In this research, two dual-phase heat treatment methods- intermediate quenching and step quenching- on NiCrMoV low alloy steel were compared using microstructural analysis, Vickers hardness, and tensile test. The results demonstrated that at 760 °C, a constant intercritical temperature, the step quenching method was much faster due to the single-step process contrary to intermediate quench, which is a multi-step that causes complex microstructure, including tempered martensite and fresh martensite. According to the microstructural analysis, this method produces more martensite fraction. After 60 minutes, the hardness of the intermediate quenched sample was almost equal to that of the step-quenched sample, though it had a smaller intercritical martensite fraction. However, due to the increase in ferrite production rate compared to the intercritical martensite, the hardness of the intermediate quenched sample was decreased after 60 minutes from 338 to 287 vickers. In the step-quenched sample, no specific changes were observed by increasing the time more than 60 minutes. This issue indicated that the step-quenching process was almost completed after 60 minutes