diff --git a/bindings/python/src/session_settings.cpp b/bindings/python/src/session_settings.cpp
index 5a5f94043..1a6951dd7 100644
--- a/bindings/python/src/session_settings.cpp
+++ b/bindings/python/src/session_settings.cpp
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ void bind_session_settings()
         .def_readwrite("decrease_est_reciprocation_rate", &session_settings::decrease_est_reciprocation_rate)
         .def_readwrite("incoming_starts_queued_torrents", &session_settings::incoming_starts_queued_torrents)
         .def_readwrite("report_true_downoaded", &session_settings::report_true_downloaded)
+        .def_readwrite("strict_end_game_mode", &session_settings::strict_end_game_mode)
     ;
 
     enum_<proxy_settings::proxy_type>("proxy_type")
diff --git a/docs/manual.rst b/docs/manual.rst
index 942ec0147..5c0753d77 100644
--- a/docs/manual.rst
+++ b/docs/manual.rst
@@ -3773,6 +3773,7 @@ session_settings
 		int decrease_est_reciprocation_rate;
 		bool incoming_starts_queued_torrents;
 		bool report_true_downloaded;
+		bool strict_end_game_mode;
 	};
 
 ``user_agent`` this is the client identification to the tracker.
@@ -4348,6 +4349,15 @@ When ``report_true_downloaded`` is true, the ``&downloaded=`` argument
 sent to trackers will include redundant downloaded bytes. It defaults
 to ``false``, which means redundant bytes are not reported to the tracker.
 
+``strict_end_game_mode`` defaults to true, and controls when a block
+may be requested twice. If this is ``true``, a block may only be requested
+twice when there's ay least one request to every piece that's left to
+download in the torrent. This may slow down progress on some pieces
+sometimes, but it may also avoid downloading a lot of redundant bytes.
+If this is ``false``, libtorrent attempts to use each peer connection
+to its max, by always requesting something, even if it means requesting
+something that has been requested from another peer already.
+
 pe_settings
 ===========
 
diff --git a/include/libtorrent/session_settings.hpp b/include/libtorrent/session_settings.hpp
index 87173de18..7c2678b79 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/session_settings.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/session_settings.hpp
@@ -203,6 +203,7 @@ namespace libtorrent
 			, decrease_est_reciprocation_rate(3)
 			, incoming_starts_queued_torrents(false)
 			, report_true_downloaded(false)
+			, strict_end_game_mode(true)
 		{}
 
 		// this is the user agent that will be sent to the tracker
@@ -769,6 +770,10 @@ namespace libtorrent
 		// including redundant bytes. If set to false, it will not include
 		// any redundany bytes
 		bool report_true_downloaded;
+
+		// if set to true, libtorrent won't request a piece multiple times
+		// until every piece is requested
+		bool strict_end_game_mode;
 	};
 
 #ifndef TORRENT_DISABLE_DHT
diff --git a/src/policy.cpp b/src/policy.cpp
index 5fd1352aa..7bd75418b 100644
--- a/src/policy.cpp
+++ b/src/policy.cpp
@@ -275,6 +275,15 @@ namespace libtorrent
 			return;
 		}
 
+		// if the number of pieces we have + the number of pieces
+		// we're requesting from is less than the number of pieces
+		// in the torrent, there are still some unrequested pieces
+		// and we're not strictly speaking in end-game mode yet
+		if (t.settings().strict_end_game_mode
+			&& p.num_have() + p.get_download_queue().size()
+				< t.torrent_file().num_pieces())
+			return;
+
 		// if all blocks has the same number of peers on them
 		// we want to pick a random block
 		std::random_shuffle(busy_pieces.begin(), busy_pieces.end());
@@ -297,7 +306,7 @@ namespace libtorrent
 
 		// don't re-request from a piece more often than once every 20 seconds
 		// TODO: make configurable
-		if (now - last_request < seconds(20))
+		if (now - last_request < seconds(5))
 			return;
 
 		c.add_request(*i, peer_connection::req_busy);