diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ba8fb37d..2b07486f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ The pipeline is now considered to be a complete and suitable replacement for the
   "grid plots".
 - Fill in accurate read information in the blobDir. Users are now reqiured
   to indicate in the samplesheet whether the reads are paired or single.
+- Updated the Blastn settings to allow 7 days runtime at most, since that
+  covers 99.7% of the jobs.
 
 ### Software dependencies
 
diff --git a/conf/base.config b/conf/base.config
index f24b6b99..25648852 100644
--- a/conf/base.config
+++ b/conf/base.config
@@ -106,14 +106,15 @@ process {
 
     withName: "BLAST_BLASTN" {
 
-        // There are blast failures we don't know how to fix. Just ignore for now
-        errorStrategy = { task.exitStatus in ((130..145) + 104) ? (task.attempt == process.maxRetries ? 'ignore' : 'retry') : 'finish' }
+        // There are blast failures we don't know how to fix. We just give up after 3 attempts
+        errorStrategy = { task.exitStatus in ((130..145) + 104) ? (task.attempt == 3 ? 'ignore' : 'retry') : 'finish' }
+
 
         // Most jobs complete quickly but some need a lot longer. For those outliers,
-        // the CPU usage remains usually low, often nearing a single CPU
-        cpus   = { check_max( 6    -            (task.attempt-1), 'cpus'   ) }
-        memory = { check_max( 1.GB * Math.pow(4, task.attempt-1), 'memory' ) }
-        time   = { check_max( 10.h * Math.pow(4, task.attempt-1), 'time'   ) }
+        // the CPU usage remains usually low, averaging a single CPU
+        cpus   = { check_max( task.attempt == 1 ? 4 : 1, 'cpus' ) }
+        memory = { check_max( 2.GB, 'memory' ) }
+        time   = { check_max( task.attempt == 1 ? 4.h : ( task.attempt == 2 ? 47.h : 167.h ), 'time' ) }
     }
 
     withName:CUSTOM_DUMPSOFTWAREVERSIONS {