diff --git a/empire b/empire
index 9914468..4a81ed4 100755
--- a/empire
+++ b/empire
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ import ast
 # Empire imports
 from lib.common import empire, helpers
 
+# set global utf8 encoding
+reload(sys)
+sys.setdefaultencoding('utf8')
+
 global serverExitCommand
 serverExitCommand = 'restart'