diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 9806259d1..73bedb8ff 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -136,6 +136,8 @@
 [submodule "vendor/nim-sqlite3-abi"]
 	path = vendor/nim-sqlite3-abi
 	url = https://github.com/arnetheduck/nim-sqlite3-abi.git
+	ignore = dirty
+	branch = master
 [submodule "vendor/nim-testutils"]
 	path = vendor/nim-testutils
 	url = https://github.com/status-im/nim-testutils.git
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index 844f6a69f..6124324b0 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ jobs:
       - task: CacheBeta@1
         displayName: 'cache Nim binaries'
         inputs:
-          key: NimBinaries | $(Agent.OS) | $(PLATFORM) | "$(Build.SourceBranchName)" | "v2"
+          key: NimBinaries | $(Agent.OS) | $(PLATFORM) | "$(Build.SourceBranchName)" | "v4"
           path: NimBinaries
 
       - task: CacheBeta@1
@@ -68,5 +68,7 @@ jobs:
           mingw32-make -j2 ARCH_OVERRIDE=${PLATFORM} LOG_LEVEL=TRACE
           mingw32-make -j2 ARCH_OVERRIDE=${PLATFORM} LOG_LEVEL=TRACE NIMFLAGS="-d:testnet_servers_image"
           file build/beacon_node
+          # fail fast
+          export NIMTEST_ABORT_ON_ERROR=1
           mingw32-make -j2 ARCH_OVERRIDE=${PLATFORM} DISABLE_TEST_FIXTURES_SCRIPT=1 test
         displayName: 'build and test'
diff --git a/tests/official/test_fixture_state_transition_epoch.nim b/tests/official/test_fixture_state_transition_epoch.nim
index cd163bd6d..2992df177 100644
--- a/tests/official/test_fixture_state_transition_epoch.nim
+++ b/tests/official/test_fixture_state_transition_epoch.nim
@@ -38,11 +38,8 @@ template runSuite(suiteDir, testName: string, transitionProc: untyped{ident}, us
 
         let unitTestName = testDir.rsplit(DirSep, 1)[1]
         timedTest testName & " - " & unitTestName & preset():
-          var stateRef, postRef: ref BeaconState
-          new stateRef
-          new postRef
-          stateRef[] = parseTest(testDir/"pre.ssz", SSZ, BeaconState)
-          postRef[] = parseTest(testDir/"post.ssz", SSZ, BeaconState)
+          let stateRef = parseTest(testDir/"pre.ssz", SSZ, ref BeaconState)
+          let postRef = parseTest(testDir/"post.ssz", SSZ, ref BeaconState)
 
           when useCache:
             var cache = get_empty_per_epoch_cache()
diff --git a/vendor/nimbus-build-system b/vendor/nimbus-build-system
index 088d3b7f6..0cce46e12 160000
--- a/vendor/nimbus-build-system
+++ b/vendor/nimbus-build-system
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 088d3b7f6843fd61c829a5a0c0c29912945963ae
+Subproject commit 0cce46e1260b053349d0d6f337f5d67a7bc14462