diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index ea49fcd3f..c548e6331 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
    "require": {
       "php": "^8.0",
       "php-64bit": "*",
-      "ext-chunkutils2": "^0.2.0",
+      "ext-chunkutils2": "^0.3.0",
       "ext-crypto": "^0.3.1",
       "ext-ctype": "*",
       "ext-curl": "*",
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index 62ccacf9d..70eadad96 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#installing-dependencies",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "009abb4d28399a27dc9d059bfd849aee",
+    "content-hash": "ad6be987e3e2228abcb23e169f139d29",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "adhocore/json-comment",
@@ -3532,7 +3532,7 @@
     "platform": {
         "php": "^8.0",
         "php-64bit": "*",
-        "ext-chunkutils2": "^0.2.0",
+        "ext-chunkutils2": "^0.3.0",
         "ext-crypto": "^0.3.1",
         "ext-ctype": "*",
         "ext-curl": "*",
diff --git a/src/PocketMine.php b/src/PocketMine.php
index 4d6d3cd4a..afac6fd8d 100644
--- a/src/PocketMine.php
+++ b/src/PocketMine.php
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ namespace pocketmine {
 		}
 
 		$chunkutils2_version = phpversion("chunkutils2");
-		$wantedVersionLock = "0.2";
+		$wantedVersionLock = "0.3";
 		$wantedVersionMin = "$wantedVersionLock.0";
 		if($chunkutils2_version !== false && (
 			version_compare($chunkutils2_version, $wantedVersionMin) < 0 ||
diff --git a/src/network/mcpe/serializer/ChunkSerializer.php b/src/network/mcpe/serializer/ChunkSerializer.php
index 8f621e0c8..956559886 100644
--- a/src/network/mcpe/serializer/ChunkSerializer.php
+++ b/src/network/mcpe/serializer/ChunkSerializer.php
@@ -32,8 +32,10 @@ use pocketmine\network\mcpe\protocol\serializer\PacketSerializerContext;
 use pocketmine\utils\Binary;
 use pocketmine\utils\BinaryStream;
 use pocketmine\world\format\Chunk;
+use pocketmine\world\format\PalettedBlockArray;
 use pocketmine\world\format\SubChunk;
 use function count;
+use function str_repeat;
 
 final class ChunkSerializer{
 
@@ -81,8 +83,17 @@ final class ChunkSerializer{
 		$stream->putByte(count($layers));
 
 		foreach($layers as $blocks){
-			$stream->putByte(($blocks->getBitsPerBlock() << 1) | ($persistentBlockStates ? 0 : 1));
-			$stream->put($blocks->getWordArray());
+			if($blocks->getBitsPerBlock() === 0){
+				//TODO: we use these in memory, but the game doesn't support them yet
+				//polyfill them with 1-bpb instead
+				$bitsPerBlock = 1;
+				$words = str_repeat("\x00", PalettedBlockArray::getExpectedWordArraySize(1));
+			}else{
+				$bitsPerBlock = $blocks->getBitsPerBlock();
+				$words = $blocks->getWordArray();
+			}
+			$stream->putByte(($bitsPerBlock << 1) | ($persistentBlockStates ? 0 : 1));
+			$stream->put($words);
 			$palette = $blocks->getPalette();
 
 			//these LSHIFT by 1 uvarints are optimizations: the client expects zigzag varints here
diff --git a/src/world/format/io/leveldb/LevelDB.php b/src/world/format/io/leveldb/LevelDB.php
index 92beecc2a..d849822b5 100644
--- a/src/world/format/io/leveldb/LevelDB.php
+++ b/src/world/format/io/leveldb/LevelDB.php
@@ -446,8 +446,15 @@ class LevelDB extends BaseWorldProvider implements WritableWorldProvider{
 					$layers = $subChunk->getBlockLayers();
 					$subStream->putByte(count($layers));
 					foreach($layers as $blocks){
-						$subStream->putByte($blocks->getBitsPerBlock() << 1);
-						$subStream->put($blocks->getWordArray());
+						if($blocks->getBitsPerBlock() !== 0){
+							$subStream->putByte($blocks->getBitsPerBlock() << 1);
+							$subStream->put($blocks->getWordArray());
+						}else{
+							//TODO: we use these in-memory, but they aren't supported on disk by the game yet
+							//polyfill them with a zero'd 1-bpb instead
+							$subStream->putByte(1 << 1);
+							$subStream->put(str_repeat("\x00", PalettedBlockArray::getExpectedWordArraySize(1)));
+						}
 
 						$palette = $blocks->getPalette();
 						$subStream->putLInt(count($palette));