Forza Horizon 5

Once you get to the final destination it is pretty easy to guess where the winning spot will be. Typically, the final destination is going to be on the opposite side of the map from where you're at, so for example, if the final circle puts you in the bottom left of the map, it's a good estimate the final destination is going to be at the top right area. Once it says head to head is disabled, start picking up speed towards your choice, and once there's a few seconds left drive towards the destination as you can drive in the elimination zone for a few seconds. This gets you a really good head start, and if you have full speed, other players will have a harder time catching you. I won with a tier 6 car, while 10+ others were on the map with major-tier 8+ cars. This is the strategy I used to win in FH4 with a tier 1 car.

In the beginning, immediately drive to find a new car. You really only need a tier 4 car to win, or at least give yourself a good chance at winning with strategy. If you see someone coming for you, drive towards the edge of the safe zone, and right before they challenge you, flip around, and usually, the destination is on the opposite side of the safe zone. If you see a level 1 or 2, those are easy victories and you should be able to win no problem against them. Other than that, it's best to play it safe and let everyone else eliminate each other while you plan for the final circle.

UPDATE: Today on December 3rd a patch was released and now cars spawn randomly across the map.

Here is a tip for the eliminator:
Choose the location marked on the map as your starting point. When spawning in this place you will see an exchange point immediately on you front, behind a small house, after collecting it, go down the main street entering the city, you will see another 2 exchange points right in front of you.
Apparently these exchange points are always there. I don't know if this is a bug or on purpose, because in forza horizon 4 the exchange points were random. Anyway, use this to your advantage to get the game off to a good start.

Now I also added a video to make it easier. I couldn't find a way to post the directly to my guide, sorry.


Image: https://imgur.com/a/IPK2jmq
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16hlR9VcZMPwBzKRcGF-f-U-LCeP...


Another thing that can also help is disabling crossplay. Credits for ludiaz who pointed the matter.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-or-enable-cross-p...


If you are unfamiliar with the eliminator cars, here is a spreadsheet ranking each one. From my own experience, I can say that it's pretty accurate. The profile of the person who posted this looks like it has deleted. Credits for him anyway. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AvGhgJV3X7Xr4nOdU0rl...

So there are 8 guides already and I am now adding a 9th to the list, that probably no one will read anyway . Those other guides give good input, but none in my opinion describes the overall strategy to win, so here are my 2 cents after currently 37 wins in the Eliminator out of 273 times played:

1. The really crucial point in my opinion is to constantly adjust the risk you are taking depending on what car you are in, what time is left and how you expect the final race to go.

2. Your first goal is to find a good car drop and quickly. By good I mean anything from level 4 up. 4 is tough but fine, 5 is ok, 6 is really great and with 7 you should easily be in a level 10 car once the final showdown starts.

3. So do not waste time driving around looking for car drops if you are already in a level 5 car. You are wasting time you need for head to heads to upgrade your car. Yes you might be lucky to find that l8/l9/l10 car drop, but chances are very slim. In 273 games played I have never seen a l10 drop and only once an l9. l8 and l7 also don‘t happen very often. So your best bet is to get into an l4+ car and start hunting down others and upgrading.

4. Keep in mind that your remaining opponents are also upgrading their cars, so time is of the essence. If you are in an l5 car at the beginning then you can go hunting down others, but if you are just wasting your time looking for better car drops, that you probably don‘t find, then once you are in the final circle you will be the prey.

5. Yes it is possible to win in a lower level car, but only if your opponents all suck and/or are also all in low level cars, and chances for that are also slim. If you really want to try that strategy hiding until the final circle and then trying to win in a low level car, then your best bet is when the final circle is on top of the volcano. Go to the southmost point in the circle within the aisle that comes up to the mountain from the south. If your opponents are all busy doing head to heads on the top of the volcano and you are lucky you are the only one there and get a good head start. I once won in the l4 BMW there easily.

6. By all means do not do any l1 Beetle vs. l1 Beetle head to heads in the beginning. Trying to get to l10 with 9 eliminations is just as pointless as looking for car drops all the time.

