Inconel 718 has been widely used in aerospace, nuclear and marine industries due to excellent hightemperature mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. In recent years, laser directed energy deposition (DED) become a competitive method in the fabrication of Inconel 718 coatings. Compared with other surface coating processes, laser DED has the advantage of extremely ne-grained structures, strong metallurgical bonding, and high density. However, the hardness and wear resistance of Inconel 718 coatings still need to be improved. To further improve these properties, ceramic reinforced Inconel 718 coatings have been investigated. Compared with ex-situ ceramic reinforcements, the in-situ synthesized reinforcements have the advantage of re ned ceramic particle size, uniform distribution, and low thermal stress. B 4 C was a preferable additive material to fabricate in-situ synthesized multi-component ceramic reinforced Inconel 718 coatings. The addition of B 4 C could form a large number of borides and carbides as ceramic reinforcements. In addition, the in-situ reactions between Inconel 718 and B 4 C could release heat during the fabrication, thereby promoting the melting of material powders. However, there are currently no investigations on the in-situ synthesis mechanisms, microstructure, and mechanical properties of laser DED fabricated B 4 C-Inconel 718 coatings. In this study, the effects of B 4 C on the properties of Inconel 718 coatings were investigated. Results show that Ni 3 B, NbB, and Cr 3 C 2 phases were formed. With the addition of B 4 C, the size of Laves phase was re ned and the porosity was decreased. The hardness and wear resistance of B 4 C reinforced coatings were improved by about 34% and 28%, respectively.