diff --git a/client.js b/client.js
index 63f2f8fc..aded5348 100644
--- a/client.js
+++ b/client.js
@@ -591,10 +591,10 @@ async function instanceManagement(instanceconfig) {
 			// require plugin class and execute it
 			let pluginClass = require(path.resolve(pluginConfig.pluginPath, "index.js"));
 			plugins[i] = new pluginClass(combinedConfig, async function(data, callback){
-				if(data.toString('utf8')[0] != "/") {
+				if(data && data.toString('utf8')[0] != "/") {
 					log(data.toString('utf8'));
 					return true;
-				} else {
+				} else if (data && data.toString('utf8')[0] == "/"){
 					return messageInterface(data.toString('utf8'), callback);
 				}
 			}, { // extra functions to pass in object. Should have done it like this from the start, but won't break backwards compat.
@@ -670,7 +670,11 @@ async function instanceManagement(instanceconfig) {
 					publicIP: config.publicIP, // IP of the server should be global for all instances, so we pull that straight from the config
 					mods:modHashes,
 					instanceName: instance,
-					playerCount:playerCount.replace(/(\r\n\t|\n|\r\t)/gm, ""),
+				}
+				if(playerCount){
+					payload.playerCount = playerCount.replace(/(\r\n\t|\n|\r\t)/gm, "");
+				} else {
+					payload.playerCount = 0;
 				}
 				
 				function callback(err, mac) {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 4fb90032..3a39e4f9 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
     "mkdirp-promise": "^5.0.1",
     "moment": "^2.22.2",
     "ncp": "^2.0.0",
-    "needle": "^2.2.1",
+    "needle": "^2.2.4",
     "node-factorio-api": "^0.3.1-alpha",
     "node-forge": "^0.7.1",
     "prom-client": "^10.2.3",