Nowadays, the cutting tools are exposed to much more severe operating conditions, i.e. high cutting speed, high feed rate, aggressive mechanical and thermal loading. As a result, the existing hard films have frequently encountered wear-related failures. Such situation requires the new generation hard films concurrently displaying superior hardness, excellent adhesive strength and outstanding wear resistance. Previous studies have demonstrated some promising mechanical properties (hardness and adhesion strength) of TiAlZrCr/(Ti, Al, Zr, Cr)N quaternary gradient films as compared to those of the (Ti, Al)N binary and (Ti, Al, Zr)N or (Ti, Al, Cr)N trinary nitride films. However, the research on wear resistance of hard films under the conditions of high speed and dry friction has been seldom reported. In this work, using combined Ti-Al-Zr alloy and pure Cr targets, TiAlZrCr/(Ti, Al, Zr, Cr)N quaternary nitride films were deposited on high speed steel W18Cr4V substrates by multi-arc ion plating (MAIP) process at various bias voltages of -50, -100, -150 and -200 V. Surface morphology and crystalline struc ture of the gradient films were analyzed by SEM and XRD. Wear resistance of the films was evaluated by abrasion tester at both ambient (15 ℃) and elevated (500 ℃) temperatures. The worn surface morphology was then investigated by SEM. The results show that the deposited TiAlZrCr/(Ti, Al, Zr, Cr)N quaternary nitride films exhibited TiN-type (fcc-NaCl type) structure. The films have uniform and dense columnar morphologies. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the primary wear mechanism was adhesive wear (caused by plastic deformation) accompanied by a slight abrasion. The average values of friction coefficient varied at 0.25~0.30 at ambient temperature and 0.30~0.35 at elevated temperature, respectively. Finally, the best wear resistance was achieved when the bias voltage increased to -200 V.