diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 62f1fc30b2..040a5198f2 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ matrix:
   include:
   - r: devel
   - r: release
-    env: USE_VDIFFR=true
+    env: VDIFFR_RUN_TESTS=true
     before_cache:
     - Rscript -e 'remotes::install_cran("pkgdown")'
     - Rscript -e 'remotes::install_github("tidyverse/tidytemplate")'
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ env:
   # don't treat missing suggested packages as error
   - _R_CHECK_FORCE_SUGGESTS_=false
   # switch off vdiffr by default
-  - USE_VDIFFR=false
+  - VDIFFR_RUN_TESTS=false
 
 after_success:
   - Rscript -e 'covr::codecov()'
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 8cfca78191..036f1f5b28 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ Suggests:
     sf (>= 0.3-4),
     svglite (>= 1.2.0.9001),
     testthat (>= 0.11.0),
-    vdiffr
+    vdiffr (>= 0.3.0)
 Enhances: sp
 License: GPL-2 | file LICENSE
 URL: http://ggplot2.tidyverse.org, https://github.com/tidyverse/ggplot2
diff --git a/tests/figs/deps.txt b/tests/figs/deps.txt
index 039800478b..059d357267 100644
--- a/tests/figs/deps.txt
+++ b/tests/figs/deps.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-ggplot2: 3.1.0.9000
-vdiffr-svg-engine: 0.9000
+- vdiffr-svg-engine: 1.0
+- vdiffr: 0.3.0
+- freetypeharfbuzz: 0.2.5
diff --git a/tests/testthat/helper-vdiffr.R b/tests/testthat/helper-vdiffr.R
index 9d42c9335e..77f38e3155 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/helper-vdiffr.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/helper-vdiffr.R
@@ -1,33 +1,5 @@
-# default is equal to whether NOT_CRAN is true or not
-enable_vdiffr <- identical(Sys.getenv("NOT_CRAN"), "true")
+# vdiffr ignores failures when
+#   - VDIFFR_RUN_TESTS is "false" (on Travis CI with older versions and dev version of R)
+#   - CI is not set (on CRAN)
 
-# disable or enable vdiffr based on the state of USE_VDIFFR, if set
-if (identical(Sys.getenv("USE_VDIFFR"), "true")) {
-  enable_vdiffr <- TRUE
-} else if (identical(Sys.getenv("USE_VDIFFR"), "false")) {
-  enable_vdiffr <- FALSE
-}
-
-# disable vdiffr if version is old
-if (!requireNamespace("vdiffr", quietly = TRUE) ||
-  utils::packageVersion("vdiffr") < "0.2.3.9001") {
-  enable_vdiffr <- FALSE
-}
-
-expect_doppelganger <- function(title, fig,
-                                path = NULL,
-                                ...,
-                                user_fonts = NULL,
-                                verbose = FALSE) {
-  if (!enable_vdiffr) {
-    expect_error(regexp = NA, ggplot_build(fig))
-    return(invisible(NULL))
-  }
-
-  vdiffr::expect_doppelganger(title, fig,
-    path = path,
-    ...,
-    user_fonts = user_fonts,
-    verbose = verbose
-  )
-}
+expect_doppelganger <- vdiffr::expect_doppelganger
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-geom-path.R b/tests/testthat/test-geom-path.R
index a99dd114f2..1f8007a8e1 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-geom-path.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-geom-path.R
@@ -38,14 +38,11 @@ test_that("geom_path draws correctly", {
 test_that("NA linetype is dropped with warning", {
   df <- data_frame(x = 1:2, y = 1:2, z = "a")
 
-  # Somehow the warning does not slip through on ggplot_build()
-  if (enable_vdiffr) {
-    expect_warning(
-      expect_doppelganger(
-        "NA linetype",
-        ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_path(linetype = NA)
-      ),
-      "containing missing values"
-    )
-  }
+  expect_warning(
+    expect_doppelganger(
+      "NA linetype",
+      ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_path(linetype = NA)
+    ),
+    "containing missing values"
+  )
 })