HF-based etching is used in this paper to remove laser damage precursors to improve the laser-damage resistance of fused silica optics. Several CeO2-polished samples were post-treated by various HF-based etchants and the responses of etching rate, surface cleanliness, roughness, transmission, and laser damage performance of optics to the etching state, etchant composition, and etched depth were investigated. No solid evidence shows that adding acoustic power ~0.6W/cm2 to 6%wt. HF contributes to either the etching rate or the damage performance of samples. The appearance of etching-induced deposits, which deteriorate both the surface roughness and transmission significantly, is highly dependent on the composition and concentration of the etchant. The damage testing results reveal that 6%wt. and 12%wt. HF can efficiently improve LIDT optics ~1.9 times the value of an un-etched sample with a (5±1) μm material removal value. Moreover, the damage performance of the optics is found to be somewhat isolated with surface root mean square (RMS)roughness and light transmissionandthat surfaces with a high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT>20 J/cm2@3ns) are usually smooth with an RMS roughness<2 nm. Therefore, the wet chemical etching condition that yields surfaces with the desired damage performance can be obtained and the control criterion of surface roughness can be determined.