Aspects disclosed herein relate to providing peer mode passive communications while accounting for a power level available to operate a NFC device. In the disclosed aspects, a near field communication (NFC) device may be equipped to detect a value for a power level available to operate the NFC device. The NFC device may be further equipped to determine a first duration to allocate for a listening mode and a second duration to allocate for a polling mode based at least in part on the determined available power level value and select a RF discovery loop based on the determined first duration and second duration. The NFC device may be further operable to perform peer mode discovery using the selected RF discovery loop.