diff --git a/pkgs/games/linthesia/default.nix b/pkgs/games/linthesia/default.nix
index 5d7854d407f4..32a0902403ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/games/linthesia/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/games/linthesia/default.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 { lib
 , SDL2
 , SDL2_image
-, SDL2_ttf_2_0_15
+, SDL2_ttf
 , alsa-lib
 , fetchFromGitHub
+, fetchpatch2
 , glibmm
 , gtk3
 , libGL
@@ -28,6 +29,14 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "sha256-bdW0RlV14ttnK8NizfNfXmZ7zlJOqZCpVvt8vT2Pjys=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # fix: text looks garbled with SDL2_ttf 2.0.18
+    (fetchpatch2 {
+      url = "https://github.com/linthesia/linthesia/commit/bd647270b3bdf79a9af6ac1e2203c9e860d16c58.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-hNal0eVfikRSpW+MOfpKvnWXrEJgIXHPAtNPB9SvHVU=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   postPatch = ''
     patchShebangs meson_post_install.py
   '';
@@ -40,7 +49,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     glibmm
     sqlite
     SDL2
-    SDL2_ttf_2_0_15
+    SDL2_ttf
     SDL2_image
     gtk3.out # icon cache
   ];