7. So once again: first quickly look for car drops l4+, then immediately start with the head to heads. If you can‘t find a good car drop in the beginning your best bet might be to hide until the circle has narrowed the first time, but it will be tougher afterwards.

8. As said in the beginning constantly adjust the risks you are taking depending on the time left and the situation. Let‘s say you are in the pretty quick, but poor handling l7 Ferrari, you are running out of time, but you can see that the final race will probably take place on the highway. Then it might be a good idea to just stay in the Ferrari. Same situation, but you are in the l9 Focus instead, then you probably want to take the risk of a head to head as the l9 Focus has poor top speed compared to other l9 and l10 cars, but you probably have pretty good chances winning a head to head with this car in the final circle.

9. The final circle: your main goal is to set yourself up (i.e. position yourself) for the final race. Once the circle is shrinking for the last time and about halfway narrowed you can just ignore any head to heads, as they will be cancelled before they can be completed. Instead you can try trolling others into head to heads, especially opponents in high level cars. Timed well and if they are not smart to ignore the head to head they will end up in a bad position for the final race and you have one opponent less to worry about.
You yourself should wait about 50-100m from the border of the circle, facing the direction you think the race will go. Start accelerating before the countdown ends, so that you will leave the circle with about 3 seconds left, but not more than 4 seconds, otherwise you will get eliminated by the arena (and only do this if you have a clean timeout until then - if you had been outside the circle before that, then do not leave the final circle before the countdown ends as you might get eliminated by the arena instantly).

10. Don‘t blindly race directly towards the goal, but briefly look at the map. It is nuts to go offroad all the time if the finish line is 200m next to the highway.

11. Generally always consider what the best route may be, always considering the current situation. If you are in a head to head in a better car and ahead and there are trees in front of you, which can be avoided with a small detour, then drive around the trees. But if you are behind in a slower car you might want to risk going through those trees full speed. Your decisions will also be based in the car you are in. e.g. if you sit in the l8 Camaro, then try to take as many roads as possible, even if the path is a little longer.

12. Everything is allowed, so play dirty if it helps. Here are a few things you can do: if you are about to initiate a head to head and your car is better than your opponent‘s but you are unsure where the race will go, then ram him first and stay by his side before you press the horn. This way you make sure that he doesn‘t get a head start if the route would otherwise be in the wrong direction for you.
If you are in the situation where for some reason you are going towards the outside of the circle and an opponent comes straight at you from the outside and is about to challenge you, then go straight at him and ram him, so that he comes to a full stop. Otherwise you are as good as dead, especially in a short race in the final circle.
In the final circle if someone sits too close to the border (and annoys you because he sits in a better car than you and is also well positioned for the final race) you can also try to push him out of the circle. In the final circle the timeout is only 4 seconds, so it might be possible to get him eliminated by the arena or at least get him to lose his focus on the final race.
Other strategies might involve ramming well prepared opponents in fast but poor handling cars from the side before initiating head to heads in the final circle. e.g. a few days ago I was in the l7 Mercedes in the final circle and pretty desperate to upgrade, before the race starts. And there was this l10 Funco sitting there patiently, facing in the right direction, just waiting for anyone to come close to him. So I rammed him from the side and initiated the head to head, which was enough to win in a usually short final circle race (the Funco is unwilling to go around a corner, but a deadly weapon in a long offroad race, that goes straight ahead for most of the time, therefore a very good choice for the final race).

13. One thing to remember if you are so lucky to get into an l10 car and considering additional head to heads: if you are in an l10 car and win a head to head, then the game will always offer you the Funco as upgrade, and if you are in the Funco already then the Centenario. You will never get the RS200, the Brocky or the AMG this way, they can only be obtained by either getting them offered when you first upgrade to l10, or if you beat an opponent that has it. So don‘t start a head to head with the hope of getting the RS200, Brocky or AMG if you sit in an l10 car already.

14. You do not need to familiarize yourself with the whole map, but there are a few locations that I recommend knowing well: the area around the stadium, where I recommend going diectly *through* the stadium if a head to head seems to go around it; the temple airstrip (if it is not much of a detour I recommend going around it, but still you should know where best to pass through it); the area around Mulege and the jungle area around the airstrip to the south; Sierra Verde dam - unless it is dry season you cannot pass through the water but need to go around, the area where you cannot go through is between the dam and the next bridge to the east.

