You probably know Microsoft as the company behind Office and all the apps/programs contained within it, but the tech giant is also known for a variety of games across various platforms, including the Forza racing simulation series. While this franchise is arguably best-known for its titles for Xbox and Windows PC, mobile gamers can also enjoy a taste of the Forza experience, thanks to the brand new iOS and Android title, Forza Street.
This is a street racing game that allows you to collect dozens of cars, upgrade them with Tuning Kits, and compete in “cinematic” street races in various modes, including an “immersive” Story Mode that comes with multiple paths to victory. The game also promises “streamlined” controls that focus on timing, as it does most of the tough stuff that could distract you from hitting the brakes, gas, and boost at the optimal time.
This title is a lot like your average sophisticated street racing game for mobile, in the sense that there is a lot of ground to cover. But we’re going to do things as we often do, starting out with the very fundamentals of the game in our first of multiple Forza Street strategy guides. In this beginner-level guide, we shall focus mostly on Story Mode while also offering some tips that could help you manage your car collection and unlock more vehicles as you keep leveling up and winning more races. So let’s get started with our Forza Street beginner’s guide, as we present you a bunch of tips, cheats and strategies for winning in Story mode and managing your car collection!
1. Learning The Basics Of Forza Street
Like many other high-end racing games, Forza Street combines high-end graphics with tons of features and game modes and a very easy-to-learn driving system where the AI does most of the work for you. In here, your responsibilities are getting off to a perfect start (or as close to a perfect start as possible) and braking and hitting on the gas at just the right time. The AI will handle all shifting and turning duties, so you don’t need to worry about manipulating a virtual stick or steering wheel.
When it comes to hitting on the brakes or stepping on the gas, the game does not include a virtual brake pedal — what you will need to do is to release your finger from the gas pedal at the moment your car is entirely within the yellow zone and hit the gas pedal again once the car is fully within the red zone, and again, not a moment later.
There’s another button on the bottom left side of the screen, and that’s the Boost button — the game does not say it explicitly, but this is clearly a nitrous oxide boost that allows you to gain a temporary burst of speed. It is also important that you hit this button at the right time — it’s recommended that you wait until your Boost is full and the inner circle is white, and do so when you are not in the yellow zone or about to get there! If your Boost is active while you’re in the braking zone, you’re essentially wasting it.
As for getting off to a perfect start, you should keep a close eye on the timer and keep the sounds of your device on — this will allow you to time things in such a way that the needle is in the green area in the tachometer once the race officially starts. If it’s in the yellow area, you will start out slower than you normally should, but you will be notified that you got off to an “ok,” “good,” or “great” start, much like you see those words if you hit the brakes or the gas at a less than optimal, but not detrimental time.
What you want to avoid is getting off to an extremely slow start (i.e. one where the needle is very far to the left of the green zone on the tachometer) or hitting too hard on the gas and, as the game describes it, “cooking” your start by starting when the needle is in the red zone. This could leave you at a disadvantage against your opponent if you aren’t careful, and as we shall explain in a little bit, there are other consequences you may have to face if you’re too revved up for your own good.
2. Dozens Of Cars Of Different Types – Which Ones Should You Prioritize?
Once you’re done with the tutorial races, you will have a chance to choose your first car — at the moment, there are 67 different vehicles that are available to collect in Forza Street, divided into four classes (Super, Street, Sports, and Muscle) and further designated as Classic or Modern cars, depending on what year they first debuted.
Each of these cars has a Performance Indicator (PI) that tells you how well they rate compared to other vehicles — it’s this basic number that you would need to keep in mind first and foremost when choosing which cars to enter in the various events. As you’ll eventually learn once you’ve got a few races in you, each car will also be rated based on five different stats, or attributes — Acceleration, Braking, Handling, Launch, and Speed.
Upon starting out, you will have a choice of a few common cars with one-star ratings in terms of rarity and PI scores of an even 400. These are the lowest-rated of the low, and subsequent new car draws, which may come in the form of free cars or those you purchase with cards or gold, will be just that — the game uses a gacha system in which you will be rewarded with a random car through all the methods we mentioned above.
Simply tap-and-hold on the “Hold” button, then release your finger once you’re ready to claim the car — once again it’s going to be a random ride, but one that’s just as what comes as advertised. For example, Free Car draws guarantee you a one- or two-star ride, while Premium Car draws are sure to give you a two- or three-star vehicle.
