of..

Part 4 – Hot Wheels Events

Series 12 – Winter takes us off to Hot Wheels Park with more events.  

Speed Zone – Frozen Rush

We have to complete this speed zone at an average speed of 170mph, and so there’s only one thing for it: the Koenigsegg Agera that I always recommend. Use Share code: 109282883 and let rip.

Avoid the edges (interesting on ice, to say the least!) and Bob should be a close relative of your choice.

How about a Super Wheelspin for trouble?

Seasonal Championship – Paint the Streets Orange

Last but not least is another race championship, this time in S2 Class 998 Hypercars. And luckily, the Agera qualifies for this event too, so stick in it would be my advice.

Winning will get you a Golf from 2014, which seems like a bit of a step down.

You can throw in the two Monthly Rivals challenges which are still in place, unless you’ve done them previously. They just require you to drive – carefully, cleanly – around the Bola Ocho Circuit and the Forza EV Emerald Circuit. 

Once all is complete, go and grab your Series 12 – Winter rewards. This week sees the Lynk & Co 03+ available once you hit 20pts and the Donkervoort GTO rolling out of the garage at 40pts. You should be able to grab one of the full monthly cars too, with the Audi RS e-tron sitting behind 80pts and the McLaren 765LT available for 160pts.

If you don’t yet have a copy of Forza Horizon 5 then it is playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S or PC via the Xbox Store. It’s on Game Pass too whilst the Hot Wheels expansion costs real money. 

Please remember to head into the comments if you like this guide. Or if there are things we can change that will make it easier for you, give us a shout. We’re on the usual socials too.