15. When picking a place to start remember that your car will always face to the east. So if you have some place where you think a car drop might happen frequently, then place the car slightly west of it, then the car drop will be straight in front of you when the game starts (and a car really drops there). Personally I like to start east of the stadium as there can be a car drop outside there and there are 3 potential car drops inside (be aware that opponents starting right beside the south or north entrance might be at the drops quicker, they have no potential drops outside though).

Good luck!

Here one example, not my best game and I had quite a streak of miserable games before that, but still a good example of what I mean: got the l6 Nomad and then upgraded as quickly as possible to l10 with head to heads (I would have liked to play it more safely when I got the l9 Escort, but the head to head against that l9 Trackhawk was unavoidable). When I got the RS200 I tried to avoid any more head to heads (although that l8 Camaro would have had slim chances in this terrain, but still it‘s kinda random in this area with all the trees) but concentrated to get a good position for the final race.
Knowing the map also helped in that race against the Levante (tbh I had relearnt the map in the head to head against the l3 Ford just before that, where I should have stayed more to the north at the lake area).

Update: This tip does only work occasionally now. Playground changed the frequency and areas of drops according to the circle.
TLDR Nerfed

After countless hours of playing Eliminator I've found a very good starting area and I managed to snatch this achievement. The area has constant drops in the range of 4-10. It is unbelievable what you can find there and it is usually free of competitors. It is a bit to the east of the landing strip by the pyramids. Check out the link with me getting a Level 10 drop and you can see the spot on the map. I hope this helps you to get this achievement because at the moment FH5 Eliminator is flooded by PC cheaters. Check out the other guides as well. They have very good tips for challengers and the map.

Is very luck based but keep trying. Look for purple/blue smoke for car drops. Any races against other players will head into the centre of or the opposite side of the circle to yourself so be aware of where you are in the circle to get a headstart by heading the right way. The centre of the circle always has a blimp over it which helps too. A good drop often spawns halfway up the south side of the volcano and north east of the festival pretty consistently at the start of a round. Finally pick your vehicle wisely. A higher level car isn't always better. Try and keep an off-road vehicle. I won in a level 5 F150 against a level 10 Lambo because I could take the bumps he rolled. It's not all level, many level 5-7 offroaders are winning cars. Good luck 😊

Be aware that at time of writing the eliminator is bugged too. You can lose access to your map before the final showdown leaving you at a disadvantage to check where the race may go. You may be challenged to head to head races by an invisible player leaving you unaware where they are and no warning of them coming. But the infuriating kicker will be the glitch where a head to head can not trigger a finish leaving you and another play at your finish line honking horns at each other until timed out. But as above keep trying and good luck. This is not a fun achievement as it stands.

Edit: if you're downvoting/disliking, please leave a comment why so I can leave better guides in future. Thanks

Edit 2: Seen some confusion avout this, it does indeed mean score your first win in the mode, not win first try at the mode. You can lose numerous times then win and still nab this.

There are already 7 Solutions for this achievement, but still writing this to add more details that might be useful for you guys. tips look bigger but I guess it'll be useful for some players.

