The salt bath vanadinizing (TD process) has been widely applied in the surface modification on die steels. Unfortunately, such method has some disadvantages, for example, the crucible is easy to etch and the salt to segregate. In order to avoid these drawbacks, in this study, the VC coating was prepared on the surface of Cr12MoV by pack cementation method, which is another type of TD processes. The microstructure, elemental distribution and the phase constitution of the as-obtained coating were characterized by means of SEM, EDS and XRD. Furthermore, the bonding force of the coating/substrate interface and the wear resistance as well as the corrosion behavior were investigated as well. The results show that VC coating on Cr12MoV deposited at 1000 ℃ for 6 h is about 15 μm, which is much thicker than the coating prepared by salt bath vanadinizing under the same experimental condition. The as-received coating is continuous, homogenous and compact. Moreover, metallurgical bonding is formed between the substrate and coating. There is an apparent transition zone existed between the coating and substrate, meanwhile, the interface of coating/substrate is less obvious as compared with the VC coating produced by salt bath vanadinizing. The XRD patterns show that the main phase in as-prepared coating is VCx (x = 0. 83 ~ 0. 88) with a small amount of α-Fe. In addition, the as-obtained coating exhibit a strong (111) or (220) preferred orientation. In comparison, the VC coating prepared by salt bath vanadinizing usually show a strong (111) or (200) preferred orientation. The scratch test indicates that the bonding force of the coating/substrate is approximately 65 N. The micro-hardness of the coated surface is about 1950 HV0.3, which is 6 times higher than that of the bare substrate. The increased wear resistance and enhanced corrosion resistance is obtained for the coated sample after such surface modification.