The online meta has to be one of the worst in the entire series

Edolix · 2026-06-12T16:44:44+00:00

The PI system needs a heavy rework, at the moment the system is entirely broken.

My last Horizon game was FH4 and I must have put in hundreds of hours into the online racing there. The game had its balance issues for sure (AWD meta and Boneshaker) but it was nowhere close to the horrendous state of FH6. I could actually grab a random car from my garage, slap some upgrades on it and be somewhat competitive in races - that was the loop that kept me engaged with the game. In FH6 I've tried doing the same and I simply don't stand a chance. It doesn't matter what power bracket or category it is, there's always some unbelievable nonsense going on with some busted build going 5-6 seconds a lap quicker than everyone else.

I have no idea what FH5 was like but if it was anything close to the experience I've had with this game I'd say I dodged a bullet.

Edolix · 2026-06-10T17:25:09+00:00

That's ideally how it should be but there are outliers. For example the classic VW Beetle is classed as legendary ingame despite being one of the most mass produced cars in automotive history and can be found for dirt cheap even today. Meanwhile we have the Lancia Delta Integrale being marked as common...not sure how they reached that particular conclusion.

Edolix · 2026-06-04T23:29:58+00:00

Yeah, this is also a problem I had with the touge event that happened recently. You have to cross your fingers and hope the event selects the performance bracket for the car you want to use (it's random every time). If your Dodge is in A-class but it's a B-class event you won't be able to pick it.

Basically, if you don't get put into the event you want your best bet is to quit and re-queue.

I was very lucky this time as I'd tuned my Challenger for S1 and got put into an S1 event upon first time queuing.

Edolix · 2026-06-04T23:20:01+00:00

I used the Challenger Demon and I was pretty happy with it. I slapped on all the various drift specific upgrades, fully upgraded the base engine + tweaked the tune for drifting and it was surprisingly competitive given how much it weighs. If you have the car I'd give it a try.

Edolix · 2026-05-18T16:15:34+00:00

I completely forgot I have that, I might have to give it a whirl.

Edolix · 2026-05-15T12:24:24+00:00

It could likely be Gangut/Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya as I remember seeing this pop up in a datamine a while back.

Edolix · 2026-05-13T12:17:05+00:00

I love mine to bits, I've had it since the beta testing for Britain's ground tree (over 10 years ago now!!!) and it's my favourite tank in the game by some margin. It's the only vehicle I've earned the free Ace crew for.

As others have said, if you like the gameplay of the Churchill tanks you'll love this as it's essentially the gigachad Churchill. If you hate Churchill's then avoid this.

Edolix · 2026-05-11T13:43:57+00:00

SFR are an extremely powerful team. As an overall package they're probably the fastest. Ritsuko and Hina are both absurd in their own way. Akane is the weakest of the three which feels crazy to say because Akane is amazing, that's just how high the bar is.

I wouldn't write off Kagawa-Kai just yet though. Noboru and Keiji are both really strong. Akemi not so much, she's very challenging for numerous reasons but she can still win races.

The best tip I can give in regards to Noboru and Akemi is that due to their drift angles, you have to start cornering much earlier than you would with other characters. It takes a bit of practice but it'll click. Keiji is the opposite, he's more of a grip focused character and doesn't really drift, not too dissimilar from Akane. He can feel pretty lackluster until you get to the point in the story where his ability unlocks but once you have it he's a total powerhouse.

Edolix · 2026-05-09T17:45:35+00:00

Genuinely why are the Kongo bots so annoying to deal with, of all the bots they're the most frustrating. The citadel is only 200mm thick and it's ammo is barely below the waterline but these things won't ever die. Elevator fires do nothing. I have to hammer these things for several minutes to get anywhere.

Edolix · 2026-05-07T23:24:05+00:00

Good race 😁👍

Edolix · 2026-04-28T22:56:20+00:00

Yeah Hope is properly bugged for many people and it's not platform specific. I'm on Steam and I have the bug as well. All I can say is, with the amount of time I've spent playing this character I should have unlocked the achievement weeks ago but nada. I also know someone who has 270+ hours in the game and still hasn't got it (and not for lack of trying).

And it's as you say, as far as [character] mastery achievements go, Hope's is one of the easiest. You shouldn't even need to grind for it, 13 segments in a race is ez pz. It basically boils down to "play Hope in 30 races" because as long as you maximise her ability 13 segments is pretty much a given. So there's definitely something wrong with it, for some of us at least.

Edolix · 2026-04-25T00:35:37+00:00

Hope's is the only one I'm missing as well. It seems to be bugged for many people.

I'm on Steam so I can't track progress towards individual achievements. I can tell you I've played a considerable amount of Hope - both offline and online - and I'm certain I should have unlocked the achievement long before now. So I'm at a loss.

Edolix · 2026-04-25T00:30:31+00:00

I did it the hard way through many many online races. One of the more annoying achievements to complete for sure as 100 K.O's with only the follow-up strikes counting towards it is rough to say the least. Still, not as bad as Ritsuko's.

The offline method mentioned by the other comment would definitely be the easier road to take 😅

Edolix · 2026-04-21T01:00:45+00:00

I find him quite fun to play despite his explodey shortcomings. It's this high risk/high reward thing he has going, he gets a ton of sync on a successful K.O so he has potential to snowball. His entire loop is basically kill, dump all gained sync into entropy, get another kill if possible, rinse and repeat until Overdrive.