There are 2 methods to play Eliminator, 1: Head to Head (Combat) 2: Sneaky Drive (Stealth). Still, both are luck-based but always think that... luck is on your side till you finish 1st or get eliminated. I was struggling to get a single win initially and it's a bit different than FH4 Eliminator since there are more destructible things in FH5 and can't differentiate which is fragile and which is unbreakable. But now, I've won 5 times and got 2nd place more than 8 times with the following methods out of 30+ games.
Method 1: HEAD TO HEAD COMBAT
Number 1: Get car drops frequently and stay inside the circle, look for a head-to-head race often, doesn't matter your opponent is higher/lower than you, if you finished the race 1st, you'll always get a better car in option. also, if you're leveling up your car more than 7 or 8 quickly, then most times, other players will start running away from you which will boost you're morale/confidence towards winning the eliminator!
2. Don't give up if your opponent heads meters away from you during the head to head race, trust yourself and keep driving towards the destination, there are high chances for your opponent to get stuck on unbreakable trees, piles of rocks, small cliffs/uphill routes, houses, under the bridge, or even can get stuck on the single stone that could turn your entire race upside down, who knows that eliminator might be your winning run. so don't lose your hope. (remember that you might get stuck on those too)
3. When you start the Head to head race, try not to take huge turns, unless you're sure that there will be a huge set of unbreakable trees, lake, or ruins/builds on the way. Always try to dodge trees with slight turns and drifts. also, avoid big jumps, because it'll reduce your speed after landing.
4. Always make sure your car is better in offroad, In the eliminator, we won't drive on road most of the time. so if you have a high-speed legendary level 8+ road racing car, still LVL 1 beetle can beat you easily because road racing car tires spin more on off-roads during turns and it'll cause unnecessary drift, sometimes it'll make donuts too! (Personally, I'll sacrifice a high-speed road racing car even it's level 7+ for a level 5 offroad car. and it worked for better results at the end than making pointless donuts in the middle of race)
5. you might think there will more points and tips for head-to-head style but there is no point number 5... it's enough!

Method 2: Sneaky Drive, Stealthy Thrive
This method looks time-consuming but in 90% of the attempts, you'll get a chance for a FINAL SHOWDOWN.
1. Stay outside the ring till 30 seconds left for arena shrink time, and make sure you're far away from the safe zone circle. then drive to the circle and wait inside the border for the next timer that hits near 30 seconds then again move forward to the next.
2. If no one is in your area, then look for a few car drops while waiting for the timer, since we're not going for head to head most of the time, a Maximum... level 6 Car is enough to win the eliminator easily. (If it's Ariel Nomad, Then great luck, I won 2 eliminators with that)
3. Stay idle near the bushes and trees, also make sure you're facing the safe zone circle and no unbreakable trees or builds in front of you.
4. If you're idling, you won't be visible in the min-map so no one could find you easily until they're driving near you. If someone saw you while hiding behind the bushes, don't panic and move or call him for the head to head by pressing your Horn quickly, just be prepared for the race but stay idle. since you're far away from the safe zone and hiding, then what is the other player also doing here far away from the circle? yeah, they're also doing the same strategy so they won't be a threat to us yet.
5. if someone saw you and started head to head, give your full potential and try to win the race. if you got eliminated, take a deep breath & try again!
6. once you make it to final showdown, you'll get some confidence that you survived this much without doing anything so you can win the eliminator with one last race.

HEAD TO HEADS DISABLED... FINAL SHOWDOWN BEGINS
1. you have at least 20 seconds before final showdown starts, spend this precious time on Map by pressing . destination will be always opposite/away side of the final safe zone.
2. check the map and make sure there are no ruins/builds, lake, or a huge chunk of trees before the destination. if any of these are in-between, cheers yourself, you have the high ground on this eliminator. when everyone runs towards the destination, you should take a slight detour around the forest or lake, your position might show 7th or 9th place but you'll win the race at the end because most people are stuck on the lake or middle of ruins and stay stunned for a while, at that moment you can see the glory in front of you.
3. Do not get overconfident when you take the lead on the initial stage, you might end up in an uphill route that'll slow you or slide you back down, or again a pile of rocks, buildings/ruins, or maybe a single tree could stop you.
4. if you're destination is Guanajuato or Universidad de Guanajuato(both are inside the city), then immediately take the road route than looking for a short route through the off-road. (I got my first win on this destination, all players were stuck on the city's outer wall and I saw that players are grouped but not moving and took a road route quickly, then finished the race easily became Eliminati)
5. [IN SUMMER or AUTUMN SEASON] If the destination is Gran Punte or anything behind the Sierra Verde Dam/ lake Cordillera(this lake will be filled and you'll sink in a few seconds if you try to drive through it), try to take the road route that leads you through the bridge even it looks long. Because I saw 3 to 4 different games that players stuck on the lake in the final showdown but a player who comes last, finishes in first... and yeah I'm in one of those players who got stuck on the lake
6. If you saw some Legendary car flying faster than you towards the destination, 50% he'll be stuck just near the destination, so... still, you have a chance to win! (I saw this same situation when I'm playing, saw a legendary car racing faster than me and got stuck on a tree that 300m away from the destination, I saw that and burst out of laugh then passed him 150 meters away only to get stuck on another tree and some other player won!)

