Significant research efforts have been undertaken over the past forty years to replace cobalt-based Stellite^TM alloys, which offer outstanding performance when used as hardfacing coatings, but have proved problematic in radioactive environments. The aim of this work is to contribute to this effort by proposing viable substitutes made from multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs). Laser cladding process has demonstrates its very good capacity to generate deposit with high tribological properties. Moreover, a large number of compositions can be generated in different samples or samples with graded compositions thanks to the inline fusion of powders provided from different powder feeders. Combined with an intensive use of the thermodynamic calculation using CALPHAD (Thermo-Calc) method, this strategy considerably accelerates material development compared with more conventional methods. Initial work has highlighted the (CrFeNi)90Mo5Ti5 alloy as a promising base that relies on the formation of intermetallic phases within a ductile matrix for increased hardness and improved tribological behavior. The optimization of the composition made by tuning of the hard phase (sigma phase) in the material, which is driven by the combination of Mo,Cr and Fe elements. The proposed iterative process of calculation, experimentation and material characterization demonstrates the possibility of tailoring material composition to functional properties comparable or even better than the Stellite 6 alloy.