The structural and mechanical properties of NbC films are known to be highly influenced by the carbon content determined by the C/Me ratio and the morphology. Here, we employed high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) to deposit extremely hard NbC thin films and investigated the influence of deposition parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties. Through tuning the HiPIMS pulse parameters (tₒₙ, f), a wide variation in the target power density from 0.1 and 1.48 kW/cm² was achieved. Consequently, the increase in power density led to a drastic reduction of C/Nb in the films (determined by ToF-ERDA and EBS) and morphological changes from nanocomposite to columnar morphologies, as confirmed by TEM investigations. The mechanical properties of the films correlate with the enhanced growth behaviour, dominated by ions at higher power densities, and a maximum hardness of about 39 GPa was achieved. This study highlights the – yet unexplored – versatile possibilities in non-reactive HiPIMS deposition of NbCₓ coatings, allowing for a distinct control of the film stoichiometry, microstructure, and mechanical properties, by tuning the HiPIMS pulse parameters.