The short process of electric furnace steel-making with DRI as raw material is an important process for smelting high-quality and special steels. In order to prepare high-quality DRI, pellets with M_R=0.09 and M_R=0.4 are prepared using a domestic M ore with a total iron grade of 71.68% as the iron-bearing raw material. HYL method gas-based direct reduction standard is consulted, the pellets are subjected to gas-based direct reduction under hydrogen-rich (H₂/CO = 2.6) conditions, and the RI of the pellets, RSI, CCS and phase change after reduction are systematically studied. The results show that the RI of the two pellets is linearly correlated with the reduction temperature in the range of 800 ~ 950 ℃, and the RI is greater than 4. The RSI of the two pellets increase sharply and then decreased gradually with the reduction, and then reach the peak between 50% and 80%, while the RSI increases with the increase of the reduction temperature. During the reduction process, the CCS of both pellets after reduction first decreases sharply and then increases slightly, and decreases significantly with increasing reduction temperature. Overall, the RI, RSI and reduced CCS of the M_R=0.09 pellets are better than those of the M_R=0.4 pellets. The reduction process gradually advances from the outer layer of the pellet to the inner layer, and the volume of the pellet expands most severely during the transformation of Fe₂O₃ to Fe₃O₄ and faujaite, resulting in the destruction of its internal structure and a significant decrease in the compressive strength of the pellet, followed by the interconnected aggregation of metallic iron grains. The swelling rate gradually decreases and the compressive strength increases.