diff --git a/backend/src/RegExpRunner.ts b/backend/src/RegExpRunner.ts
index 0d7848e6..d66df414 100644
--- a/backend/src/RegExpRunner.ts
+++ b/backend/src/RegExpRunner.ts
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ export function allowTimeout(err: RegExpTimeoutError | Error) {
 }
 
 // Regex timeout starts at a higher value while the bot loads initially, and gets lowered afterwards
-const INITIAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT = 1000; // ms
+const INITIAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT = 5 * SECONDS;
 const INITIAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT_DURATION = 30 * SECONDS;
-const FINAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT = 750; // ms
+const FINAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT = 5 * SECONDS;
 
 const regexTimeoutUpgradePromise = new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, INITIAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT_DURATION));
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ let newWorkerTimeout = INITIAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT;
 regexTimeoutUpgradePromise.then(() => (newWorkerTimeout = FINAL_REGEX_TIMEOUT));
 
 const REGEX_FAIL_TO_COOLDOWN_COUNT = 5; // If a regex times out this many times...
-const REGEX_FAIL_DECAY_TIME = 20 * SECONDS; // ...in this interval...
+const REGEX_FAIL_DECAY_TIME = 2 * MINUTES; // ...in this interval...
 const REGEX_FAIL_COOLDOWN = 2 * MINUTES + 30 * SECONDS; // ...it goes on cooldown for this long
 
 export interface RegExpRunner {