<p>The integrity of a welded joint is affected by the composition of the filler materials and the thermal affectation of the plates. This study evaluated the effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the ERNiCrMo-3 electrode on the hot pass of API 5L X-70 steel plates cladded with AISI 316L-Si stainless steel. Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) was employed for the root pass and gas metal arc welding with pulsed arc (GMAW-P) was used for the hot pass and filler passes with ERNiCrMo-3 and ER70S-6 electrodes, respectively. Microstructural characterization of the welded joint was performed using optical and scanning electron microscopy (OM and SEM). Vickers microhardness (HV) and Charpy impact tests were performed for the correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties. Considerable changes in microhardness values were observed in the dilution zone between the ERNiCrMo-3 filler material and subsequent steps attributed to Ni dilution with the ER70S-6 filler material.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>