diff --git a/common/assets/Cargo.toml b/common/assets/Cargo.toml
index 2ab9f976b0..d4a604ec0b 100644
--- a/common/assets/Cargo.toml
+++ b/common/assets/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,10 +14,10 @@ wavefront = "0.2" # TODO: Use vertex-colors branch when we have models that have
 image = { workspace = true }
 tracing = { workspace = true }
 tar = { version = "0.4.37", optional = true }
+hashbrown = { workspace = true }
 
 # asset tweak
 serde = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-hashbrown = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 walkdir = "2.3.2"
@@ -25,4 +25,4 @@ walkdir = "2.3.2"
 [features]
 hot-reloading = ["assets_manager/hot-reloading"]
 asset_tweak = ["dep:serde", "hot-reloading"]
-plugins = ["dep:serde", "dep:tar", "dep:hashbrown"]
+plugins = ["dep:serde", "dep:tar"]
diff --git a/common/assets/src/lib.rs b/common/assets/src/lib.rs
index 7416fb870a..f2e7eb9ece 100644
--- a/common/assets/src/lib.rs
+++ b/common/assets/src/lib.rs
@@ -245,7 +245,6 @@ impl<V> Concatenate for Vec<V> {
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "plugins")]
 impl<K: Eq + Hash, V, S: BuildHasher> Concatenate for hashbrown::HashMap<K, V, S> {
     fn concatenate(mut self, b: Self) -> Self {
         self.extend(b);
@@ -258,6 +257,7 @@ impl<T: Concatenate> Concatenate for Ron<T> {
 }
 
 /// This wrapper combines several RON files from multiple sources
+#[cfg(feature = "plugins")]
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct MultiRon<T>(pub T);
 
@@ -273,6 +273,10 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+// fallback
+#[cfg(not(feature = "plugins"))]
+pub use assets_manager::asset::Ron as MultiRon;
+
 /// Return path to repository root by searching 10 directories back
 pub fn find_root() -> Option<PathBuf> {
     std::env::current_dir().map_or(None, |path| {