diff --git a/bot.ts b/bot.ts
index 1ee3ef547..6e0c0a6dc 100644
--- a/bot.ts
+++ b/bot.ts
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ import { transformComponentToDiscordComponent } from "./transformers/reverse/com
 import { getBotIdFromToken, removeTokenPrefix } from "./util/token.ts";
 import { CreateShardManager } from "./gateway/manager/shardManager.ts";
 
-export async function createBot(options: CreateBotOptions): Promise<Bot> {
+export function createBot(options: CreateBotOptions): Bot {
   const bot = {
     id: options.botId ?? getBotIdFromToken(options.token),
     applicationId: options.applicationId || options.botId,
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ export async function createBot(options: CreateBotOptions): Promise<Bot> {
 
   bot.helpers = createHelpers(bot, options.helpers ?? {});
   bot.gateway = createGatewayManager({
-    gatewayBot: bot.botGatewayData ?? await bot.helpers.getGatewayBot(),
+    gatewayBot: bot.botGatewayData ?? {} as any,
     gatewayConfig: {
       token: options.token,
       intents: options.intents,
@@ -259,7 +259,11 @@ export function createEventHandlers(
   };
 }
 
-export function startBot(bot: Bot) {
+export async function startBot(bot: Bot) {
+  if (!bot.botGatewayData) {
+    bot.gateway.gatewayBot = await bot.helpers.getGatewayBot();
+  }
+
   bot.gateway.spawnShards();
 }
 
diff --git a/util/constants.ts b/util/constants.ts
index de6dcb039..786f11ecc 100644
--- a/util/constants.ts
+++ b/util/constants.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export const GATEWAY_VERSION = 10;
 
 // TODO: update this version
 /** https://github.com/discordeno/discordeno/releases */
-export const DISCORDENO_VERSION = "13.0.0-rc42";
+export const DISCORDENO_VERSION = "13.0.0-rc43";
 
 /** https://discord.com/developers/docs/reference#user-agent */
 export const USER_AGENT = `DiscordBot (https://github.com/discordeno/discordeno, v${DISCORDENO_VERSION})`;