Definitely would recommend TikaTika, especially since it would make your ship battles safer. Getting Ixa'Ness doesn't take long at all in a run, and with all the timesaves you get through normal battles using Captain's Hat, you can afford to use torpedoes a lot more and take the risks of a miss without a major detriment to your time. #CaptainsHatSwag saves the day.

ngBurns, in your WR run you talked about the Vorlik Blade, and you're right that it's really not viable. The only way to get him before Fallen rank would be to adhere to a relatively good 100% run all the way up to Yafutoma (and it is indeed possible for you to get him before Vize battle becomes active; I've done it a few times in 100% runs) and it's... just plain not feasable for a speedrun. He would be a great add to the crew if he was, though...

I AM still working on the plot flagging system to screw with the game checks. I may be silent in discord due to it crashing constantly on me, but I'm whittling away at it when I can~ I'll post progress on that here as I make definite breakthroughs so others can see when I make progress.