Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A wireless device may receive a transmission including a set of spatial layers. The set of spatial layers may include at least a first spatial layer and a second spatial layer subsequent to the first spatial layer. The device may determine a first number of search points of the first spatial layer based on a modulation order of the first spatial layer, and a second number of search points of the second spatial layer based on the first number of search points and a modulation order of the second spatial layer. The device may compute a quantity of distance metrics based on the first and second numbers of search points. The device may demap symbols of the received transmission based on the quantity of distance metrics. In some examples, demapping the symbols may be based on a per-stream recursive demapping process.