Forza Motorsport (2023): Multiplayer Guide for 2024

How Does Multiplayer Work in Forza Motorsport?

To play standard matchmaking multiplayer in Forza Motorsport, all you have to do is select “Featured Multiplayer” and then pick a class to race in. You have two types of options here: Spec Events and Open Events. Spec Events force you to use a specific car or type of car, which forces everyone onto a (somewhat) even playing field. You still have differences thanks to custom tuning (I recommend just using “Find Tune” and trying out the ones others have uploaded), but it reduces the odds of losing to someone with the top meta car. Open Events, however, allow you to drive your own cars. This means that if you want to win in an Open event, you’ll need to use either a top meta car or be really, really good. Both are really fun, but I will say that I personally prefer Spec events most of the time.

Renting vs Buying Cars

Whenever you load into a multiplayer match, you have the option of buying a new car, renting one, or using one you already own. Usually, you’ll want to always be using a car that you actually own, with the exception of when you’re trying one out to see if you want it. When you race a car you own, you’ll get car points which you can use to upgrade and tune your car. If you race a rented car, you don’t get any of those points. Having a car you actually own always feels better, because it gives you a reason to stay in the race even if you’re in the back. A rented car doesn’t get anything for losing, where an owned car at least gets points. I do highly recommend starting out by just renting cars, but once you figure out which you like, definitely buy them. You can also sell cars back for a decent portion of what you paid, so it’s not too punishing if you buy a car and change your mind later.

Fuel & Tires

Fuel and tires are two of the most important parts of winning Forza Motorsport races. You’ll start out with the maximum amount of fuel in your car, but you’ll usually want to change this. Since your car is heavier with max fuel (giving it slightly worse handling and acceleration), make sure and reduce your fuel load to however many laps the race is, plus maybe one extra. Some people just go with the exact amount of fuel for the laps in the race, but a lot go one over.

Tires are something you’ll have to decide on track-by-track. Here’s a quick rundown of each type of tire you’ll be able to use:

• Hard: high longevity, low grip/traction
• Medium: moderate longevity, moderate grip/traction
• Soft: lower longevity, high grip/traction
• Wet: makes driving in rain possible
• Stock: the standard stock tires for your vehicle (the default option if you don’t have upgraded tires)

You’ll almost always want wet tires when it’s raining, but other than that, it’s entirely a track-by-track decision. Medium tires are usually a safe bet, but if you do plan to use Hard or Soft tires, I highly recommend doing at least a couple practice laps to make sure you’re certain.

Penalties

One of the biggest problems I do have with this game is the ridiculous penalties system. Sometimes you’ll ram someone off the track and get no penalty at all, then someone will slam into you three times and flip you over, then you’ll be the one with a penalty. It’s really a 50/50 on who gets a penalty when a collision happens, and it becomes really frustrating to basically lose your chance at winning due to something that wasn’t your fault. However, at least this does prevent most people from getting too rough.

There are also penalties for going off the track. These are kind of hard to predict as well, but for the most part it’s easy to avoid them. There are some questionable places on some tracks where you can get some kind of stupid off-track penalties, but it’s pretty forgiving most of the time.

Practice & Qualifying

Before every multiplayer race, you’ll have the chance to run however many practice laps you want and three qualifying laps. During the countdown to the race, you can spend all the time you want out on the track. If you get into a race with a lot of time left in practice (10 or more minutes), you should run a few practice laps on different tire types to get a feel for what’s working best. If you get in last minute (right at 5 minutes left), you’ll have to just go straight into qualifying. Even if you only finish one qualifying lap with a horrible time, it’s still better than starting at the back. The best way to avoid the inevitable start-of-the-race crash is being as close to the front as possible, so don’t slack off during qualifying.

Skill & Safety Rating

The skill and safety ratings on your profile are simply a way for the game to effectively grade you. The skill rating is based on how many penalties you get and how “clean” you race, while your skill rating is just based on how well you do in races. The safety rating goes from S down to F, while the skill ratings range from 1,000 up to a maximum of 5,000. In matchmaking, the game does use both of these ratings when finding your opponents, so you’ll want to avoid being toward the lower end.