diff --git a/tools/update-toxcore-version.sh b/tools/update-toxcore-version.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e0a023e01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/update-toxcore-version.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+#    Copyright © 2016-2018 The qTox Project Contributors
+#
+#    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+#    (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#    GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+
+# script to change targeted toxcore version
+# 
+# it should be run before releasing a new version
+
+# usage:
+#
+#   ./$script $version
+#
+# $version has to be composed of at least one number/dot
+
+
+set -eu -o pipefail
+
+readonly SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
+readonly BASE_DIR="$SCRIPT_DIR/../"
+readonly VERSION_PATTERN="[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+"
+
+update_install() {
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(git clone https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore.*?)$VERSION_PATTERN|\${1}$@|gms" INSTALL.md
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(git clone https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore.*?)$VERSION_PATTERN|\${1}$@|gms" INSTALL.fa.md
+}
+
+update_bootstrap() {
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(TOXCORE_VERSION=\"v)$VERSION_PATTERN|\${1}$@|gms" bootstrap.sh
+}
+
+update_osx() {
+    cd osx
+    perl -i -0pe "s|$VERSION_PATTERN( --depth=1 https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore)|$@\${1}|gms" qTox-Mac-Deployer-ULTIMATE.sh
+    cd ..
+}
+
+update_flatpak() {
+    cd flatpak
+    latest_tag_ref=$(git ls-remote --tags https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore | tail -n1)
+    ref_array=($latest_tag_ref)
+    commit_hash=${ref_array[0]}
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore.*?)$VERSION_PATTERN(.*?)[a-f0-9]{40}|\${1}$@\${2}$commit_hash|gms" io.github.qtox.qTox.json
+    cd ..
+}
+
+update_travis() {
+    cd .travis
+    perl -i -0pe "s|$VERSION_PATTERN( --depth=1 https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore)|$@\${1}|gms" build-ubuntu-14-04.sh
+    cd ..
+}
+
+update_docker() {
+    cd docker
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore.*?)$VERSION_PATTERN|\${1}$@|gms" Dockerfile.debian
+    perl -i -0pe "s|(https://github.com/toktok/c-toxcore.*?)$VERSION_PATTERN|\${1}$@|gms" Dockerfile.ubuntu
+    cd ..
+}
+
+# exit if supplied arg is not a version
+is_version() {
+    if [[ ! $@ =~ $VERSION_PATTERN ]]
+    then
+        echo "Not a version: $@"
+        echo "Must match: $VERSION_PATTERN"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+}
+
+main() {
+    is_version "$@"
+    update_install "$@"
+    update_bootstrap "$@"
+    update_osx "$@"
+    update_flatpak "$@"
+    update_travis "$@"
+    update_docker "$@"
+}
+main "$@"