diff --git a/crates/benilla-assets/src/materials.rs b/crates/benilla-assets/src/materials.rs
index e5b4d707..a901db3a 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-assets/src/materials.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-assets/src/materials.rs
@@ -15,12 +15,23 @@ use bevy::render::render_resource::{
     AsBindGroup, BlendComponent, BlendFactor, BlendOperation, BlendState, Buffer, ColorWrites,
     CompareFunction, RenderPipelineDescriptor, SpecializedMeshPipelineError,
 };
-use bevy::shader::{load_shader_library, ShaderRef};
+use bevy::shader::{load_shader_library, Shader, ShaderRef};
 
 /// Compile the WGSL files into the binary and register them under
 /// `embedded://benilla_assets/shaders/…`. Call **after** Bevy's `AssetPlugin` (it fills the
 /// registry that plugin creates); [`crate::register_asset_loaders`] already does.
 pub fn register_shaders(app: &mut App) {
+    // The `load_shader_library!` calls below allocate a `Handle<Shader>`, which bevy refuses
+    // ("the asset type has not been initialized") unless something has initialised the type. The
+    // render plugins do; an app that wants only the loaders has none, and on 0.18 that turned the
+    // six end-to-end pipeline tests red at once — a dependency's doing, invisible to the
+    // no-install gate because all six are data-gated and skip there.
+    //
+    // Guarded, because `init_asset` *inserts* `Assets<Shader>`: calling it where the render
+    // plugins already ran would drop every shader they had loaded.
+    if !app.world().contains_resource::<Assets<Shader>>() {
+        app.init_asset::<Shader>();
+    }
     bevy::asset::embedded_asset!(app, "shaders/terrain.wgsl");
     bevy::asset::embedded_asset!(app, "shaders/wow_model.wgsl");
     bevy::asset::embedded_asset!(app, "shaders/wdl.wgsl");