Silph Puzzle Hunt 2021/Natural Order

Natural Order is a crossword puzzle from Round 1 of the 2021 Silph Puzzle Hunt. Beyond a given enumeration of (5 8) below the puzzle, this puzzle presents itself as a standard crossword.

Solve Path
This puzzle is indeed a standard crossword, but some of the clues may hint solvers as to what the next step may be.


 * 25 across, Town in a video game series this puzzle's theme relates to, which clues to PALLET, lets solvers know that this puzzle somehow relates to Pokémon.
 * 135 across, Word in this puzzle's title that isn't hintful, which clues to ORDER, hints that somehow the word NATURAL, in the context of Pokémon, is used in this puzzle.
 * 1 down, What the central 5x5 block represents, in this puzzle, clues to CHART.
 * 48 across, What this side of the central 5x5 square represents, clueing to DECREASE, and
 * 68 down, What this side of the central 5x5 square represents, clueing to INCREASE, solvers now have axes for the chart.

Searching for Pokémon chart natural or something similar will direct the solver to a 5x5 chart of natures in Pokémon games, with the top axis representing an increase, and the left axis representing a decrease.

Some of these natures are found in this puzzle as answers to crossword clues. In fact, there are exactly 10 words that solvers answered in the crossword grid that are also Pokémon natures. Each nature can be associated to a letter by finding it in the 5x5 grid of Pokémon natures, then looking at the 5x5 grid of letters they filled in the puzzle and taking the letter from the corresponding position. Reading these letters from top-to-bottom left-to-right in grid order yields the clue phrase TYPE I ERROR. Answering this clue with an answer length of the given enumeration (5 8) yields the final answer to this puzzle.

Puzzle Elements

 * Crossword - This puzzle presents itself as a traditional American crossword. The first part of the solve tasks the solver with answering clues to fill out the crossword grid. Some of the clues require knowledge of the puzzle mechanics, but the vast majority do not and can be solved in a standard crossword fashion.


 * Hint in Title - As mentioned in one of the clues, the title does contain important information. Ignoring the word "Order" leaves "Natural", a hint towards...
 * Video Games (Pokemon) - ...the puzzle's use of pokemon natures in its final extraction. Specifically, several natures have been included as grid entries, giving specific ones to use.
 * Marked Elements - Not in the most conventional way, though. The 5x5 grid in the center of the crossword can be associated with a similar 5x5 grid of pokemon natures. Taking the letters in the same spots as the natures found in the grid (in order of grid placement) gets solvers...
 * Final Clue Phrase/Enumeration - ...TYPE I ERROR (5 8)