When applied to the original problem of clusters of flexible molecules, this algorithm gave substantially improved results over CREST. For example, for the 1 2 -2b trimer where the problem with sensitivity to the starting conformation was first noticed, the improved algorithm gives a structure which is lower in energy by 14.4 kJ/mol compared to the CREST result. This is a large enough difference that very little of the conformers found by CREST would exist at equilibrium, with a Boltzmann population ratio of 0.3%.