The work aims to deposit VN based hard coatings under the gas mixture of N2 and C2H2 to investigate micro-structure and mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties and provide scientific data for industrial application. VN, VCN and VCN/VN multi-layer coatings were deposited on high speed steel substrates by cathodic arc ion plating assisted by an anode layer ion source to study the effects of the modulation period on microstructure and mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties of multi-layer coatings. The addition of C atom and variation of the modulation period both had obvious influence on the crystal structure, surface morphology, hardness, friction coefficient and corrosion resistance of VCN/VN coatings. With the increase of the modulation period of VCN/VN, the diffraction peak of VN (200) was gradually weakened and broadened, and the diffraction peaks of VN (111) disappeared. The number of the large size particles on the coating surface decreased while the number of the small size particles increased. The microhardness of VN coatings, VCN coatings and VN/VCN multi-layer coating was 1890HV, 2290HV and 2350HV. For alumina ball, the friction coefficient of VN coating was about 0.74, and the friction coefficients of VCN coating and VCN/VN coatings obviously decreased, about 0.60. The wear mechanism was mainly grinding wear (VN coating) and gradually transformed to adhesive wear (S5) and the grinding wear played the minor role. With addition of C atom and variation of the modulation period of VCN/VN multi-layer coating, the corrosion resistance of coating obviously increased and the corrosion potential increased from ?0.26 V of VN to ?0.14 V of VCN while the corrosion current density decreased from 1.63′10?5 A/cm2 to 2.7′10?5 A/cm2. Cathodic arc ion plating assisted by an anode layer ion source can be used to deposit VN based hard coating. The addition of C atom can effectively increase the hardness of VN coating and reduce the friction coefficient, thus strengthening the corrosion resistance. The thickness modulation of VCN/VN multi-layer coating can effectively improve the hardness and wear and corrosion resistance of VN based coating.