Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Forza Horizon 4

After spending extensive time with the game, here are ten things I wish I knew before starting Forza Horizon 4 along with some useful tips and tricks.

Forza Horizon 4, without a doubt, is an incredible experience that is best explored on your own pace. However, with a plethora of new changes and features added to the game, there are a fistful of things I wish I knew before starting the game. This guide will focus on such tips and tricks that will help you when you are starting this game. Even if you are a veteran, some of these tips may help you. So be sure to give it a good read!

Forza Horizon 4 Tips

Forza Horizon 4 is the ultimate Forza Horizon game in the series. Playground Games, the developers behind this masterpiece, have tweaked the game significantly and it does look and feel a little complicated at sometimes.

The amount of content and concepts this game has to offer you will overwhelm even people used to play other car racing games. And that is exactly why I have listed things that I wish I knew before starting Forza Horizon 4.

Basic Tips for Racing

The game has many mechanics when you race. Even the little things like drag, type of road, friction between tire and road will affect your gameplay. The game has so much mechanics that you will feel overwhelmed where to start.

Start with the basic stats and try not to fiddle around with the tweaks too much. Just enjoy the races with a stock car and when you feel that you are getting comfortable with that car, start fiddling around!

Don’t Worry Too Much about a Car’s Rating

Forza Horizon 4 has implemented a fair game system where the other cars in a race will be spawned depending on your car.

If you pick a Renault Clio Williams, a relatively slow car, more Clio(s) will be in your race and the pace of the race will be much slower. So do not worry over a car’s rating. Even if it is very low, you can still win that race.

Psst! You can also abuse this mechanic to make the game easier for you. I am not going to show you how because that would be unfair but you get the gist of it, right?

Do a Background Check on Each Car

Every car in Forza Horizon 4 is different. They are all based on real-life cars and follow their legacy very closely.

Therefore, doing a background check on each car to see what would be the best for you is a very good tip. Maybe you will find a car that you will use all season around.

Fiddle around with their engines; switch from V8 engines to V10 engines or even V6, depending on the situation.

Some cars are better in the dirt while some cars are great on road. Some can climb hills easily and some are comfortable around obstacles. Choose your vehicle depending on the circumstance. Every car has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Customize Your Character and Car How You Want

There are a lot of different cosmetics and skins for your character and you can dress them up however you want. And there is a treat!

You do not need to spend hours thinking about whether to choose a male character or a female character for their choice of clothes because now all clothes are unisex! Anyone can wear anything.

Additionally, cars can be customized how you want too. The wheels can be adjusted unlike previous Forza Horizons-and that is a treat. You can adjust the decals, colors, and other things on a car to make that car yours exclusively.

Buy Houses

Forza Horizon 4 offers 10 houses spread out on the map that can be purchased. The price of each house will differ and no house is similar to the other one. Heck, the game gives you the first house free.

You are probably wondering why would anyone spend precious CRs to buy houses, right?

Buying houses unlocks a special perk – an ability- to fast-travel to these houses. It will help. A lot but there is a catch. Every time you wish to fast-travel, you will have to pay up a fee of 10,000 CRs.

It is not much but apparently, taxes are a thing. Do note that the Edinburgh Castle that also unlocks the Bentley Blowers costs a mind-blowing 15 million CRs. So instead, focus on smaller and less luxurious houses at first.

Use Wheelspin Often

Wheelspins are a great feature in the Forza Horizon series. It can be easy to overlook the Wheelspin machine in Forza Horizon 4 but you should check it every now and then.

Every time you level up, you get a free Wheelspin, so be sure to use a Wheelspin as often as possible. Wheelspins offer a variety of rewards like CRs, cosmetics or even rare, shiny cars. Heck, the spin often offers multiple rewards.

Perks

Unlike in Forza Horizon 3, one perk will not be available to use on all your cars; instead, you will have to purchase a perk for each car, individually. I do not know what was going around in the developers’ mind but I think it was for the best.

Different vehicles have different perks now but most of the perks are related to increasing your influence or boosting your drift score. Heck, if you spend enough perks on a car, they will give a free Wheelspin. It is a win-win situation!

Perks can be used on cars by visiting the Car Mastery panel in Cars tab.

Dynamic Weather

The game features totally dynamic weather. The seasons change every week. There are four seasons and everything changes between seasons. You start out in spring and you will unlock the other seasons every 50,000 Influence.

With the changing weather, the tracks will also change and will get difficult for one type of car to move on. So be sure to change your car every season or you will be left in the dirt – no pun intended.

CRs and Influence

The game has two types of currency i.e. CRs and Influence. Both currencies are affected by how much races and events you participate in. The higher you place in events, the more the CRs and Influence you will earn.

Currency can be used to purchase new cars, new parts, and other cosmetics. CRs can also be used to fast-travel to other locations and buy houses. CRs is the currency that will go up and down the more you play.

Influence is used to gain access to new events, seasons and races. Influence is your Reputation if you have played any of the earlier Need for Speed series.

Get enough Influence and you will be able to unlock a new event. If you are a fan of RPGs, it is like leveling up a character to a specific level to unlock that dungeon you seek.

Unlock Skill Songs

Unlike in Forza Horizon 3, Skills Songs are not available on this game from the start. You need to unlock them by buying The Huntsman’s Lodge for 750,000 CRs.

What are Skill Songs? Skill Songs are bonus songs that, once playing, will offer a 2x bonus on all skills score. The higher the skills score, the better the skill chain.

It is a worthy investment indeed. The money will come and go but the songs? Oh, they will stay… right inside our hearts.

Bonus Tip – Never Give Up!

This is not something that I should tell you but I felt that Forza Horizon 4 was a bit difficult. Even if the game gets too tough, do not quit. The game offers subtle features to give you a fighting chance in even the more difficult races.

The AI cars will slow down later on in a specific race, even if they have a very big and fast head start. Just drive at your best capabilities and you will be able to catch up to them.

Forza Horizon 4 Wiki

Farming Influence
Farming Credits
How to Get More Wheelspins

Adores Bo Burnham, Pink Guy and Kumail Nanjiani. Plays all sort of games. Spends too much time watching anime and comical TV series. Some of the games he plays include: Rocket League, DoTA2, PUBG, ARK: ...