diff --git a/app-proto/src/engine.rs b/app-proto/src/engine.rs
index e51fcbc..491a2f9 100644
--- a/app-proto/src/engine.rs
+++ b/app-proto/src/engine.rs
@@ -476,7 +476,7 @@ pub fn realize_gram(
         history.config.push(state.config.clone());
         history.scaled_loss.push(state.loss_hard / scale_adjustment);
         grad_size = neg_grad_stacked.norm_squared();
-        if state.loss_hard < tol && grad_size < GRAD_TOL { break; }
+        if state.loss_hard < tol && grad_size < softness * GRAD_TOL { break; }
         
         // compute the Newton step
         /* TO DO */
@@ -515,13 +515,14 @@ pub fn realize_gram(
         // if we're near a minimum of the total loss, but the hard loss still
         // isn't tolerably low, make the soft constraints softer
         const SOFTNESS_BACKOFF_THRESHOLD: f64 = 1e-6;
-        const SOFTNESS_BACKOFF: f64 = 0.5;
-        if state.loss_hard >= tol && grad_size < SOFTNESS_BACKOFF_THRESHOLD {
+        const SOFTNESS_BACKOFF: f64 = 0.9;
+        if state.loss_hard >= tol && grad_size < softness * SOFTNESS_BACKOFF_THRESHOLD {
             softness *= SOFTNESS_BACKOFF;
+            state = SearchState::from_config(gram, soft, softness, state.config);
             console_log!("Softness decreased to {softness}");
         }
     }
-    let result = if state.loss_hard < tol && grad_size < GRAD_TOL {
+    let result = if state.loss_hard < tol && grad_size < softness * GRAD_TOL {
         // express the uniform basis in the standard basis
         const UNIFORM_DIM: usize = 4;
         let total_dim_unif = UNIFORM_DIM * assembly_dim;