diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index be09079ca10856256e4b0aa2beb25dc899c065d1..5f01b6c339d7c81ac89b16015a994fff5f320830 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@
         "johnpbloch/wordpress": "^5.4",
         "bjornjohansen/wplang": "^0.1.1",
         "wpackagist-plugin/disable-wordpress-updates": "^1.6",
-        "wpackagist-plugin/hyperdb": "^1.6",
         "wpackagist-plugin/wpmu-new-blog-defaults": "^2.2",
         "wpackagist-plugin/more-privacy-options": "^4.6",
         "wpackagist-plugin/disable-emojis": "^1.7",
@@ -112,12 +111,16 @@
         "wpackagist-plugin/wp2pgpmail": "^1.27",
         "wpackagist-plugin/buddypress": "^6.3",
         "noblogs/noblogs-home": "^0.1.0",
-        "wpackagist-plugin/katex": "^2.1"
+        "wpackagist-plugin/katex": "^2.1",
+        "stuttter/ludicrousdb": "^5.0"
     },    
     "extra": {
         "wordpress-install-dir": "app",
 	"installer-types": ["bower-asset", "npm-asset"],
-        "installer-paths": {            
+        "installer-paths": {
+	    "app/wp-content/db-plugins/{$name}/": [
+		"stuttter/ludicrousdb"
+	    ],
             "app/{$name}": ["type:wordpress-dropin"],
 	    "app/wp-content/mu-plugins/{$name}/": ["type:wordpress-muplugin"],
             "app/wp-content/plugins/{$name}/": ["type:wordpress-plugin"],
@@ -137,7 +140,8 @@
 	    "app/wp-content/themes" : [
 		"package:noblogs/themes-child"
 	    ],
-            "app/wp-content": ["package:wpackagist-plugin/hyperdb:db.php", "package:wpackagist-plugin/wp-super-cache:advanced-cache.php"],
+            "app/wp-content": ["package:stuttter/ludicrousdb:ludicrousdb/drop-ins/db.php,ludicrousdb/drop-ins/db-error.php",
+				       "package:wpackagist-plugin/wp-super-cache:advanced-cache.php"],
             "app": ["package:noblogs/r2db:db-config.php,nginx-map/wp-nginx-map-json.php,nginx-map/wp-nginx-map.php"]
         }
     }
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index 735cbcf2da270edac459787d4d9dc13161805003..411d3e97d5cceda8f8e6935a0b4c9ce338d003f1 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#installing-dependencies",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "85852303b4e957c99b7b0165807cde4d",
+    "content-hash": "8254107073f5a7e9fa4fc5601cf0e405",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "bjornjohansen/wplang",
@@ -643,6 +643,43 @@
             "homepage": "http://www.oomphinc.com/",
             "time": "2017-03-31T16:57:39+00:00"
         },
+        {
+            "name": "stuttter/ludicrousdb",
+            "version": "5.0.0",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/stuttter/ludicrousdb.git",
+                "reference": "a6256d45888493e77156c79926501eadbb7f65f0"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/stuttter/ludicrousdb/zipball/a6256d45888493e77156c79926501eadbb7f65f0",
+                "reference": "a6256d45888493e77156c79926501eadbb7f65f0",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "composer/installers": "~1.0",
+                "php": ">=5.2"
+            },
+            "type": "wordpress-muplugin",
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "GPL-2.0-or-later"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "John James Jacoby",
+                    "email": "johnjamesjacoby@me.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Jonny Harris",
+                    "email": "jon@spacedmonkey.co.uk"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "LudicrousDB is a database class that supports replication, failover, load balancing, & partitioning, based on Automattic's HyperDB drop-in.",
+            "homepage": "https://github.com/stuttter/ludicrousdb",
+            "time": "2019-10-18T17:56:48+00:00"
+        },
         {
             "name": "wpackagist-plugin/autopost-to-mastodon",
             "version": "3.6.1",
@@ -852,29 +889,6 @@
             "type": "wordpress-plugin",
             "homepage": "https://wordpress.org/plugins/footnotation/"
         },
-        {
-            "name": "wpackagist-plugin/hyperdb",
-            "version": "1.7",
-            "source": {
-                "type": "svn",
-                "url": "https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/hyperdb/",
-                "reference": "tags/1.7"
-            },
-            "dist": {
-                "type": "zip",
-                "url": "https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/hyperdb.1.7.zip"
-            },
-            "require": {
-                "composer/installers": "~1.0"
-            },
-            "type": "wordpress-plugin",
-            "extra": {
-                "patches_applied": {
-                    "Added optional logging": "patches/hyperdb/0158-Added-optional-logging.patch"
-                }
-            },
-            "homepage": "https://wordpress.org/plugins/hyperdb/"
-        },
         {
             "name": "wpackagist-plugin/i-love-xm24-ribbon",
             "version": "0.0.4",