diff --git a/lib/node-conversion.js b/lib/node-conversion.js
index ec73ef4..f40bd35 100644
--- a/lib/node-conversion.js
+++ b/lib/node-conversion.js
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ var nodeCoreModules = {
   'crypto': 'npm:crypto-browserify@^3.11.0', // (fork required)
   'dgram': 'nodelibs/dgram',
   'dns': 'nodelibs/dns',
-  'domain': 'npm:domain-browser@^1.1.4', // https://github.com/bevry/domain-browser/pull/7
+  'domain': 'npm:domain-browser@^1.1.5',
   'events': 'npm:events@^1.1.0', // (fork required)
   'fs': 'nodelibs/fs',
   'http': 'npm:stream-http@^2.0.2', // https://github.com/jhiesey/stream-http/pull/31
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ var nodeCoreModules = {
   'os': 'npm:os-browserify@^0.2.0',
   'path': 'npm:path-browserify@^0.0.0', // https://github.com/substack/path-browserify/pull/7
   'process': 'nodelibs/process',
-  'punycode': 'npm:punycode@^1.3.2', // pending 1.3.3 release
+  'punycode': 'npm:punycode@^1.4.0',
   'querystring': 'npm:querystring@^0.2.0', // https://github.com/Gozala/querystring/pull/13
   'readline': 'nodelibs/readline',
   'repl': 'nodelibs/repl',
@@ -224,16 +224,15 @@ exports.convertPackage = function(packageConfig, packageName, packageDir, ui) {
            *
            * Currently we cater to (1) by creating a directory map for any index.js file present
            * in a directory where the directory.js file does not exist.
-           * We then cater to (2 - 4) above by parsing all CommonJS requires of all JS files in 
-           * the package and where a resolution matches one of these cases, we include meta: true
+           * We then cater to (2 - 5) above by parsing all CommonJS requires of all JS files in 
+           * the package and where a resolution matches one of these cases, we include map or meta
            * config for these files.
            *
-           * We only cater to these assumptions for CommonJS modules
+           * We cater to these assumptions for CommonJS modules only
            *
-           * It may turn out to be useful to do (2 - 4) for external requires as well, in which
+           * It may turn out to be useful to do (2 - 5) for external requires as well, in which
            * case we can switch this algorithm to a comprehensive correction configuration
            * being constructed against the entire fileTree to handle all resolution differences.
-           *
            * Even better may turn out to have a post-install hook phase, which can actually investigate
            * the contents of dependencies to do a similar analysis above to avoid config bloat
            */
diff --git a/lib/npm.js b/lib/npm.js
index 891795a..045ec37 100644
--- a/lib/npm.js
+++ b/lib/npm.js
@@ -248,6 +248,13 @@ NPMLocation.prototype = {
 
     packageConfig.dependencies = parseDependencies(packageConfig.dependencies, this.ui);
     packageConfig.peerDependencies = parseDependencies(packageConfig.peerDependencies, this.ui);
+    packageConfig.optionalDependencies = parseDependencies(packageConfig.optionalDependencies, this.ui);
+
+    // remove optionalDependencies from dependencies, which are merged into dependencies by the npm registry
+    if (packageConfig.optionalDependencies)
+      Object.keys(packageConfig.optionalDependencies).forEach(function(d) {
+        delete packageConfig.dependencies[d];
+      });
 
     // ignore directory flattening for NodeJS, as npm doesn't do it
     // we do allow if there was an override through the jspm property though