How to change difficulty in Forza Motorsport

Something that sets Forza Motorsport apart from all other track racers is the Drivatars. Replacing the usual AI, the Drivatars are your on-track rivals. These Drivatars can be as easy or as difficult to race against as you want, but how can you change the difficulty in Forza Motorsport?

Forza Motorsport difficulty settings

Forza Motorsport’s difficulty comes in two forms. The primary difficulty setting controls the Drivatars out on track, with the easier difficulty essentially slowing down the AI. Higher difficulties both speed up the Drivatars and make them more aggressive when overtaking or defending.

Drivatar difficulty is controlled by a slider. Ranging from 1-8, this slider is directly linked to the Drivatars’ speed during a race. One is the slowest setting, while eight is the highest. Each level increases the Drivatar’s precision during braking, cornering, and accelerating.

The second difficulty setting controls the race rules. There are three rule sets in Forza Motorsport: Club Rules, Sport Rules, and Expert Rules.

Club Rules are the easiest, with damage limited to cosmetic, limited on-track penalties for track limits and collisions, and rewind enabled in case you make any mistakes.

Sport Rules are medium difficulty, with moderate penalties, rewind still enabled, but now fuel usage and tyre wear are simulated. Expert Rules is the game’s hard mode, with full penalties applied, rewind disabled, and fully simulated damage.

There is one final difficulty setting in Forza Motorsport, but we’ll come back to that later. For now, let’s take a look at how to change the difficulty in Forza Motorsport.

How to change difficulty in Forza Motorsport

Many racing games hide their difficulty settings behind multiple menu screens. Thankfully, Forza Motorsport isn’t one of them.

When you first start the Builder’s Cup Career Mode, you are invited to set your initial difficulty. Here you can choose both the Drivatar difficulty and the initial rule set. But once you leave this screen, how can you change the difficulty again?

Forza Motorsport allows you to change the difficulty before every session in Career Mode. Whether it’s a practice session around Watkins Glen or a race around Silverstone, every pre-session menu has an option to access the difficulty settings.

This means you could set the difficulty low for practice, while you learn the track layout or try out a new car upgrade, before raising it again for the actual race. You may be wondering why raise the difficulty again before a race. Well, difficulty in Forza Motorsport is linked to Credit bonuses awarded for each session. Here’s where the final difficulty setting comes into play.

Make your own difficulty

The final difficulty setting in Forza Motorsport is your starting race position. The game allows you to select every position from first to last, with each position further down the grid also offering race bonuses.

Bonuses are offered for all three difficulty settings. Drivatar difficulty can award players with up to 50% extra Credits if set to the highest setting. Rule sets also increase your bonus, with Club Rules offering 2%, Sport Rules add a 6% bonus, and Expert Rules reward a 10% bonus.

Changing your start position on the grid also increases your race bonus, but only if you finish on the podium. You should bear this in mind when selecting your start position, as choosing to start from the back on a three-lap race could end up costing you your bonus as well as those valuable championship points.

That’s everything you need to know about Forza Motorsport's difficulty settings. Choosing the right Drivatar difficulty, combined with the best rule set and starting position, will see you race to success in Forza Motorsport and earn those juicy bonuses.

Forza Motorsport guides

So you now know how to change the difficulty in Forza Motorsport, but what about the rest of the game?

Looking for a good wheel to go racing in Forza Motorsport? Check out our best wheel for Forza Motorsport guide.

Struggling to choose between the three starter cars? We help you out with our best starter car guide.

Need some help with either controller or wheel settings? We have guides for both.

Want to level up your car quickly? Find out how in our how to earn XP fast guide.

Want to compare yourself to your rivals? Turn on the leaderboard using this guide.

Looking for the best graphics settings on PC? We have a guide to get the best performance out of your PC.

Finally, if you’re still undecided on whether to buy Forza Motorsport, our full Forza Motorsport review should help you make your decision.