The feedstock capture efficiency on powder laser directed energy deposition is becoming a big challenge on the industrial use of L-DED process for the manufacturing of large-scale AM parts. The powder capture efficiency is dependent of process optimization and the tool-path. The current literature presents a huge range of usual powder efficiency, between 3 – 32% and some specific cases exceeding 90%. The powder-gas jet stream interact with the laser beam adding material locally onto the substrate. Part of this material is captured by the melt pool. The not captured material is affected by the laser beam, causing a material degradation. There is a lack on the literature for studies on the reusability of powder on the L-DED process. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the consequence of laser interaction with SS 316L metal powder particles during the L-DED process using a range of different powder characterization techniques to access the powder morphology, particle size distribution, chemical composition, followability and particle porosity. The study was conducted within eight powder reuse cycles, without adding virgin material to the powder batch. Reduction of PSD range, increase of circularity, improvement on the powder flowability were identified as consequences of powder reuse. The consequence of the laser interaction with particles was further explored using SEM, presenting the continuous modification of the particles across the eight reuse cycles. The oxygen content of the particles was also measured to access the O2 pick-up as a consequence of particle heating.