Wider industrial implementation of powder bed fusion - laser beam (PBF-LB) is hindered by high costs associated with low production speeds. Scaling up main process parameters, i.e. layer thickness, scan speed and hatch distance, is one way to reduce the total layers, or the time required to process individual layers, but it comes at the sacrifice of part quality in terms of surface roughness, tolerances and density, etc. This work summarizes dedicated analysis of pore characteristics of PBF-LB processed 316L samples with higher productivity process parameters than state-of-the-art. Emphasis is put on influence of 3 factor increase in hatch distance (between 90 µm and 270 µm) and scan speeds (from 600 to 1800 mm/s) at varied layer thicknesses between 20 and 80 µm. For efficient use of experimental resources across a wide range of parameters, linear constraints are defined based on volumetric energy density (VED) in combination with I-optimal design of experiments. 2D image analysis of etched cross-sections revealed the importance of overlapping between subsequent melt pools on size, aspect ratio and orientation of pores. At large layer thickness and hatch distance, elongated pores with preferential alignment of major axis to the build direction was observed. Complementary 3D imaging by X-ray computed tomography (X-CT) on selected conditions indicated that the elongated pores have a plate-like appearance stretching through several layers. Abrupt increases in porosity content were found passed 1% at specific thresholds of hatch distance to layer thickness (HD/LT) ratio. Within the experimented region, the maximum allowable hatch distance for achieving less than 1% porosity decreased from 200 μm to ~160 μm as the layer thickness increased from 20 μm to 80 μm.