Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. In some examples, a reduced capability user equipment (UE) may receive signaling indicating a set of repetition levels for receiving control information from a base station and a blind detection threshold for decoding the control information. Upon receiving the signaling, the reduced capability UE may monitor a control channel candidate for the control information based on the set of repetition levels. Once the reduced capability UE detects the control information from the monitoring, the reduced capability UE may perform at least one blind detection on the control channel candidate based on the set of repetition levels and the blind detection threshold and receive the control information from the base station.