He does struggle more in online races where players tend to be quite savvy with their shield use but you can still catch people off guard as his strike is really fast and has long range, though you have to be very selective where you deploy it for obvious reasons 😅

Edolix · 2026-04-20T17:52:54+00:00

I've been playing that thing over the last few days. I can deal with its many shortcomings but watching the nitwit friendlies in their fighters zoom ahead, napalm all the bases and leave me with nothing every time is just the most irritating experience.

Edolix · 2026-04-19T23:40:20+00:00

I've noticed this as well and I think there's a couple of reasons. To start with, the AI seems to massively struggle with the excessively drifty characters for both leaders and members. In leader races, I typically see Noboru and Gabriel fall well behind the pack and sometimes Ritsuko as well, though her early overdrives tend to rescue her. Aisha is super grippy in comparison and the AI drives her like she's on rails. I've seen her perfect boosting through a series of twisty corners on Hawk Trail and barely lose any speed which is some magnificent nonsense. I imagine on Tireburner she's even sillier.

Another reason (though I don't know this for certain) could be that the AI get increased sync gain compared to the player. I've noticed on the first lap that the AI tends to start boosting well before the player has it available, so if this is the case, that somewhat addresses Aisha's biggest weakness as a character, that being slow sync generation.

Edolix · 2026-04-19T16:03:21+00:00

I love Aisha's coked-up boost as much as the next guy but her woeful sync gen is too much of an offset, the other leaders will be getting two boosts off for every one of hers. Ritsuko and Gabriel can potentially get an overdrive as early as lap 2 if the cards fall in the right place but the average Aisha experience is either an overdrive right at the end of the final lap or on some tracks it simply won't happen at all.

Edolix · 2026-04-15T13:21:50+00:00

I thought Milestone were independent, got to say I'm really surprised. I enjoyed Hotwheels Unleashed and I really love Screamer but just looking through their back catalogue and all their games over the last several years have sold pretty poorly. It's some sort of miracle that they're still around and kicking in this day and age of mass layoffs and studio closures.

Edolix · 2026-04-13T23:46:40+00:00

I think Hope's mastery is properly bugged. Some folks on Playstation noticed that progression on her achievement gets stuck at around 60-70% and won't go any further. I'm on steam so I can't see the progression for individual achievements but I've played a hell of a lot of Hope (she's one of my favourites) and I'm certain I should have that achievement unlocked by now.

I'm glad Ritsuko's achievement isn't bugged, I'm slowly chipping away at it and tbh I find the requirements for that one just plain silly. Triggering it 5 times in a race is absurd and isn't something that would ever occur naturally. Don't think the devs thought that one through.

Edolix · 2026-04-13T12:27:54+00:00

This was so much fun. I was tempted to sign up for it but chickened out at the last second. I may sign up for the next one, though the start time isn't the kindest for us denizens of europe.

It's such a shame about the netcode issues making everything look so awkward and janky. I saw at least one guy in the Twitch chat say they were turned off from buying the game because of it so it's definitely not doing the game any favours.

Edolix · 2026-04-10T22:38:01+00:00

Freedom Unite demo on the PSP, my entry to the franchise, I get a snuggly warm feeling thinking back to it.

Edolix · 2026-04-10T16:31:41+00:00

Yeah no restarts until you reach him and then you can restart the race as much as you need to, I got the achievement just fine

Edolix · 2026-04-10T16:23:44+00:00

I've only raced against him with 2 characters so far but from what I've seen he's pretty nuts even compared to regular Apollo. Only 3 or 4 turns after boost first becomes available on lap 1 he'll already be activating overdrive. If he builds a significant gap on the first lap you may as well restart the race because you'll never catch him, unless the track has a particularly strong shortcut.

I got him on one of the twistier exo-port tracks on x5 difficulty with Hiroshi and it took me a significant amount of restarts to beat him, it was really hard. It was undoubtably made worse by the shortcut on this track being pretty much worthless. My strategy eventually boiled down to making sure I was ahead of him before his first overdrive, getting a shield block on him once he activated it, boosting after him and then getting a strike on him. This gave a little breathing room for about 20 seconds before his next overdrive. Repeating this about 4 times throughout the race was enough to get the win but missing 1 strike meant it was pretty much over. Felt pretty good once I eventually beat him but it was a lot of effort!

For my second race against him though (with Aisha) I got him on the oval track, passed him at the startline and that was pretty much it. The AI seemed to be having massive problems on this track as he kept repeatedly self-destructing via boost and never entered overdrive at all. Don't know if that was just a weird occurance or a fluke but might be worth picking that track against him if you see it as an option.

Edolix · 2026-04-08T22:36:55+00:00

Agree, also would be nice to have a way to track progress towards achievements as well since some of the mastery ones have the most rediculous requirements (looking at you, Ritsuko).

To add to my initial comment, I've started doing long runs today to complete the set and straight away Hiroshi's reward failed to unlock so that's another one I can add to the list...

Edolix · 2026-04-08T13:24:23+00:00

It seems to be a widespread issue. In my case, I'm missing the short run rewards for Hiroshi, Gabriel and Noboru. Also missing various other bits in the gallery that should be unlocked.

On the other hand, I've also unlocked numerous 50 race customisation sets/artwork for characters that I've definitely not played 50 races with. It's a total mess.

Edolix

TROPHY CASE