diff --git a/bom/application/pom.xml b/bom/application/pom.xml
index 53fdddfcf0dc0..e8b43a7549a1d 100644
--- a/bom/application/pom.xml
+++ b/bom/application/pom.xml
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
         <smallrye-reactive-streams-operators.version>1.0.13</smallrye-reactive-streams-operators.version>
         <smallrye-reactive-types-converter.version>3.0.1</smallrye-reactive-types-converter.version>
         <smallrye-mutiny-vertx-binding.version>3.13.1</smallrye-mutiny-vertx-binding.version>
-        <smallrye-reactive-messaging.version>4.21.0</smallrye-reactive-messaging.version>
+        <smallrye-reactive-messaging.version>4.22.0</smallrye-reactive-messaging.version>
         <smallrye-stork.version>2.6.0</smallrye-stork.version>
         <jakarta.activation.version>2.1.3</jakarta.activation.version>
         <jakarta.annotation-api.version>3.0.0</jakarta.annotation-api.version>
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@
         <sshd-common.version>2.12.1</sshd-common.version>
         <mime4j.version>0.8.11</mime4j.version>
         <mutiny-zero.version>1.1.0</mutiny-zero.version>
-        <pulsar-client.version>3.0.0</pulsar-client.version>
+        <pulsar-client.version>3.3.0</pulsar-client.version>
         <async-http-client.version>2.12.3</async-http-client.version>
         <!-- keep in-sync, if possible, with Micrometer registry Prometheus -->
         <prometheus.version>0.16.0</prometheus.version>
diff --git a/extensions/smallrye-reactive-messaging-pulsar/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/smallrye/reactivemessaging/pulsar/deployment/SmallRyeReactiveMessagingPulsarProcessor.java b/extensions/smallrye-reactive-messaging-pulsar/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/smallrye/reactivemessaging/pulsar/deployment/SmallRyeReactiveMessagingPulsarProcessor.java
index 26269416f743c..021642151f1d9 100644
--- a/extensions/smallrye-reactive-messaging-pulsar/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/smallrye/reactivemessaging/pulsar/deployment/SmallRyeReactiveMessagingPulsarProcessor.java
+++ b/extensions/smallrye-reactive-messaging-pulsar/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/smallrye/reactivemessaging/pulsar/deployment/SmallRyeReactiveMessagingPulsarProcessor.java
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 import org.objectweb.asm.Opcodes;
 
 import io.quarkus.arc.deployment.AdditionalBeanBuildItem;
+import io.quarkus.bootstrap.classloading.QuarkusClassLoader;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.Feature;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.annotations.BuildProducer;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.annotations.BuildStep;
@@ -166,14 +167,13 @@ public NativeImageConfigBuildItem pulsarRuntimeInitialized(
                     .constructors().build());
         }
 
-        return NativeImageConfigBuildItem.builder()
+        NativeImageConfigBuildItem.Builder nativeImageConfig = NativeImageConfigBuildItem.builder()
                 .addNativeImageSystemProperty("io.netty.handler.ssl.noOpenSsl", "true")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.common.allocator.PulsarByteBufAllocator")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.common.protocol.Commands")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.auth.oauth2.protocol.TokenClient")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.crypto.MessageCryptoBc")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.schema.generic.GenericProtobufNativeSchema")
-                .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.Backoff")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.ConnectionPool")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.ControlledClusterFailover")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.HttpClient")
@@ -188,8 +188,17 @@ public NativeImageConfigBuildItem pulsarRuntimeInitialized(
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.asynchttpclient.RequestBuilder")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.asynchttpclient.BoundRequestBuilder")
                 .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.asynchttpclient.ntlm.NtlmEngine")
-                .addRuntimeInitializedClass("sun.awt.dnd.SunDropTargetContextPeer$EventDispatcher")
-                .build();
+                .addRuntimeInitializedClass("sun.awt.dnd.SunDropTargetContextPeer$EventDispatcher");
+        if (QuarkusClassLoader.isClassPresentAtRuntime("org.apache.pulsar.common.util.Backoff")) {
+            nativeImageConfig
+                    .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.common.util.Backoff");
+        }
+        if (QuarkusClassLoader.isClassPresentAtRuntime("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.Backoff")) {
+            nativeImageConfig
+                    .addRuntimeInitializedClass("org.apache.pulsar.client.impl.Backoff");
+        }
+
+        return nativeImageConfig.build();
     }
 
 }