diff --git a/tests/sulkta_smoke.rs b/tests/sulkta_smoke.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b2f0f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/sulkta_smoke.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+//! Sulkta-fork smoke tests for the player pipeline.
+//!
+//! Verifies the patched default client order (`Ios, Tv` without botguard) plus
+//! the soft-fail DeobfData::extract works against current YouTube player.js.
+//!
+//! Run with: `cargo test --test sulkta_smoke -- --nocapture`
+
+use rstest::{fixture, rstest};
+use rustypipe::client::{ClientType, RustyPipe};
+
+/// A stable, long-running, public-domain music video. Used by upstream
+/// tests too (`n4tK7LYFxI0` = Spektrem - Shine, NCS).
+const TEST_VIDEO_ID: &str = "n4tK7LYFxI0";
+
+#[fixture]
+fn rp() -> RustyPipe {
+    RustyPipe::builder()
+        .storage_dir(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
+        .build()
+        .unwrap()
+}
+
+/// Sanity: iOS path returns stream URLs and never touches the deobf code.
+#[rstest]
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn ios_player_returns_streams(rp: RustyPipe) {
+    let pd = rp
+        .query()
+        .player_from_client(TEST_VIDEO_ID, ClientType::Ios)
+        .await
+        .expect("iOS player_from_client should succeed");
+
+    assert_eq!(pd.details.id, TEST_VIDEO_ID);
+    assert!(
+        !pd.video_streams.is_empty() || !pd.video_only_streams.is_empty(),
+        "expected at least one video stream"
+    );
+    assert!(
+        !pd.audio_streams.is_empty(),
+        "expected at least one audio stream"
+    );
+}
+
+/// Sanity: TV path (which sets `needs_deobf=true` for the sig_timestamp request
+/// payload, but the soft-fail patch keeps the call alive even when sig_fn/nsig_fn
+/// regex extraction fails on a rotated player.js).
+#[rstest]
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn tv_player_returns_streams(rp: RustyPipe) {
+    let pd = rp
+        .query()
+        .player_from_client(TEST_VIDEO_ID, ClientType::Tv)
+        .await
+        .expect("TV player_from_client should succeed even when sig deobf regex misses");
+
+    assert_eq!(pd.details.id, TEST_VIDEO_ID);
+    assert!(
+        !pd.video_streams.is_empty() || !pd.video_only_streams.is_empty(),
+        "expected at least one TV video stream"
+    );
+}
+
+/// The patched default-client order should pick iOS as primary and return
+/// playable streams in the absence of botguard signing.
+#[rstest]
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn default_client_order_returns_streams(rp: RustyPipe) {
+    let order = rp.query().player_client_order();
+    eprintln!("default client order (no botguard): {order:?}");
+    assert_eq!(
+        order[0],
+        ClientType::Ios,
+        "iOS should be the no-botguard primary"
+    );
+
+    let pd = rp
+        .query()
+        .player(TEST_VIDEO_ID)
+        .await
+        .expect("default-clients player() should succeed");
+
+    assert_eq!(pd.details.id, TEST_VIDEO_ID);
+    assert!(
+        !pd.video_streams.is_empty() || !pd.video_only_streams.is_empty(),
+        "expected at least one video stream from the default-clients path"
+    );
+    assert!(
+        !pd.audio_streams.is_empty(),
+        "expected at least one audio stream from the default-clients path"
+    );
+
+    // HEAD-probe one returned audio stream to confirm YT actually serves it.
+    let stream_url = pd
+        .audio_streams
+        .first()
+        .expect("at least one audio stream")
+        .url
+        .clone();
+    eprintln!("probing first audio URL: {}", &stream_url[..stream_url.len().min(180)]);
+    let client = reqwest::Client::builder()
+        .user_agent("Mozilla/5.0 sulkta-rustypipe-smoke/1.0")
+        .build()
+        .unwrap();
+    let resp = client
+        .head(&stream_url)
+        .send()
+        .await
+        .expect("HEAD request to YT CDN should not error");
+    assert!(
+        resp.status().is_success() || resp.status().is_redirection(),
+        "audio URL HEAD returned non-OK status: {} (sig deobf likely needed but skipped)",
+        resp.status()
+    );
+}