diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index f21ab95..bf63e2e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@
     "./util/immediate.js": "./util/immediate-browser.js"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "abstract-leveldown": "~6.2.1",
+    "abstract-leveldown": "~6.2.3",
+    "buffer": "^5.5.0",
     "immediate": "~3.2.3",
     "inherits": "^2.0.3",
     "ltgt": "^2.1.2"
diff --git a/util/deserialize.js b/util/deserialize.js
index b999b54..f54c8f6 100644
--- a/util/deserialize.js
+++ b/util/deserialize.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 'use strict'
 
+var Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer
 var ta2str = (function () {
   if (global.TextDecoder) {
     var decoder = new TextDecoder('utf-8')
diff --git a/util/serialize.js b/util/serialize.js
index 73d25ff..8fa0f0a 100644
--- a/util/serialize.js
+++ b/util/serialize.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 'use strict'
 
+var Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer
 // Returns either a Uint8Array or Buffer (doesn't matter to
 // IndexedDB, because Buffer is a subclass of Uint8Array)
 var str2bin = (function () {
diff --git a/util/support.js b/util/support.js
index e9116ca..7b90211 100644
--- a/util/support.js
+++ b/util/support.js
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 'use strict'
 
+var Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer
+
 exports.test = function (key) {
   return function test (impl) {
     try {