In the game’s Story Mode, you will notice at some point that certain races come with restrictions, which means you need to have a car of a certain class in order to compete. That’s why we advise you to always aim for a car collection where you have at least one or two good cars per class that are regularly upgraded as you go along. Don’t go overboard and upgrade each and every car you collect — just stick to the best ones you’ve got at any given moment, and again, make sure you aren’t ignoring one class for the other.
The gacha system, when in play, makes it impossible to choose the class or the exact vehicle, so there is an element of luck that is involved. However, you will, at some point, have a well-represented collection across the board, especially once you start winning chips for a certain car class that can, in turn, be used to buy Super, Street, Sports, and/or Muscle Cards that allow you to get vehicles specifically from those classes.
3. About Collection Level And Duplicate Cars
Now this still ties in to the previous tip, but due to the importance of both of these aspects of Forza Street, we’ve decided to discuss them both in a separate one. Collection Level is yet another reason why you should keep collecting cars, even if you don’t upgrade all of them as we suggested in the earlier tip.
This is essentially your player level in the game, and as you keep leveling up, your maximum energy will increase, thus allowing you to compete in more races without having to wait! You will also get free credits, which is the game’s common currency, new cards (the Premium Card, for instance), and other rewards that could help you along the way.
One seeming drawback of most games that use a gacha system is the fact that you will always have a chance of drawing a duplicate. That also happens to be the case in this game, but if you get a duplicate of a car that you already have, that will increase its star meter, which would then bring you closer to increasing its star rating while also awarding you with some freebies such as credits, car chips, and tuning kits. It’s not as cool as getting a brand new car you haven’t unlocked yet, but we would say that it is a nice consolation for coming up with a duplicate in your last draw.
4. Story Mode Basics – Replay The Events, Choose Harder Difficulty For Bigger Rewards
We did promise that we are going to be focusing heavily on Story Mode in this beginner’s guide for Forza Street. This will be the first mode you will be introduced to, and it is highly recommended that you prioritize Story Mode early on, as this is a great way to earn yourself a ton of rewards, including credits, gold, Challenge Cards, and more!
In an attempt to get you started on the right foot, the game will make the first couple of events, which are like chapters within the various episodes/parts in this mode, very easy to complete. However, once you beat the boss driver Omar in the second event in part 1 of episode 1, you will notice that your completion rate only shows as 80 percent. And once you complete the third event for the first time, completion rate will show as 57 percent. What is the reason behind this?
As the game will inform you, you will be able to replay races and events you have already completed, but there is a catch to this that’s related to the question we asked in the last paragraph. Replaying previously completed stages in other games is usually encouraged if you’re trying to grind for resources. In this game, however, replaying an event is pretty much mandatory if you want to get 100 percent completion all the way in Story Mode. That’s because events typically have multiple paths you could take in order to get to the boss driver, and if you complete one of those paths, that leaves at least one opponent without a check mark in the event overview.
So if you’re trying to replay an event, you will need to start back from square one (even if you’ve already beaten the first driver) and make your way through the gauntlet again, meaning you don’t just have to defeat the driver you bypassed in the previous path(s), but also the boss. That’s the only way in which your completion percentage can go up — beating everyone in every applicable path in the event. (Take note, though, that the rewards you can earn for winning a race, such as Tuning Kits, Chips, and more, only apply for the first time you beat a certain driver.)
Another basic tip in Story Mode is to take note of your car’s PI and that of your opponent — if you’ve got a solid edge over the other driver and their car, it would be best to choose the highest available difficulty, or the hardest one that would still leave you with a fair chance of winning. You can adjust the difficulty on the upper middle part of the car select screen before a race — there are four levels ranging from easy to extremely difficult — and doing so will increase your opponent’s PI, as well as the Event Score you can earn.
For every 500 Event Score points you earn, you will get one Challenge Card at the end of the event. And if you beat all the drivers and claim all the prizes in an event, you will earn Domination Rewards, which essentially mean your basic rewards for event completion (gold, Premium Chips for buying Premium Cards without gold, and credits) will be multiplied — for instance, you may get twice as much gold and four times as many credits for “dominating” the event!
