diff --git a/nexus/Database/DBMysqli.php b/nexus/Database/DBMysqli.php
index 1f04d0536..c1d6dc565 100644
--- a/nexus/Database/DBMysqli.php
+++ b/nexus/Database/DBMysqli.php
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ public function connect($host, $username, $password, $database, $port)
         if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
             throw new DatabaseException(mysqli_connect_error());
         }
-        $mysqli->query("SET NAMES UTF8");
-        $mysqli->query("SET collation_connection = 'utf8_general_ci'");
+        $mysqli->set_charset("utf8mb4");
+        $mysqli->query("SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'");
         $mysqli->query("SET sql_mode=''");
         $mysqli->query("SET time_zone='".date('P')."'");