That's It! Hope you'll get the CHICKEN DINNER soon and easily, if you have more tips/points for the guide or any funny experience, post a comment below.

As you know, the car ranking system in this game mode is totally garbage. If you're not a car person or if you're unfamiliar with the intricacies of each car, you're basically putting your blind faith in a bad ranking system. Well, I'm here to solve your problems.

Last night, I came across a video where a Forza Horizon veteran performed a rigorous racing exam on all of the Eliminator cars to find the true ranking of the cars. Big shoutout to SP4 on YouTube for this video. If you want to watch the video for yourself, here it is. But you don't have to watch it if you don't want to. I've put the most important part below.

Here is the objective performance ranking of all of the Eliminator cars. If you don't know whether to swap a car, quickly take a look at this list, and you will know right away. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions to improve this list. GOOD LUCK!

WORST
#46 (Level 1) VW Beetle

#45 (Level 2) 911 Carrera '73
#44 (Level 2) Ford Escort '67
#43 (Level 4) MINI JCW Buggy X-Raid
#42 (Level 3) Ford Focus '03
#41 (Level 2) Peugeot 205 T16

#40 (Level 3) Hyundai Veloster N
#39 (Level 3) Audi Quattro
#38 (Level 4) Audi S1
#37 (Level 2) VW Golf R '10
#36 (Level 3) Volvo V60

#35 (Level 4) Mitsubishi Evo Lancer GSR '08
#34 (Level 3) Porsche Macan RR
#33 (Level 4) Subaru WRX '11
#32 (Level 5) Ford Focus RS
#31 (Level 2) Audi RS6 '03

#30 (Level 5) #65 Porsche 911 Desert
#29 (Level 5) DeBerti F-150
#28 (Level 6) Ariel Nomad
#27 (Level 5) #2069 Ford Bronco R
#26 (Level 7) #24 Ferrari P4

#25 (Level 5) Maserati Levante
#24 (Level 4) BMW X5 M
#23 (Level 8) Chevrolet Camaro '17
#22 (Level 6) Exocet Off-Road
#21 (Level 5) Audi RS7

#20 (Level 5) Penhall Cholla
#19 (Level 7) Porsche Cayenne
#18 (Level 6) #185 Porsche 959
#17 (Level 9) Jeep Trackhawk
#16 (Level 8) MG Metro 6R4

#15 (Level 8) #37 RJ Anderson Pro 2 Truck
#14 (Level 7) Mercedes-Benz GT4Door '18
#13 (Level 8) Lambo Murcielago SV
#12 (Level 8) Nissan GT-R R35 '17
#11 (Level 7) Ford Bronco

#10 (Level 7) Jeep Trailcat
#9 (Level 10) Lambo Centenario
#8 (Level 10) Mercedes-AMG One
#7 (Level 9) GYMHANA10 Hoonigan Focus
#6 (Level 10) Funco F9

#5 (Level 9) #14 Ford Fiesta GRC
#4 (Level 9) Hoonigan Escort Group A
#3 (Level 9) #34 VW Beetle GRC
#2 (Level 10) Hoonigan RS200
#1 (Level 10) #25 Ford Bronco
BEST

First guide, so please bear with me.

This is the most important tip in my opinion:

DO NOT trust the ranking system, unlike FH4, I think the ranking system in this mode needs a revision. I lost many head-to-heads with 6-7 cars against 3-4 cars.

Instead, when you get a 5-7 car, try it out first, specially offroad, if you can get over 120 mph, you have good acceleration and like the handling, keep it!

I highly recommend a rank 6 car called Exomotive Exocet Off-Road, slightly slower than high ranking cars, but with better handling and great acceleration.

