The complete guide to Forza Horizon 5's badges, and detailed tips for online racing (Horizon Open)
Badges are a post-release addition to Forza Horizon 5 in April 2022 that provide an extra incentive for online gameplay: unlocking badges next to your name in-game. Here’s detailed instructions on how to obtain every badge and detailed tips for winning online races, so you can get your elusive gold Horizon Open Champion badge too! Also includes January 2024’s new badges.
Badges
There are a total of 44 badges to earn, taking a total of around 100-150 hours:
- 11 Level based badges
- 3 Completion based badges
- 7 Action based badges
- 14 Limited edition badges
- 4 Car collection based badges
- 5 Test track badges
Here’s how to earn them all!
Level based badges
The simplest badges (and the first you’ll earn) are the level based badges. These are not based on your overall Forza level (in the top left of the pause screen), but on your Horizon Open level. The easiest way to check your Horizon Open level is by looking at an unclaimed level-based badge, it will say “Level 410/500” etc.
Your level can also be seen in the “Online” -> “Horizon Open” menu, however if you earned any XP before April 2022, this level may not be correct. For example, I am level 1000 yet this screen shows level 705:
| Shown level (705) | Actual level (1000) |
|---|---|
 |
 |
This Horizon Open level is shared across all types of Horizon Open (racing, drifting, playground games). As such, there’s no point grinding the level based badges until after unlocking the completion and action based badges.
For advice on progressing through these levels as quickly as possible, see the dedicated XP grinding section of this post. Level 1000 takes around 100 hours of S2 racing.
 The Grand Opening Level 10 |
 Horizon Open Newcomer Level 100 |
 Horizon Open Rookie Level 200 |
 Horizon Open Amateur Level 300 |
 Horizon Open Enthusiast Level 400 |
 Horizon Open Expert Level 500 |
 Horizon Open Pro Level 600 |
 Horizon Open Elite Level 700 |
 Horizon Open Specialist Level 800 |
 Horizon Open Master Level 900 |
 Horizon Open Champion Level 1000 |
Completion based badges
These badges are straightforward, and another grind. You don’t need to win these races / games, so I’d recommend working on the action based badges whilst earning all 3.
 Games Leader Complete 100 Rounds of PG Games |
 Drift Leader Complete 50 Horizon Open Drift Rounds |
 Games Leader Complete 100 Rounds of PG Games |
Car collection based badges
These are also self-explanatory, and just require collecting as many cars as possible. At the time of writing (April 2023) the highest level badge requires collecting every car normally available in the car, plus 2 of the 3 real-life DLC (Opi / Oreo / Controller) cars. This is pretty tricky to do unless you’ve been keeping up with each week’s new cars since release, so don’t expect to see this badge often!
 A Spooktacular Collection Own 500 unique cars |
 A Heartfelt Collection Own 600 unique cars |
 A T-rexcellent Collection Own 700 unique cars |
 A Purrrfect Collection Own 800 unique cars |
Action based badges
Whilst these badges mostly explain themselves, most people don’t know these can all be earned whilst waiting to join an event. Since this is usually wasted time, repeatedly drifting / driving fast / earning skill score whilst waiting is a good way to speed up the earning of these badges.
Also, I believe “Beep, Beep, Coming Through” originally required banking 100k score in one go, but the description now implies this is no longer the case. If you have banked 100k in total and not earned it yet, try getting one long streak.
 Lucky Streak Win 3 PG Games Rounds in a row |
 Give Me Five! Bank a total of 5,000,000 Skill Score in Horizon Open |
 Beep, Beep, Coming Through Bank a total of 100,000 Skill Score in Horizon Open |
 Can’t Touch This Earn 200 Speed Skills in Horizon Open |
 Love You 3000 Earn 3000 Clean Racing Skills in Horizon Open |
 Drifter’s Paradise Earn 6000 Drifting or E-Drifting Skills in Horizon Open |
 #43 Drive any Hoonigan vehicle for 4.3 miles (7km) |
Limited edition badges
Unfortunately these were all unlocked during various seasonal events, and no longer seem obtainable. Most are from the 10 year anniversary series between October-November 2022.
They were very easy to unlock by just playing the game each week and completing the festival tasks, hopefully a future update provides an alternative way to earn them. No content should be unobtainable for new players eventually!