5. Take Good Care Of Your Cars When Racing In Story Mode
When playing events in Story Mode, you will be required to choose two cars, with your choices depending on the types of restrictions in place in the race path you’re taking. The idea here is that each car undergoes wear and tear as you take part in more races within the event, thus requiring you to have a good alternative option in case the main one breaks down. Once you reach Collection Level 15, you will be able to bring as many as three cars with you to an event, once again giving you the impetus to keep unlocking more of those sweet rides as you keep playing the game.
Eventually, if you use a car often enough during an event, especially if it’s a long one, it will break down on you. In order to get it back up and running, however, you will need to buy some Wrenches and use them, with the number of Wrenches needed to fix your car equivalent to the number of stars it has. For example, a three-star Ford GT would require three Wrenches to fix, regardless whether it’s broken down completely or not. But it’s not just the natural process of driving through various street tracks that could cause a car to stop running — improper braking procedures could take their toll as well!
Once you don’t hit the brakes at all while you’re in the yellow zone, your car will veer out of control, thus damaging tires and possibly causing the vehicle to careen into parked cars, walls, or other barriers. And that also applies to starting your car while the tachometer’s needle is in the red zone. Overcooking the engine, of course, results in a lot of stress on your car’s parts, and that too could be a shortcut to seeing your car go out of commission in the middle of an event.
To sum it all up, there’s a reason why events require multiple cars, but even if there is one, you still need to take good care of them in any case.
6. Use Challenge Cards To Get Tuning Kits
As mentioned above, Challenge Cards are rewarded upon event completion if you’ve hit at least 500 Event Points. These can be “scanned” in exchange for Tuning Kits, which is the resource you would need in order to improve a car’s stats and Performance Index. Simply tap on the store button on the upper left of your screen (the third button from the left), go to the Resources tab, and tap on Challenge in order to get the card scanned — doing so guarantees both Tuning Kits and credits, and you will need both when improving your cars.
In order to make use of your Tuning Kits tap on the cars button (second to left on the upper left corner of the screen), then tap on the car you wish to improve. Once there, you can choose the Tuning Kits (on the right of the screen) you wish to use; below, you will see how many credits are needed for the tuning process to proceed, and above the car’s image, you will see the effect of the Tuning Kits on your PI — in the image we provided, you will see PI improving from 417 to 420, or +3 from the previous rating. You can also hit the Autotune button on the lower right corner straight away, which would automatically make use of all applicable kits and allocate them toward the selected car. (You’ll still need to hit that button again to pay credits and complete the process!)
Going back to an earlier point, it is important that you save your Tuning Kits for your higher-rated, less common cars! Don’t spread yourself too thin by improving each and every car you have — most of them, especially the one-star vehicles, will mostly be there to help you improve your Collection Rating, but won’t necessarily be the kind of car you’ll want to take out to the races if you’re hoping to win them.
7. Collect Your Daily Rewards And Keep An Eye Out On Your Messages For Freebies
The fourth and final button — the rightmost one — on the upper left corner of your screen is where you’ll want to go if you want to check your Forza Street inbox, and you’ll want to go here on a regular basis if you want to collect your share of freebies.
For starters, the Daily Login tab allows you to redeem your daily login rewards, which would start with 2,500 credits on day 1 and 50 gold on day 2, and extend to other types of freebies such as Challenge Cards and specific cards for the four different car classes in the game. Even if you don’t have time to take part in an actual race, just spend a few seconds to a couple minutes logged in — that will be good enough to allow you to redeem your dailies!
In addition, the game offers some welcome rewards for first-time players, including gold, credits, and a three-star Ford GT, and you can redeem these by going to the Messages tab and tapping on the rewards on the right side of the message. And while we’ve yet to experience any latency issues or other technical difficulties, we’re quite confident that the good folks at Microsoft will do the same as other companies do and will have some consolation rewards in case these issues manifest at some point in the future!
While we’re still on the topic of freebies, you can also go to the in-game store and tap on Free Car once a day to redeem a new car to add to your collection — it won’t be anything special (1 or 2 stars guaranteed), but it will definitely help toward improving your Collection Level in the game.
And with that we wrap up our Forza Street beginner’s guide. Stay tuned, as we will be back soon with some advanced tips and strategies for the game!