As the LHC transitions to its luminosity driven phase, its sensitivity to high energy signals from beyond the standard model will increase much more slowly than in the past. For soft signatures on the other hand, large, qualitative improvements can be made both with the existing detectors, as well as with future upgrades. I will discuss a few examples related to ultra-peripheral heavy ion collisions, exotic tracks from quirks and a proposal for a dedicated detector for long-lived particles in the LHCb cavern.