 May The Forza Be With You Play Forza Horizon 5 during the Wet Season of the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ |
 We Meet Again! Play Forza Horizon 5 during the Storm Season of the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ |
 You’re The Boss Play Forza Horizon 5 during the Dry Season of the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ |
Spring Into Action! Play Forza Horizon 5 during the Hot Season of the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’^ |
 Welcome to Horizon 2.0! Complete the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ Initial Experience or the ‘Welcome to Mexico’ chapter of the ‘Horizon Origins’ Story |
 Happy Anniversary! Earn the first Series Reward during the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ |
 Piece of Cake! Earn the second Series Reward during the ‘Horizon 10-Year Anniversary’ |
 Master Explorer Complete all 16 Pathfinder Accolades |
 Enjoying the Celebrations Obtain the 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso during ‘Día de Muertos’ |
 In the Spotlight Obtain the 2010 Nissan Tsuru during the Wet season of ‘Día de Muertos’ |
 Working Together Obtain the 2020 Nissan GT-R NISMO (R35) during ‘Community Choice’^ |
 Making Your Mark Obtain the 2022 McLaren 12C Coupé during the West Season of ‘Community Choice’^ |
 Feeling Lucky Earn the 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 6 during ‘Lunar New Year’ |
 Lunar Dragon Player Forza Horizon 5 during the Storm Season of ‘Lunar New Year’ |
^ Badge designed by soupmcpasta on the Forza Forums.
Test track badges
These were added in June 2023, and are far, far grindier than they might seem at first glance!
For the distance-based badge, you just want to drive as quickly as possible up and down the highway for a few hours. Assuming an average speed of 250mph, it’ll take 2 hours of constant driving to reach 500 miles and earn the “Just Keep Driving, Driving, Driving”. I used the Rimac Nivera, but anything works.
As painful as that seems, the “Tinker, Tailor, Car Tuner” badge is far worse! It requires spending 10 million credits, but each car’s expensive items (such as engine swaps) can only be purchased once. As such, you need to essentially put as much as possible on a car, exit the test track to purchase the items, then repeat with a new car. This process takes almost exactly 2 minutes, and you’ll typically spend 120-150k per car. Assuming an optimistic 150k per car, you’ll need to upgrade 67 cars, taking a little over 2 hours. However, this requires attention to navigate the menus efficiently, so 3-4 hours is more realistic. Ouch.
 Keeping Track Apply and purchase an upgrade at the Horizon Test Track |
 Track Record Apply and purchase an upgrade to 50 cars at the Horizon Test Track |
 Just Keep Driving, Driving, Driving Drive 500 miles (804.7km) at the Horizon Test Track |
 Break The ‘Piggy’ Bank Spend 1,000,000 credits on upgrades at the Horizon Test Track |
 Tinker, Tailor, Car Tuner Spend 10,000,000 credits on upgrades at the Horizon Test Track |
Online racing
To earn all of the level based badges, there’s no shortcut besides grinding! Distance driven and position are the main factors to the XP (and credits) earned, luckily this is easy to optimise by driving the fastest races possible. Under the “Horizon Open” menu, select “Custom Racing” then “Road” & “S2”.
Whilst this does mean that all races will be very fast and intense, this is by far the fastest way to level. Additionally, there are plenty of breaks in the form of loading screens. In fact, a 3-race championship will take 12-13 minutes, and only half of that time will actually be driving a car!
XP
A 13 minute S2 road championship (including all loading screens) will pay around 24k XP (and 50-60k credits). This gives us an hourly XP rate of around 110k. I’ll pessimistically round this down to 100k/hour, due to the time wasted initially queuing, potential disconnections, etc.
The 2nd person to reach level 1000 stated it takes 10 million XP, and other users have confirmed this with exact figures. I achieved it at 5 million XP, but I suspect this is because I raced a lot before badges / levels were released, so my XP is out of sync somehow. For now, I’m assuming the stated figures are correct for new users.
| Level range | XP per level | XP for range | Combined total XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-100 | 4000 | 400,000 | 400,000 |
| 101-200 | 5,000 | 500,000 | 900,000 |
| 201-300 | 6,000 | 600,000 | 1,500,000 |
| 301-400 | 7,000 | 700,000 | 2,200,000 |
| 401-500 | 8,000 | 800,000 | 3,000,000 |
| 501-600 | 9,000 | 900,000 | 3,900,000 |
| 601-700 | 10,000 | 1,000,000 | 4,900,000 |
| 701-800 | 11,000 | 1,100,000 | 6,000,000 |
| 801-900 | 12,000 | 1,200,000 | 7,200,000 |
| 901-920 | 20,000 | 400,000 | 7,600,000 |
| 921-940 | 24,000 | 480,000 | 8,080,000 |
| 941-960 | 28,000 | 560,000 | 8,640,000 |
| 961-980 | 32,000 | 640,000 | 9,280,000 |
| 981-1000 | 36,000 | 720,000 | 10,000,000 |
If level 1000 takes 10 million XP, and we can earn 100k/hour, this means Horizon Open level 1000 takes 100 hours. During this time you’ll also earn around 20 million credits, and tens of millions more from all the wheelspins. This grind actually isn’t too bad in comparison to grinding the creative accolades!