Even though I won 2 races after getting this car, I decided to keep it, on the final race I was leading most of the way against a 9 and a 10, however, there was a mountain on the way and I made the bad choice of trying to go over it, I dropped to third place but luckily there was a house in the middle of the way, we all crashed but my Exomotive can turn so easily and had better acceleration, I won by a hair.

This is more of an add-on to what other people have recommended for this achievement. The main thing to keep in mind is that the final destination for both the entire game and the head-to-head challenges will be the opposite side to your location. So in the final stages of the game I used this to my advantage and baited people into challenging me. I would stop my car at the edge of the playable zone, pointed towards the center hoping that people would come up to me and challenge me, thinking I was AFK.......and it worked 4 times. The challengers would always come up to me very slowly, always pointing in the wrong direction. By the time they are even turned around you are long gone. Once the head-to-head challenges are disabled, check the location of the final zone on the whole map, then point yourself at the opposite side and with around 5 seconds to go start accelerating. This will give you a jump on most of the other players. Even with a reasonable car it is definitely doable (I had the Hoonigan Ford Focus).

If you are not interested in this game mode but want this achievement like me, here are some tips:
1. Head-to-head match is not needed, you can just concentrate on finding car drops, and drive away from other players.
2. Find a car with good handling and off-road speed, there is a link in the top guide. I feel that a high-tier car is not a must, 5-7 is enough, I won with a tier 5 off-road car.
3. Here comes the most important. If you are in the final circle, you need to find/guess where the most other players are (there are usually some players gathering together and waiting for start), then drive away from them as far as you can and drive close to the edge of the circle. Start to drive before the counter turns to 0. I feel the final goal usually spawns close to the player who is the furthest away from the other group of players.

I joined the final race and got 2nd place several times, but I lost over half of the races without seeing the 1st player and was over 1km away from the destination. At that time I was one of the players gathering together and waiting for the start, and I never saw the winner's name in the group. So I tried the method above and won the game at once. Hope this can help someone get this achievement.

This achievement is more difficult to unlock after two years
1.If you are outside the ring or somewhere near the next circle,the head to head destination always point at the next location of the ring
2.In the final ring, the final destination is depend on how many player points at which direction,BE NOTICE THAT THE LOWER RANK YOUR CAR THE MORE POSIBILITY THE RING COMEING TO YOUR DIRECTION
3.I just unlocked this stupid achievement cost me 9 hours of suffering,it's such a pan in the ass when you hit trees and walls,kinda want to throw my controller

Just snagged this achievement 10 minutes ago, so yes it's possible for the people that don't believe, like I did. I highly recommend reading what the other guides say, but I'll throw my two cents in as well.

Try and grab a vehicle asap, then stick to the outside of the ring. If you don't move, you won't show up on the map. I avoided as many races as I could this way, unless someone came to challenge me.

If a head to head is started on the edges of a circle, the only area the finish line can be is close to the center or at least in that direction, meaning position your car facing towards the center of the circle, so if someone comes to challenge you, you already have a big headstart since they'll have to turn around. The game in which I won, I had 3 people come to challenge me and I won by having a headstart on 2 of them, the other one I got lucky being in a level 3 car versus a level 7 because the guy flipped 100yds from the finish line and I took the victory. Which brings me to my next piece of advice.

DO NOT QUIT.
I know the feeling MANY times of having your opponent be so far ahead of you you don't feel like you can catch up, but there are so many obstacles in the world that it is completely possible your opponent can crash and you can catch up to them.

If you read the other guides and don't fully understand what they mean by the final circle like I didn't, the way it works is that the final showdown is a longer drive to a destination actually outside of the circle, and if you were watching the map/elim zone as it shrunk, the final race will end in that direction. So if you line yourself up on the edge of the circle where the biggest area shrunk from, you'll already give yourself a slight headstart. I didn't fully understand what the other guides meant by this, assuming the final race was inside the last circle. Because of this, I started the last race backwards and in dead last behind two other drivers. However, the car the furthest ahead crashed or slowed down for some reason(I was that far behind I didn't even see what happened) and by the time they caught back up to speed, I was inches ahead of them and crossed the finish line to take the victory.

Regardless of how your experience goes, just keep trying. That's the best advice I can give.