When the sun climbed over the cactus-dotted deserts of Mexico, the Horizon Festival opened its gates for a driver ready to make a name. In Forza Horizon 5, the whole shebang revolves around expanding the festival, and the path is paved with Accolades, Experience, and Skill Points. If a racer thought they could just floor it and call it a day, they had another thing coming.

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The Horizon Festival had already rolled through places like Australia and Great Britain, but Mexico brought its own flavor. Sun-drenched highways, off-road tracks, and more than 400 rides meant there was no shortage of ways to cut loose. When Horizon 5 launched, over 700,000 players had already signed on before the official release, and critics were calling it the highest-rated game of 2021. Yet progression wasn't just about crossing finish lines. The game leaned hard into a new system called Accolades, and that became the key to unlocking the entire map.

Accolades: The Real MVP 🌟

Accolades worked as the single most important currency for the campaign. A driver earned them by winning races, cruising through Mexico, and completing all sorts of side activities. The early game menu made it easy to track these, and visiting it right away was a smart move.

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Some of the ways a racer could stack Accolades included:

  • Online Versus matches 🏁

  • Purchasing Properties 🏠

  • Exploring New Locations 🌵

  • Completing Accolades Tasks ✅

  • Danger Zones 💥

Once the first area was unlocked, the driver had a choice: pour Accolades into upgrades for that spot or save up for a brand-new area. Buying a new area opened more challenges, more racing variations, and even more chances to earn Accolades. The catch? Every purchase nudged the cost of the next one higher. It was a classic "spend money to make money" loop, but in the best possible way. The menu gave a clear view of what was on deck, so nobody had to fly blind.

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For anyone feeling overwhelmed, the game kept things chill. Accolades piled up naturally over time, and the system rewarded trial and error. There was no need to sweat the small stuff; the festival moved at the driver's own pace.

Experience: Leveling Up the Old-School Way 📈

Experience operated like the traditional progression from earlier Horizon titles. The more XP a driver collected, the higher their level climbed. A high level was mostly a flex—a way to show off that shiny number to other racers roaming Mexico. Each new level granted a free wheel spin, which could drop anything from new cars and decals to vehicle upgrades and player gear.

XP came from buying vehicles, upgrading their mastery points, and racing hard. For a quick bundle, experience boards were scattered all over the landscape. A driver had to keep their eyes peeled even while pulling off a sick 360 at 90 MPH.

Skill Points: Where the Rubber Meets the Fun 🚗💨

Skill Points were the most interesting part of the whole system—and the one drivers saw most often. They were tied directly to skill combos performed while driving or racing. Chaining together a long drift, a burnout, some air time, and a crash through the wilderness at over 100 MPH filled the bank with points. Those points then unlocked new abilities and specific targets for every vehicle in the garage.

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All 400-plus rides had their own skill tree under the Car Mastery page. That gave a ton of options for tuning and support. The Skills page in the menu helped track how far a driver had come in the Horizon Festival.

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To gain Skill Points, a driver could:

  • Crush cacti 🌵

  • Catch air time and kangaroo hops 🦘

  • Crash through the wilderness 🌲

  • Speed for a long duration ⏱️

  • Drift and burnout 🔥

  • Trigger Skill Songs 🎵

Chaining any of those actions together produced a higher boost. The most efficient method was the Skill Song. The driver had to buy a house first, and then the song could pop up at any random moment during a free roam drive. When that song hit, it was go-time: rack up as many combos as possible and bank a ridiculous amount of points.

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In the end, Forza Horizon 5 didn't hand out progression on a silver platter. It asked drivers to embrace the chaos—drift through dust clouds, smash through fences, and chase that perfect skill song. The reward was a festival that grew from a single outpost into a full-blown celebration across Mexico. And for anyone still on the fence in 2026, the systems remained as satisfying as ever, proving that the Horizon Festival knows how to keep the pedals pressed to the floor.