diff --git a/gen/trie.ts b/gen/trie.ts
index 7dc1e40..a07a339 100644
--- a/gen/trie.ts
+++ b/gen/trie.ts
@@ -139,14 +139,18 @@ export class TrieBuilder {
 
   // Generate the code for a node's variable name and value, and return the name.
   private generateNode (node: Node): string {
-    // Only generate elements up to the last non-undefined child to cut down on size of array.
+    // Only generate defined children to cut down on size of array, which would otherwise
+    // bog down compile time and binary size for large trees with lots of nodes.
+    // If array is empty, just use zero.
+    const firstIdx = node.children.length && node.children.findIndex(v => v);
     const children = Array.from(
-      {length: node.children.length},
-      (_, i) => node.children[i] ? `Some(${this.generateNode(node.children[i])})` : 'None',
+      {length: node.children.length - firstIdx},
+      (_, i) => node.children[i + firstIdx] ? `Some(${this.generateNode(node.children[i + firstIdx])})` : 'None',
     ).join(', ');
 
     const value = node.value === undefined ? 'None' : `Some(${node.value})`;
     const varValue = `&crate::pattern::TrieNode {
+      offset: ${firstIdx},
       value: ${value},
       children: &[${children}],
     }`;
diff --git a/src/pattern.rs b/src/pattern.rs
index e62910e..deac257 100644
--- a/src/pattern.rs
+++ b/src/pattern.rs
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ impl SinglePattern {
 
 // Can't use pub const fn constructor due to Copy trait, so allow directly creating struct publicly for now.
 pub struct TrieNode<V: 'static + Copy> {
+    // Using a children array of size 256 would probably be fastest, but waste too much memory and cause slow compiles
+    // and large binaries. Instead, we only store the children between the first and last defined (see `gen/trie.ts`).
+    // When getting a child, use `index + offset`.
+    pub offset: usize,
     pub value: Option<V>,
     pub children: &'static [Option<&'static TrieNode<V>>],
 }
@@ -58,7 +62,7 @@ impl<V: 'static + Copy> TrieNode<V> {
         let mut node: &TrieNode<V> = self;
         let mut next_pos = from;
         while let Some(&c) = text.get(next_pos) {
-            match node.children.get(c as usize) {
+            match node.children.get(c as usize + node.offset) {
                 Some(Some(child)) => node = child,
                 None | Some(None) => return None,
             };