diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index c68279a269..10df6b3630 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,11 @@ node_js:
     #  - 7.x is the current 'current' version (until October 2017)
     #
     # see: https://github.com/nodejs/LTS/
-    - 6.0
+    #
+    # anything before 6.3 ships with npm 3.9 or earlier, which had problems
+    # with symlinks in node_modules (see
+    # https://github.com/npm/npm/releases/tag/v3.10.0 'FIXES AND REFACTORING').
+    - 6.3
     - 6
     - 7
 install:
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index be3f3a8b4b..388d2d9bab 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,8 +55,8 @@ Building From Source
 Riot is a modular webapp built with modern ES6 and requires a npm build system
 to build.
 
-1. Install or update `node.js` so that your `node` is at least v6.0.0 (and `npm`
-   is at least v3.8.6).
+1. Install or update `node.js` so that your `node` is at least v6.3.0 (and `npm`
+   is at least v3.10.x).
 1. Clone the repo: `git clone https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web.git`.
 1. Switch to the riot-web directory: `cd riot-web`.
 1. If you're using the `develop` branch, install the develop versions of the