Earn Your Gold Wristband and Become a Horizon Legend in Japan

It's already been a month since we showed you Forza Horizon 6 at Developer_Direct and we've loved reading and watching your reactions to the game! One topic we continue to hear your requests for more details on is the campaign. In this blog, we're taking a deep dive into how Forza Horizon 6 combines exploration and Festival racing in solo and cooperative gameplay, all with a renewed focus on progression.

In Forza Horizon 4, you arrived in Britain as a Superstar of the Horizon Festival. In Forza Horizon 5, your success as a racing champion continued in Mexico. In Forza Horizon 6, however, you’ll start the game as a tourist in Japan, with a dream of joining the Horizon Festival. None of that past fame is carried with you. You'll need to build a name for yourself and prove you have everything that it takes to become a Horizon Legend.

When you first land in Japan, you won't be by yourself. Two new Horizon characters, Mei and Jordy, also share your dream of joining the Horizon Festival, and they will be there to help you qualify and discover everything Japan has to offer. Jordy is a passionate motorsports enthusiast who understands the competitiveness of racing, while Mei is an experienced Japanese car builder, and will provide cultural insights and introductions on your journey throughout Japan. You can join her for authentic day trips to experience the unique brilliance of each region, and she will be there for you every step of the way to Legend Island.

To make it into the Horizon Festival, you’ll have to complete the Horizon Qualifiers and then the Horizon Invitational, earning your first Wristband. In Forza Horizon 6, Festival races are a curated experience, requiring you to enter using a specific set of cars in Road, Dirt and Cross Country events. With each new Wristband that you earn, you’ll be invited to compete in more events around Japan, and as you rise through the ranks of the Horizon Festival, these races will feature car themes – challenging you to master faster, more thrilling cars. Completing Festival Events, as well as activities like PR Stunts and Skills, will help you progress towards your next Wristband.

After a race has been completed for the first time, the Race Customizer will be unlocked for that specific event. In the event setup menu, you can adjust the number of Drivatars (up to 11), season, weather, time of day, time progression, number of laps, Rewind availability, camera lock, and traffic. By default, the Race Customizer will select a Car Theme that matches your current car, and there are also several other Car Themes to choose from, including pre-made classes and type-based restrictions. If you prefer, you can even pick each individual car that is permitted for the event.

If you’re playing with friends and set up an event as the Convoy leader, the rest of the Convoy will join you and play that event the same way you shaped it. Convoys are the best way to play Forza Horizon 6 together. If you’re looking for more players, you can always casually drive to a Car Meet and join or start a Convoy, and from there, participate in open world activities alongside each other or set up fun and unique events using the Race Customizer.

Once you’ve earned enough progress, you must complete a thrilling Wristband Event to earn your next Wristband. These include spectacular Showcase Events – you might have caught a glimpse of ‘Chaser Zero’, Horizon’s own racing mech at the end of the Developer_Direct video – as well as the brand-new Horizon Rush events featuring exciting locations at Tokyo City Docks, the Sotoyama Ski Resort and Irokawa Space Center.

Horizon Rush is the ultimate test of a driver against the course. Complete exhilarating obstacle courses as quicky as possible to earn the maximum stars. Throughout the course, splits will track your time helping you improve, whether you’re aiming for three stars, or the top of the leaderboards.

Obtain all 7 Festival Wristbands, and you’ll become a Horizon Legend. That title grants you access to Legend Island, an exclusive space reserved for the greatest drivers, featuring the challenging Legend Island Circuit and unique events including our longest Goliath event ever – the Colossus, which loops the entire map on the freeway. It’s the perfect place for R-class cars. Making it to Legend Island will be a true accomplishment and a reflection of your skills and determination.

While the Horizon Festival provides a progression-driven structure, Japan is also an incredible place to be explored at your own pace. That’s where Discover Japan comes in. While the Horizon Festival focuses on earning Wristbands, Discover Japan is all about obtaining Stamps – a system inspired by Japan’s rich stamp collecting history.

Whether you’re taking photos while cruising the roads of Japan, delivering food as a side hustle, collecting new cars, or playing through Horizon Stories, you will always be earning progress towards your next Stamp. As part of Discover Japan, you can also compete in Touge Battles and thrilling night-time Street Races, which are the perfect place to race the cars you might not be able to use in Festival Events just yet.

With the structured restrictions of the Horizon Festival, Hypercars can’t be used in Festival races until you’ve obtained at least the Purple Wristband, which is quite late into the game. This means players who want to stay engaged in the stricter progression system can do that in the official Horizon Festival events, while others who want to immediately jump into the fastest cars will have unofficial events as part of Discover Japan open to them.

Collecting Stamps for your Collection Journal will unlock new Player Houses around Japan with Customizable Garages for you to buy, as well as Barn Find Rumors and The Estate – a mountain valley where you can build and decorate directly in the open world.

You’ll track your campaign progression across both Horizon Festival and Discover Japan in the Collection Journal. Each of these paths can be progressed at your leisure. If you’re the type of player who wants to embark on your own road trips, there’s great news for you too – everything that you discover in Japan is tracked in your Collection Journal. It’s also where you can redeem unique rewards for completing specific activities and challenges, and these will include cars, credits, and cosmetic items.

Additionally, anything that you photograph for your Collection Journal will be saved there, so you always have a wonderful keepsake of your adventures to look back on. And if you capture a better photo later, you can even swap them out!

What’s more, for the first time in a Forza Horizon game, cross-save between Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, and Steam is supported. That means your Forza Horizon 6 campaign progress follows you no matter which device you’re discovering Japan on.

Whether you prefer to race or explore, Forza Horizon 6 delivers an expansive campaign full of depth, freedom and progression, and we can’t wait for you to experience it.

Japan Awaits!

Forza Horizon 6 is coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles and PC on May 19 and to PlayStation 5 later this year, with Early Access included in the Premium Edition. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can also purchase the Premium Upgrade to play the full game up to four days early starting on May 15.

Pre-orders are now live on Microsoft Store and Steam. If you purchase the game before its release, you will receive an exclusive, pre-tuned Ferrari J50! You can also add the game to your Wishlist on the PlayStation Store to be notified of availability.

Click here to learn more about the three different pre-order bundles for Forza Horizon 6 and the additional content included in the Deluxe and Premium Editions.

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on Forza.net exploring more details about Forza Horizon 6 leading up to its release, where we will spotlight car culture, sandbox building features, the PC experience and more.

You can also join our Forza Discord server and the Forza Forums to chat about all things Horizon and participate in community events. And be sure to follow @ForzaHorizon on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) to stay in the loop with all the latest updates from the Horizon Festival.