Intro

The Career Any% category is obviously the longest run, meaning it's also the most necessary to optimise. The most important element of any long speedrun is the prep, so here are some ideas on how to set a solid time in Career Any%.

(I'm new to Forza Motorsport 2, so cut me some slack for my limited knowledge. Thanks.)

The End Goal

The end goal of Career Any% is completing the Sebring Endurance event, which is the last in the list of endurance events. In essence, you want to be able to unlock it as fast as possible, then finish it as fast as possible.

To reach the Sebring Endurance event, you first need to reach level 20 to unlock the Endurance Series. But, to actually enter the event, you need to be level 50.

To reach level 50, you need to have earned 7,000,000 credits. So, until this point, the run is about optimising your earnings/experience.

Tips for the Run

Below are some things to keep in mind when routing the run.

Credits & XP

Since Forza Motorsport 2 links your credits (CR) to your experience level, you want to be earning as many credits as possible per event. To do this, you want to:

• Win every event on your first go
• Do the highest level/most recently unlocked events (bigger rewards)
• Play with the highest difficulty settings (bigger payout multiplier)
• Avoid damage, as this will cost you (at least) a few hundred credits per event

Professional & Endurance Series

The Professional Series and Endurance Series are the best for credits. Although they are lengthier, even the lowest tiers pay out solid money.

For example, the D-Class World Trophy features 80,000 CR (120,000 CR with max difficulty and no damage) of earnings across its five events. The first endurance event, the 45-lap Tsukaba Class D Grand Prix, pays out a base amount of 100,000 CR (up to 180,000 CR) for a roughly 45-minute race.

Therefore, the events within these top series are crucial to speeding up your progress, as they pay several thousand per lap completed and multiply much better than lower events and series.

Event Completion Bonuses

Don't forget, you also get large bonuses for finishing a full event list with golds. In the case of the endurance races (which only have one event), you can get substantial bonuses on top of the larger payouts for winning.

These do not count towards your driver level, but can still be very useful for buying cars and upgrades to compete in the most profitable series and events.

Car Rarity Bonuses

You'll also earn an additional amount of credits per event/race based on the rarity stat of your car. This isn't really something you can influence too much, as upgrading the car's rarity stat will eat up valuable time, but it's still a stat and quirk to keep in mind.

Unlike completion bonuses, these do actually count towards your level. It's a small, impactful element of the run that will probably make up at least 100-200k CR of your level progression.

Car Upgrades

Naturally, you want to spend as little time in the menu as possible. However, to always win — especially on the hardest difficulty settings — you need well-configured cars that outclass your opponents.

Because of this, you'll want to make sure you can pick the best upgrades. General levelling up and car manufacturer levels bring in freebies, as well as car and part discounts. Make sure to use this to your advantage, but also keep in mind you need to earn a hefty 7,000,000 CR across the run. This means you safely blow a good chunk of cash to ensure you beat opponents in lower series.

Also, absolutely make sure you upgrade your car for Sebring Endurance event to the max!

Skip ALL Cutscenes & Menus

Skip everything you can, especially car unlocks and their cutscenes, and post-race text prompts. You always want to be doing something worthwhile, so only stop to read or check something when you really need to know what it is saying/showing.

HDD Loading

If you play via disc, make sure to install FM2 to your X360's hard drive, as it is much faster than loading from the optical drive. USB storage is also a solid option, but since it's limited to USB 2.0, the internal HDD is much faster at around 150MB/s of top transfer speed.

This is very important as there will be a lot of loading, at least 15+ seconds per event you enter and complete. That adds up across a run.

To install the game to your X360's HDD:

• Put the disc in, then close back out to the dashboard
• Hover over the game and press 'X' on your controller
• In the game menu that it has opened, select 'Install'
• The game will now take around five minutes to install to your HDD

Conclusion

As of this guide, no one has actually completed a Career Any% run. I suspect it would take at least 5–6 hours minimum, maybe far more on a first attempt. Either way, if someone submits, then they are the WR holder by default.

Best of luck, happy running!