diff --git a/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/queue/17-adv-mixer-3-lease-rest.sh b/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/queue/17-adv-mixer-3-lease-rest.sh
index b6233efc5..068dd7056 100644
--- a/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/queue/17-adv-mixer-3-lease-rest.sh
+++ b/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/queue/17-adv-mixer-3-lease-rest.sh
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ T=${THREADS:-32}
 # main's pool rule (19:2x UTC): the release builds and the class v5 suites outrank every sweep; while a waiter owned by class-v5, or by attack-pass with v5 in
 # its label, is in the lease queue (never a waiter owned by another adv- lane), no adversarial lease competes: finish the shard in hand, then wait here.
 yield_v5() { while /srv/builds/_bin/lease status 2>/dev/null | sed -n '/^waiting/,$p' | grep -v "owner=adv-" | grep -qE "owner=class-v5|v5.*owner=attack-pass"; do sleep 30; done; }
-lease() { yield_v5;  /srv/builds/_bin/lease pool "$T" --min 16 --label "adv-mixer-3 $1" --owner adv-mixer-3 -- "${@:2}"; }
+lease() { yield_v5;  /srv/builds/_bin/lease pool "$T" --min 8 --label "adv-mixer-3 $1" --owner adv-mixer-3 -- "${@:2}"; }
 lease1() { yield_v5;  /srv/builds/_bin/lease pool 1 --min 1 --label "adv-mixer-3 $1" --owner adv-mixer-3 -- "${@:2}"; }
-echo "start $(hostname) $(date -u +%FT%TZ) lease pool up to $T cores (32: never pre-empted), min 16"
+echo "start $(hostname) $(date -u +%FT%TZ) lease pool up to $T cores (32: never pre-empted), min 8"
 for k in 5 6 7 8; do echo "== sac day 20729 k=$k $(date -u +%FT%TZ)"; lease "sac 20729 k$k" $X sac --day 20729 --apps $k --states 2^24 --threads {cores} > "$L/sac-20729-k$k.log" 2>&1; grep -E 'holes=|verdict' "$L/sac-20729-k$k.log"; done
 for k in 5 6 7 8; do echo "== sac day 20733 k=$k $(date -u +%FT%TZ)"; lease "sac 20733 k$k" $X sac --day 20733 --apps $k --states 2^24 --threads {cores} > "$L/sac-20733-k$k.log" 2>&1; grep -E 'holes=|verdict' "$L/sac-20733-k$k.log"; done
 for k in 2 3 4 5 6 7 8; do echo "== index day 20733 k=$k $(date -u +%FT%TZ)"; lease "index 20733 k$k" $X index --day 20733 --apps $k --threads {cores} > "$L/index-20733-k$k.log" 2>&1; grep -E 'chi2=|verdict' "$L/index-20733-k$k.log"; done
diff --git a/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/x-lock.sh b/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/x-lock.sh
index 00ca7fd7b..aeecdbd45 100755
--- a/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/x-lock.sh
+++ b/tools/attack/adv-mixer-3/x-lock.sh
@@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ LABEL="$1"; shift
 # its label, is in the lease queue (never a waiter owned by another adv- lane), no adversarial lease competes: finish the shard in hand, then wait here.
 yield_v5() { while /srv/builds/_bin/lease status 2>/dev/null | sed -n '/^waiting/,$p' | grep -v "owner=adv-" | grep -qE "owner=class-v5|v5.*owner=attack-pass"; do sleep 30; done; }
 yield_v5
-exec /srv/builds/_bin/lease pool "${THREADS:-32}" --min 16 --label "adv-mixer-3 $LABEL" --owner adv-mixer-3 -- "$B" "$@"
+exec /srv/builds/_bin/lease pool "${THREADS:-32}" --min 8 --label "adv-mixer-3 $LABEL" --owner adv-mixer-3 -- "$B" "$@"