Wear is the most serious problem in service of moving steel parts. To mitigate it, we have studied phase transformations in the surface layer of Vanadis 6 tool steel obtained after several treatment routes. Changes in wear resistance were examined in particular. There are various ways to improve the quality of surfaces of tool steels for cold working - including mechanical, chemical or physical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings. Several multistage processes of surface layer modification were applied: turning-burnishing, turning-burnishing-PVD, grinding-nitriding, turning-burnishing-nitriding, turning-nitriding-polishing, turning-burnishing-nitriding-polishing, and turning only used as a reference. To provide comparability, samples were subjected to heat treatments in vacuum furnaces with gas quenching until a hardness of ≈62 ± 1 HRC was achieved. Scanning electron microscopy observations, X-ray diffraction analysis, and finally ball-on-disc tribological tests against Al2O3 balls as counterparts provide information about wear and friction values. The best wear resistance – more than ten times higher than after turning only - was achieved for a sample following the turning-burnishing-PVD sequence. The turning-burnishing (130 N)-nitriding sequence may act as an alternative to the grinding-nitriding treatment. Wear rate values for the two latter variants are almost the same.