Cars & Tunes
There is no “best car” for online racing. There are good cars, and good tunes, but no objectively best car!
I personally love the Brabham BT62, since it corners well whilst also having a good max speed and acceleration. However, there are other cars that beat it on these attributes, all that matters is how well the car works for you. Here’s my top 5 cars I’ve tried and enjoyed in S2 road racing, for each I’d recommend trying a couple of popular 998-rated tunes, and finding one that suits you:
- 2019 Brabham BT62: Very fast, but also easy to control. I use tune
121 983 451, it can brake and turn much better than the guide driving line. Used for almost all of my S2 racing. - 2011 Lamborghini Sesto Elemento Forza Edition: Quite fast, but more importantly extremely easy to control. I used this whilst learning tracks, and it glides around corners effortlessly.
- 2012 Hot Wheels Bad To The Blade: Very very fast, but I found it a bit too “twitchy” to be enjoyable.
- 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition: Extremely fast, but I found it to turn too easily regardless of tune, making cornering a bit scary due to the risk of spinning out.
- 2008 Koenigsegg CCGT: Fast, easy to control, an overall solid choice.
For drifting it’s even more down to personal preference. I just Googled / looked on Reddit for drift tunes in each class until I found some that worked for me. Personally I don’t enjoy drifting that much, so I didn’t worry about optimising my car so long as I finished in the top 2-3 each time.
Tactics
Whilst driving the perfect line quickly is obviously the way to win races, reliability and consistency matter far more. There’s no point cutting a corner and just about getting the checkpoint if you miss it 10% of the time and have to rewind, ruining your entire race.
Overall not making mistakes matters far more than driving the maximum speed, so it’s sensible to be cautious around tracks the first few times you race on them. During this time, keep an eye on your opponents, you’ll quickly pick up on more efficient lines than the one Forza’s guideline might be showing. For example, quite a few of the desert tracks can be taken fullspeed for large portions, but the braking line will be orange and even red around most of the corners.
Driving consistently just behind the leader(s) taking more aggressive & risky racing lines also lets you capitalise on their mistakes, with most drivers making 1-2 mistakes per race. Simply not crashing and not missing checkpoints will usually get you in the top 3.
Opponents
Whilst you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you can usually judge a Forza player by their level, badge, car choice, and class. Knowing which players are likely going to be competing with you for the lead lets you keep an eye on their driving line and style during the start of the race.
- 1: Level: This refers to their overall Forza level. Generally people who have prestiged a couple of times (the small number under the star) are going to be better drivers.
- 2: Badge: Players often have their highest level based badge equipped, or their rarest action / completion based one. As such, someone with the gold level 1000 badge are probably going to be very, very fast!
- 3: Car: Whilst different cars suit different play styles (see Cars & Tunes), some are just objectively bad. If you see “meta” cars like the Hot Wheels BTTB, Brabham BT62, or Viper ACR, the player knows a bit about tuning and online racing.
- 4: Class: An easy check. If their car isn’t close to the max for that class, it’s not going to be fast. E.g., good luck to a 940 rated car in S2 (900-998)!
Ramming
Ramming is against the rules, and can be punished.
A few players will ram you. Only around 2-3% of players I raced with in S2 did this, but it was very frustrating and very obvious when someone would. It will usually ruin your race. The main thing to remember is to never drive dirtily as “revenge”. They won’t care, it’ll only encourage them to do it more, and you’re pointlessly risking getting banned from online.
Whilst reporting these players is possible by recording video footage and submitting it, it’s quite a convoluted process and doesn’t help in the short-term. Instead, counter their ramming. Brake just before you suspect they’re about to nudge you into a wall, and they’ll fly into it themselves. Whilst this only works around half the time, the absolute joy in ruining their race by stopping them ruining yours is wonderful, especially as it’s within game rules!
Predicting an all-in one-off ram attempt is hard, but many rammers will do 1-2 smaller and less risky nudges first down a long straight, almost guaranteeing they’ll try to take you out at the next corner.
Regardless of whether your countering works or not, keep a note of their name since you’ll be stuck with them for the rest of the championship, and potentially the next one too. If they’re particularly bad, just quit and join a new championship lobby.
Conclusion
Badges are a great addition to Horizon Open, and provide a way for competitive online racers to notice each other in any context. Personally I’m hoping the team add more badges in the future, as they’re a far more tangible reward than accolades. That being said… I’m glad my grind to level 1000 is over, there’s only so much S2 road racing I can take!