Steel matrix composites (SMCs) reinforced with WC particles were fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM) by employing vari-ous laser scan strategies. A detailed relationship between the SLM strategies, defect formation, microstructural evolution, and mechanical prop-erties of SMCs was established. The laser scan strategies can be manipulated to deliberately alter the thermal history of SMC during SLM pro-cessing. Particularly, the involved thermal cycling, which encompassed multiple layers, strongly affected the processing quality of SMCs. S-shaped scan sequence combined with interlayer offset and orthogonal stagger mode can effectively eliminate the metallurgical defects and re-tained austenite within the produced SMCs. However, due to large thermal stress, microcracks that were perpendicular to the building direction formed within the SMCs. By employing the checkerboard filling (CBF) hatching mode, the thermal stress arising during SLM can be signific-antly reduced, thus preventing the evolution of interlayer microcracks. The compressive properties of fabricated SMCs can be tailored at a high compressive strength (～3031.5 MPa) and fracture strain (～24.8％) by adopting the CBF hatching mode combined with the optimized scan se-quence and stagger mode. This study demonstrates great feasibility in tuning the mechanical properties of SLM-fabricated SMCs without vary-ing the set energy input, e.g., laser power and scanning speed.