diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 13e915384..d7388d720 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ project(dfhack)
 
 # set up versioning.
 set(DF_VERSION "50.09")
-set(DFHACK_RELEASE "r2")
-set(DFHACK_PRERELEASE FALSE)
+set(DFHACK_RELEASE "r3rc1")
+set(DFHACK_PRERELEASE TRUE)
 
 set(DFHACK_VERSION "${DF_VERSION}-${DFHACK_RELEASE}")
 set(DFHACK_ABI_VERSION 1)