diff --git a/src/main/java/com/viaversion/aas/codec/CompressionCodec.java b/src/main/java/com/viaversion/aas/codec/CompressionCodec.java
index edf1289..201c7a5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/viaversion/aas/codec/CompressionCodec.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/viaversion/aas/codec/CompressionCodec.java
@@ -1,20 +1,36 @@
 package com.viaversion.aas.codec;
 
+import com.google.common.cache.CacheBuilder;
+import com.google.common.cache.CacheLoader;
+import com.google.common.cache.LoadingCache;
+import com.velocitypowered.natives.compression.JavaVelocityCompressor;
 import com.velocitypowered.natives.compression.VelocityCompressor;
 import com.velocitypowered.natives.util.MoreByteBufUtils;
 import com.velocitypowered.natives.util.Natives;
+import com.viaversion.aas.config.VIAaaSConfig;
+import com.viaversion.aas.handler.MinecraftHandler;
 import com.viaversion.viaversion.api.type.Type;
 import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.DecoderException;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.MessageToMessageCodec;
+import kotlin.Pair;
 
+import java.net.SocketAddress;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
+import java.util.zip.DataFormatException;
 
 public class CompressionCodec extends MessageToMessageCodec<ByteBuf, ByteBuf> {
 	// stolen from Krypton (GPL) and modified
 	// https://github.com/astei/krypton/blob/master/src/main/java/me/steinborn/krypton/mod/shared/network/compression/MinecraftCompressEncoder.java
 	private static final int UNCOMPRESSED_CAP = 8 * 1024 * 1024; // 8MiB
+	// Workaround for Lilypad backend servers
+	private static final LoadingCache<SocketAddress, Pair<AtomicInteger, AtomicInteger>> nativeFails = CacheBuilder
+			.newBuilder()
+			.expireAfterWrite(2, TimeUnit.HOURS)
+			.build(CacheLoader.from(() -> new Pair<>(new AtomicInteger(), new AtomicInteger())));
 	private int threshold;
 	private VelocityCompressor compressor;
 
@@ -28,7 +44,24 @@ public class CompressionCodec extends MessageToMessageCodec<ByteBuf, ByteBuf> {
 
 	@Override
 	public void handlerAdded(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) {
-		compressor = Natives.compress.get().create(6);
+		var useNative = true;
+
+		var attempts = getAttempts(ctx);
+		if (attempts != null && Math.random() <= 0.95) {
+			// We'll use Java when the native compression fail rate is high
+			var probabilityNo = attempts.getSecond().get() + 1;
+			var divisor = attempts.getFirst().get() + 2;
+			useNative = !(Math.random() <= (double) probabilityNo / divisor);
+		}
+
+		var level = VIAaaSConfig.INSTANCE.getCompressionLevel();
+		if (useNative) {
+			compressor = Natives.compress.get().create(level);
+		} else {
+			compressor = JavaVelocityCompressor.FACTORY.create(level);
+		}
+
+		recordHandlerAdded(ctx);
 	}
 
 	@Override
@@ -66,6 +99,32 @@ public class CompressionCodec extends MessageToMessageCodec<ByteBuf, ByteBuf> {
 		return MoreByteBufUtils.preferredBuffer(ctx.alloc(), compressor, initialBufferSize);
 	}
 
+	private Pair<AtomicInteger, AtomicInteger> getAttempts(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) {
+		var handler = ctx.pipeline().get(MinecraftHandler.class);
+		if (handler == null || handler.getFrontEnd() || !ctx.channel().isActive()) return null;
+		var addr = handler.getEndRemoteAddress();
+
+		return nativeFails.getUnchecked(addr);
+	}
+
+	private void recordHandlerAdded(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) {
+		if (compressor instanceof JavaVelocityCompressor) return; // Only record errors happened with native
+
+		var attempts = getAttempts(ctx);
+		if (attempts != null) {
+			attempts.getFirst().incrementAndGet();
+		}
+	}
+
+	private void recordDecompressFailed(ChannelHandlerContext ctx) {
+		if (compressor instanceof JavaVelocityCompressor) return; // Only record errors happened with native
+
+		var attempts = getAttempts(ctx);
+		if (attempts != null) {
+			attempts.getSecond().incrementAndGet();
+		}
+	}
+
 	@Override
 	protected void decode(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, ByteBuf input, List<Object> out) throws Exception {
 		if (!input.isReadable() || !ctx.channel().isActive()) return;
@@ -88,6 +147,12 @@ public class CompressionCodec extends MessageToMessageCodec<ByteBuf, ByteBuf> {
 			compressor.inflate(compatibleIn, decompressed, claimedUncompressedSize);
 			input.clear();
 			out.add(decompressed.retain());
+		} catch (DataFormatException ex) {
+			if (ex.getMessage().startsWith("Received a deflate stream that was too large, wanted ")) {
+				return; // workaround for lilypad
+			}
+			recordDecompressFailed(ctx);
+			throw ex;
 		} finally {
 			decompressed.release();
 			compatibleIn.release();
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/config/VIAaaSConfig.kt b/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/config/VIAaaSConfig.kt
index 2434d87..68b7b7a 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/config/VIAaaSConfig.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/config/VIAaaSConfig.kt
@@ -95,4 +95,5 @@ object VIAaaSConfig : Config(File("config/viaaas.yml")) {
         get() = this.getString("backend-proxy", "").let { if (it.isNullOrEmpty()) null else URI.create(it) }
     val protocolDetectorCache: Int
         get() = this.getInt("protocol-detector-cache", 30)
+    val compressionLevel: Int get() = this.getInt("compression-level", 6)
 }
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/handler/Util.kt b/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/handler/Util.kt
index 5bb0b66..ba52cad 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/handler/Util.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/com/viaversion/aas/handler/Util.kt
@@ -37,10 +37,14 @@ fun addProxyHandler(pipe: ChannelPipeline, proxyUri: URI?, socket: InetSocketAdd
 }
 
 fun decodeBrand(data: ByteArray, is17: Boolean): String {
-    return if (is17) {
-        String(data, Charsets.UTF_8)
-    } else {
-        Type.STRING.read(Unpooled.wrappedBuffer(data))
+    return when {
+        data.isEmpty() -> ""
+        is17 -> {
+            String(data, Charsets.UTF_8)
+        }
+        else -> {
+            Type.STRING.read(Unpooled.wrappedBuffer(data))
+        }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/main/resources/viaaas.yml b/src/main/resources/viaaas.yml
index 7aeaede..a61bdb6 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/viaaas.yml
+++ b/src/main/resources/viaaas.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ backend-proxy: ''
 # Migrated to backend-proxy
 backend-socks5-proxy-address: ''
 backend-socks5-proxy-port: 9050
+# Zlib Compression level
+compression-level: 6
 #
 ######
 # Crypto