Forza Horizon 6 Guide: Where to Find the Sotoyama Region Treasure Hunt Chest
Winter has arrived in the Horizon Meets series of Forza Horizon 6, bringing a fresh batch of weekly Festival Playlist challenges across Playground Games' open-world recreation of Japan. If you want to bank fast seasonal progress toward this week's exclusive reward cars without grinding through full championships, tracking down the Sotoyama region Treasure Hunt is the easiest shortcut on the map. Here is the exact route from Soni Circuit, every map landmark you need, and where to smash the chest on the mountain lake shore.
How the Sotoyama Region Treasure Hunt Works in Forza Horizon 6
Unlike older entries in the franchise that forced you to complete a specific car challenge or PR Stunt before revealing a red search circle, Forza Horizon 6 streamlines its weekly Treasure Hunts around visual exploration. When you open the Horizon Meets Winter tab in the Festival Playlist, you are immediately given a photo clue pointing to the Sotoyama region, the snow-covered mountain territory at the far northern edge of the map.
There is no preliminary riddle to unlock before the chest spawns in the world. You can drive straight to the shoreline in any vehicle from your garage and smash the crate on sight. If you are jumping into the festival through Microsoft's subscription service on console or PC, you can also check how each tier stacks up in our 2026 comparison guide between Xbox Game Pass, PS Plus, and Switch Online.
Map Route: How to Reach the East Sotoyama Mountain Lake From Soni Circuit
Even though Sotoyama's alpine roads are blanketed in deep snow during the Winter season, this week's chest sits right next to one of the largest natural landmarks in the northern highlands: the wide mountain lake in eastern Sotoyama.
Follow these three steps on your world map to pinpoint the exact location in seconds:
- Start at Soni Circuit in Takashiro: Open your map and locate the blue road racing icon for Soni Circuit in the northeastern corner of the Takashiro region, just south of the Sotoyama border.
- Pan straight north into east Sotoyama: Move your map cursor north from Soni Circuit until you spot the large alpine lake nestled in the eastern mountains of Sotoyama. Its southern edge is bordered by an orange dirt trail, a blue Player House icon (Hakusan Mountain Lodge), and a three-star Danger Sign on the western bank.
- Set a waypoint on the eastern shoreline: Place your marker along the beach that runs down the right-hand side of the lake from northeast to southwest, just northeast of the Player House icon and the bend in the dirt road.
Exact Sotoyama Treasure Chest Spot and Winter Season Rewards
Fast travel to the nearby Player House or follow the winding mountain trail up from Takashiro, then turn off the dirt road toward the water on the eastern side of the lake. The shoreline opens up into a wide, flat snow beach where the crate is easy to spot from a distance.
As shown in the in-game screenshot above, the purple and green Horizon Festival chest sits right out in the snow among the scattered black rocks just a few yards from the frozen waterline. Drive straight through the crate to smash it and complete the weekly objective on the spot.
Smashing the Sotoyama region Treasure Hunt chest immediately grants three rewards:
- 100,000 Credits added directly to your balance for buying or tuning winter builds.
- 5,000 XP toward your next driver level and Wheelspin reward.
- 3 Season Progress points for the Horizon Meets Winter Festival Playlist, helping you unlock the 20-point and 40-point seasonal reward cars.
Bonus While You Are in Sotoyama: Claim the Free 1974 Lancia Stratos Treasure Car
Since you are already trekking through the northern peaks, it is worth taking a two-minute detour to grab Sotoyama's permanent Treasure Car if you have not claimed it yet. Unlike the 15 Barn Finds in Forza Horizon 6, which require you to raise your Discover Japan stamp rank and wait for restoration timers, the nine regional Treasure Cars can be collected at any time and driven away immediately for free.
Sotoyama's hidden prize is the classic 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale. From the mountain lake, follow the main ravine-like road that cuts through the snow pass toward the center of the region and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. You will find the abandoned Lancia parked behind a wooden lodge along the snowy path. And if hunting down classic rally icons makes you nostalgic for earlier entries in the series, check out the native 4K 60 FPS PC port of Forza Horizon 2 built with Project Azimuth. Do not forget to knock out this week's Photo Challenge from the Festival Playlist menu while you are out in the snow to pick up extra points.
My Take
I really appreciate how Playground Games reworked Treasure Hunts in Forza Horizon 6 so we no longer have to buy and upgrade a throwaway car just to trigger a red circle on the map. Reading the terrain directly from a photo clue fits the Japanese map much better, especially up in the snowy peaks of Sotoyama. Between the nearby Player House fast travel point and the wide open shoreline north of Soni Circuit, this is easily one of the fastest 100,000-credit payouts and three-point boosts in the entire Horizon Meets series.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles 'Grimtag' Ronchain is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
