A few weeks ago, Forza Horizon 5's barn-based gifting system was being flooded by cheap Jeeps. This was due to the car mastery system—which lets players unlock bonuses by spending skill points earned through driving. The Willys Jeep was not only cheap, but its unlock grid required just five skill points to earn a Super Wheelspin—a particularly lucrative loot box that can grant players hundreds or thousands of credits per spin.
Players, then, would buy the Jeep, unlock the Super Wheelspin, and discard it—or gift it to other players. The profits were potentially huge, at least until a recent patch which removed the Super Wheelspin reward from the Willys altogether.
In response, some players are now using a more creative solution to get easy cash—using Forza Horizon 5's accessibility options to generate a large pile of skill points without ever having to touch their controller.
Here's how it works: by heading to the Creative Hub, and selecting the Event Lab, you can search for some lengthy races designed specifically for AFK farming. I tested on CxsmoSucks' 15 lap course—share code "593058147"—with a car tuned up to X-class using a specific AFK tune. While some 50 lap circuits exist, Forza Horizon 5's recent patch also seems to have capped the amount of XP you can earn per event while AFK farming.
The key bit happens before the race, in the difficulty menu. Using some new accessibility options—changing braking to "Assisted" and steering to "Auto-Steering"—and by enabling both traction and stability control, the car will essentially drive itself. All you need to do is hold the acceleration button. If you're on controller, a rubber band can hold the right-trigger in position. Rather than finding something to wedge my W key in place, though, I've just been holding it down while typing this on my laptop.
By banking a huge number of skill points, players are again turning to cheap cars to unlock Super Wheelspins. Sure, the 1987 Pontiac Firebird requires a whole 14 skill points to get there, but it only costs 25,000 credits.
Is this an exploit? Kind of, but it's the sneaky sort of exploit that combines a bunch of systems performing as intended to generate the desired result. As mentioned, auto-steering is an accessibility option. It is doing its job. The Event Lab is a way for players to create their own track, easy or hard; long or short. It, too, is performing as intended.
So is the skill system—in fact, it's less efficient to earn skills via a long, easy race than it is to just mess about in the open world for a couple of hours bashing into cacti. Really, then, it's the combination of these entirely normal features—along with a little controller DIY—that makes it arguably illicit. The AFK potential here means you can walk away for a few hours and come back to a decent chunk of skill points that can be turned into Super Wheelspins.
This does raise a question: is there any reason to actually do this? To my mind, no—Forza Horizon 5 has already handed me more cars than I will realistically drive, even despite the restrictions present in the seasonal playlist. But if you're the right mix of compulsive and impatient, I can see the draw. There are hundreds of cars left for me to unlock, and while I'm prepared for that to be an ongoing reason to play the game, some inevitably just want it all, now.
Proposed class action lawsuit claims The Crew players were 'duped', bizarrely comparing the game shutting down to Ubisoft breaking into your house and stealing parts of a pinball machine
Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz dusts off his controller to stream Crazy Taxi on Twitch: 'The Republicans will accuse me of never having a Dreamcast or something'
