diff --git a/scripts/pentoo-updater.sh b/scripts/pentoo-updater.sh
index 0dcf59a38..f2a1a7490 100755
--- a/scripts/pentoo-updater.sh
+++ b/scripts/pentoo-updater.sh
@@ -645,11 +645,20 @@ umount_boot
 #we need to do the clean BEFORE we drop the extra flags otherwise all the packages we just built are removed
 currkern="$(uname -r)"
 if [ "${currkern/pentoo/}" != "${currkern}" ]; then
-  EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean --exclude "sys-kernel/pentoo-sources:${currkern/-pentoo/}" || safe_exit
+  exclude="sys-kernel/pentoo-sources:${currkern/-pentoo/}"
 elif [ "${currkern/gentoo/}" != "${currkern}" ]; then
-  EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean --exclude "sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:${currkern/-gentoo/}" || safe_exit
+  exclude="sys-kernel/pentoo-sources:${currkern/-pentoo/}"
+fi
+if [ -n "${exclude:-}" ]; then
+  if ! EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean --exclude "${exclude}"; then
+    emerge --deep --update --newuse -kb --changed-deps --newrepo --with-bdeps=y @world
+    EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean --exclude "${exclude}" || safe_exit
+  fi
 else
-  EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean || safe_exit
+  if ! EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean; then
+    emerge --deep --update --newuse -kb --changed-deps --newrepo --with-bdeps=y @world
+    EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="${EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS/--verbose /}" emerge --depclean || safe_exit
+  fi
 fi
 set_java || export WE_FAILED=1 #only tell the updater that this failed if it's still failing at the end
 set_ruby || export WE_FAILED=1