diff --git a/main/postmarketos-base/APKBUILD b/main/postmarketos-base/APKBUILD
index 85dbeb175..7079ea4c1 100644
--- a/main/postmarketos-base/APKBUILD
+++ b/main/postmarketos-base/APKBUILD
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Co-Maintainer: Achill Gilgenast <achill@achill.org>
 maintainer="Clayton Craft <clayton@craftyguy.net>"
 pkgname=postmarketos-base
-pkgver=57
+pkgver=58
 pkgrel=0
 pkgdesc="Meta package for minimal postmarketOS base"
 url="https://postmarketos.org"
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ makedepends="postmarketos-initramfs"
 # recommendation to not depend on openrc has been to copy them here:
 # https: // gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/merge_requests/71686#note_435428
 depends="
-	apk-tools
 	busybox
 	devicepkg-utils>=0.2.0
 	eudev
@@ -31,6 +30,7 @@ _pmb_recommends="sudo-rs"
 install="$pkgname.post-install $pkgname.post-upgrade"
 triggers="$pkgname.trigger=/usr/share/deviceinfo"
 subpackages="
+	$pkgname-apk:_apk
 	$pkgname-core
 	$pkgname-doas
 	$pkgname-fwupd
@@ -133,6 +133,17 @@ package() {
 	done
 }
 
+_apk() {
+	pkgdesc="apk-tools for mutable postmarketOS installations"
+	# The apk-tools dependency is in a subpackage so that other packages are able to
+	# depend on postmarketos-base AND exclude apk-tools at the same time with
+	# !postmarketos-base-apk
+	install_if="$pkgname=$pkgver-r$pkgrel"
+	depends="apk-tools"
+
+	mkdir -p "$subpkgdir"
+}
+
 core() {
 	# This is needed for backwards compatibility with installs that got
 	# the alpine-baselayout-core package in world: