The AD5X prints four colors through its built-in Intelligent Filament System, and none of that works right unless the slicer profile matches the printer exactly. Flashforge builds and maintains Orca-Flashforge, its own version of Orca Slicer with the printer profiles already included, and that’s the simplest way to get a correct starting point instead of building one by hand in a generic Orca or Cura install.
When you add the printer, search specifically for AD5X in the printer list. It sits in the same product family as the Adventurer 5M and looks similar at a glance, but Flashforge’s documentation is clear that the two use different mainboards and nozzle interfaces. The 5M profile will not produce reliable results on an AD5X even though it looks close enough to work. Picking the wrong profile is a common source of failed first layers and IFS confusion that has nothing to do with the hardware itself.
Once the AD5X profile is loaded, open the multi-material or filament panel and assign each of the four IFS slots to the material and color you actually loaded, in the same order they sit in the unit. The slicer uses that mapping to plan color changes, so a mismatch here sends the print to the wrong slot even if the printer hardware is working exactly as it should.
Color changes also need a flush or purge amount set between transitions, since the single nozzle has to clear the old color before the new one prints cleanly. The default flush values in the AD5X profile are a reasonable starting point. Bump them up slightly if you see faint streaks of the previous color at the start of a new region.
For speed, the AD5X profile tops out at 300 mm/s for printing and 600 mm/s for travel moves. Multicolor prints add extra travel and retraction at every color boundary, so dropping print speed below that ceiling on your first few multicolor jobs gives the IFS more margin while you confirm the color mapping and purge settings are doing what you expect.
Getting the printer profile and IFS mapping right is only half of a good slicer setup. Once the four slots and purge amounts match reality, the usual print settings still apply, including how much infill a model actually needs. If a color change comes out wrong, check that the IFS channels are loaded and mapped correctly before adjusting the slicer’s flush settings.