Forza Horizon 6 First Hours Walkthrough: What to Do in Your First 2 Hours

The opening of FH6 throws you into Tokyo with a scripted race sequence and then dumps you at the Horizon Festival with a map full of icons and no clear direction. I restarted my save after about four hours because I'd wasted credits on the wrong cars and unlocked things in a dumb order. Here's the path I'd take if I were starting fresh.

First 15 Minutes: Tutorial and Starter Choice

The intro races are scripted — just follow the line and enjoy the spectacle. When you get the starter car choice, take the Audi RS3. I know the Toyota Supra is cooler. I know you want the Supra. But the RS3 handles both tarmac and dirt with the same setup and you're going to be doing both in the first hour. The Supra bottoms out on dirt roads and you'll spend half your time fighting the rear end.

Complete the mandatory three tutorial races. The game gives you free cars and credits as rewards — don't spend anything during this phase.

15-30 Minutes: Unlock Horizon Central

The first Showcase event pits you against a plane in a point-to-point race. It's more cinematic than challenging but completing it unlocks the main Horizon Festival hub and the Road Racing series. This is your primary credit source for the next ten hours.

Immediately after, drive to the Street Scene outpost on the eastern edge of the Tokyo district. The intro race is straightforward and the unlock is worth it: Street Scene races happen at night with traffic and pay 1.5x credits. This is your early money maker.

30-60 Minutes: First Upgrades

By now you should have around 30,000 credits from tutorial rewards and your first few races. Don't buy a car. Upgrade the RS3: sport intake and exhaust (8,500 credits), rally springs (4,200), sport tires (6,000). That's 18,700 credits total and the car is now capable of winning races two classes above its rating.

Keep the remaining 11,000 as a buffer. You'll need it for entry fees on higher-tier events later.

Hours 1-2: The Danger Sign Tour

This is where you build your bankroll. Open the map and look for the ramp icons — there are 15 Danger Signs scattered across the accessible regions. Three-star each one and you're earning 5,000 to 10,000 credits per sign. A tuned RS3 with sport tires hits 170 mph on approach, which is enough for most of them.

In one hour you can clear 12 to 14 signs — that's roughly 80,000 to 100,000 credits with zero race repetition.

While driving between signs, smash every Fast Travel board you see. There are 50 total on the map. Smashing 20 to 30 costs nothing and each one reduces fast travel cost. After 50 boards, fast travel is free. That saves you hundreds of thousands of credits over the life of the game.

After 2 Hours: Your First Car Purchase

You should be sitting on around 130,000 credits. Now it's time for your first Autoshow buy. I'd go with the 2023 BMW M3 for 65,000 credits. It's the best A-class road racer in the game and with a 30,000 credit upgrade package (race intake, camshaft, exhaust, sport tires) it'll carry you through every Road Racing and Street Scene event for the next 20 hours.

Keep a 35,000 credit buffer after the purchase. Always keep a buffer — the game has a way of throwing surprise expenses at you.

Events to Skip in Your First Session

Drag Strip racing needs purpose-built cars with specific gearing and tire setups. Your starters will lose every race and the payout isn't worth the frustration. Save it for when you have a dedicated drag build.

Drift Zones pay poorly until you can chain 50,000-point drifts. The starter cars don't have the power or angle for that. Come back after you've built a drift-specific RX-7 or Silvia.

Online Adventure will put you against people with 200 hours and perfectly meta-tuned cars. You'll get destroyed and it'll feel bad. Build your garage and skills in single-player first.

Stick to Road Racing and Street Scene for your first 10 hours. Best credits per minute, teaches you the handling model, and builds your car collection naturally through event rewards.