Call of Duty Vanguard ADS kills challenge explained

Call of Duty Vanguard ADS kills for challenges is one of those synonyms that might be a little tricky for casual players, or players who just don't care much about the technical parts of COD Vanguard's multiplayer. That's why we'll cover the question below: what are ADS kills, how do you get ADS kills, and what do they do when it comes to challenges and gameplay overall?

Call of Duty Vanguard ADS kills and challenges explained

Call of Duty Vanguard multiplayer — (Image credit: Activision)

ADS kills in COD Vanguard challenges and multiplayer are very simple: ADS is an acronym for "aim down sights", so an ADS kill is any kill you get while holding LT/L2/RMB (depending on your platform), looking down your sights rather that firing from the hip.

Clearly some weapons are more suited to ADS kills than others. For example, shotguns and SMGs are fired much more from the hip, while the vast majority of kills with sniper rifles and marksman rifles are clearly obtained while using the scope or iron sights.

There's a variety of challenges in Call of Duty Vanguard that depend on ADS kills, whether for camo challenges or similar. For these, it's exactly what they say on the tin - get kills while aiming down the sights of the weapon.

Depending on which weapon it might be worth altering the attachments to make it more easily accomplished - ADS speed is a key aspect here, as it increases the rapidity at which the gun is raised to your eye. Not a big deal with something like shotguns or certain sniper builds, but in assault rifles and similar it makes a huge difference in combat. Attachments will mark out increased ADS speed along with any other bonuses, and some can even penalise ADS speed in favour of boosting other aspects and stats. It's an important element to keep in mind when modifying your guns in the Gunsmith loadouts of the menu, especially in a game like Call of Duty Vanguard where reaction speed is so very, very important.

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.