The Discount Sign Collection Quest

Before we continue it should be acknowledged that you have now reached a major milestone in the saga that is the story and your progress through it in Forza: Horizon...

At this point you have reached the point in the game where you have been impressed by the various drivers and cars out there, you made your own way to the Festival, and you completed the process of unlocking and obtaining the first (Yellow) Wristband.

You have completed all of the Tutorial Phase of the game, and you have thus reached the point in the game where it is necessary for you to make a significant decision: Whether or not you should seek out all of the Discount Signs to smash them, thereby completing that collection and at the same time obtaining an incredibly valuable reward in the form of a 100% discount on ALL parts for upgrading -- and downgrading -- your cars for the races.

Do you want to do this? Our answer is "Hell Yes I want to do that!" But we are looking for your answer here, and since this means in all likelihood several hours of committed work, this is a decision that you need to make yourself.

To help you along in making it we are about to share all of the concerns that go with it, but before we do that it is important that you understand that we did not even consider proceeding to the main events and the other races before we did this largely due to the fact that, once we added up all of the costs that come with modifying cars for the races ahead we realized that the two hours and so many minutes that we traded in time to complete the collection ended up saving (literally) millions of dollars in parts and mechanic fees...

There are pro's and con's to be considered...

(1) The Cons:

This process is time consuming and requires significant effort and attention on your part. It should take slightly less than 2 hours total depending on how you drive.

There are a total of 100 Discount Signs that you must hunt down and smash, they are situated by the side of the roads and some are easier to spot than others. Each one you collect (smash) adds 1% to your overall discount on upgrades.

Taking the time to complete the Discount Sign Collection means you are not racing through career mode.

(2) The Pros:

Having the full Discount for your driver means you can upgrade (and WAY more important you can DOWNGRADE) cars without having to spend a single precious credit, which means you can use all of your money for what you want most to use it for, and that is buying cars!

Taking the time to complete the full collection allows you to get a basic familiarity with pretty much all of the roads in the game, and that can only be a good thing.

There are other Achievements that relate to the process by which you will complete the Discount Sign Collection and thus you will be killing multiple birds (or nearly so) with that one stone.

Finally there is the plethora of benefits in terms of rewards... If you run all of the roads in addition to revealing all of the signs -- and smashing them for the 100% discount -- you will also obtain the following very real, very worthwhile benefits:

(1) Between $250,000 and $300,000 in cash rewards.

(2) At least 5 of the Barn Finds (which means five more cars in your garage)

(3) All Speed Traps Triggered

(4) All Speed Zones Triggered

(5) All Outposts Discovered

(6) Popularity of at least 200 but probably in the mid-190's

(7) Sponsor Challenges Ranked Up (that is where the money comes from)

You will also have unlocked the following Achievements:

• Kudos to You (10G) You've completed 5 Sponsorship Challenges.

• Lawbreaker (10G) You blasted past 5 speed traps and 5 speed zones.

• One to Watch (10G) You're the 200th most popular driver at Horizon.

• Sellout (20G) 20 Sponsorship Challenges? Now you're popular and rich!

Sponsor Challenges -- you should be able to Rank up these challenges without breaking a sweat as you go about revealing the map and smashing the Discount Signs:

• Adidas Popularity - Rank 3

• Oakley Air Challenge - Rank 2

• Rockstar Ultimate Skills Challenge - Rank 2

• Bondurant Near-Miss Challenge - Rank 8

• G-Shock Drift Challenge - Rank 6

• Gopro Speed Challenge - Rank 3

• Edifice Daredevil Challenge - Rank 4

• Krash Max Sideswipe Challenge - Rank 2

Each Rank Level you hit has a cash payment associated with it that averages as follows:

• Rank 1 - $5K

• Rank 2 - $10K

• Rank 3 - $15K

• Rank 4 - $20K

• Rank 5 - $25K

• Rank 6 - $30K

• Rank 7 - $35K

• Rank 8 - $40K

And so on...

So basically you get all of the above plus a nice bank to buy the cars you want AND you get free upgrades/downgrades which means you will not have to spend the money you get for cars on configuring them for the races, and that mates is clearly win-win.

Deciding to take this route is not just a great idea - it practically a cheat that gives you an incredible edge in the game early on.

Scoring the 100% Discount is far more important than you might think and worth the effort you have to put in to do it!

Completing the Discount Sign Collection

The assumption that we are making here is that you have opted to go for the full discount and thus you are now working on driving through all the roads on the map to collect all of the Discount Signs. If not, you can skip to the next section where the guide continues, but really you should seriously consider doing this collection first... Just saying.

To help you in managing the full 100% Discount you will want to observe the following advice and Tips:

(1) Going for the full enchilada early on is a good idea because you know which roads you have been on already (and that is not too many) so you can clear them first and then use the map to make your way through the remaining signs.

(2) You may find it easier to simply drive every single road WITHOUT hitting a single Discount Sign so that the automapping feature adds the sign dot to the map, thus revealing all 100 locations to you before you start and, allowing you to then go after them in an ordered and convenient manner.

(3) Remember, Red Dots are signs you have NOT smashed, Gray Dots are signs you have. Since the Gray Dots can be harder to spot on the map you may find it a lot easier to count up the 100 Red Dots and then begin converting them to Gray Dots...

(4) Paying for the Treasure Map is NOT required to locate and find or smash all of the signs. It makes it easier, sure, but it is not cheap and besides you really do not need it.

(5) The rumors that you heard saying there really are not 100 Discount Signs in the game are not true. The rumors you heard that you can only get all 100 Discount Signs by buying the Treasure Map are NOT true.

(6) Use the Map Filter to make your life easier -- once you have run all of the roads you can easily verify that you have revealed all of the Signs by filtering out the clutter of other objects/items using the map filter in order to tally your Signs and then begin smashing them.

(7) Hover for the Numbah! As you reveal the signs you can hover your pointer over them to reveal their Sign Number - a factoid that makes the tally process a lot easier!

(8) It is helpful for you to make a ticklist on a piece of paper numbered 1 to 100 so you can know you have all of the signs revealed... Or you can use the ticklist conveniently located below (with the road notations) instead by printing it out on your printer!

Final Comments

While it may seem to have been a long road (no pun intended here) at the end of it you now have the full and complete 100% discount for all parts and fees that come with adjusting a car for use in a race - for both upgrading and downgrading the cars.

When you smash the10th Discount Sign in the set of 100 you unlock the Achievement "Bargain Shopper" (10G) You bagged yourself a nice discount. When you smash the final 100th sign you will also unlock the Achievement "Black Friday" (20G) Never pay for an upgrade again! and, assuming you remembered to drive on each of the on and off ramps on the highway, you should also unlock the Achievement "Road Trip" (25G) You've driven along every road in the entire game.

Those are of course in addition to the Achievements previously noted above.