diff --git a/srcpkgs/nodejs-lts/template b/srcpkgs/nodejs-lts/template
index aa4a2d86c7b..63b9cc4d77b 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/nodejs-lts/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/nodejs-lts/template
@@ -41,17 +41,12 @@ case "$XBPS_TARGET_MACHINE" in
 	ppc*) broken="Node 12.x does not support 32-bit ppc" ;;
 esac
 
-# v8 requires libatomic on ppc*/s390x/mips*
-case "$XBPS_TARGET_MACHINE" in
-	mips*|ppc*) makedepends+=" libatomic-devel" ;;
-	*) ;;
-esac
-
-# also need it on host when it's one of those archs
-case "$XBPS_MACHINE" in
-	mips*|ppc*) hostmakedepends+=" libatomic-devel" ;;
-	*) ;;
-esac
+if [ "$XBPS_TARGET_NO_ATOMIC8" ]; then
+	makedepends+=" libatomic-devel"
+fi
+if [ "$XBPS_NO_ATOMIC8" ]; then
+	hostmakedepends+=" libatomic-devel"
+fi
 
 do_configure() {
 	local _args