It isn’t tough at all.
Pure Science is exploration. You go exploring in a region with no idea what the ultimate outcome will be. In fact, after a year, you may decide that you can’t make any more progress and shift your focus to another subject. Pure science is primarily about finding in order to expand our knowledge in many fields of science.
Take, for example, astrophysics. Many of them have found new stars or Exoplanets, and some have even described how Black Holes arise. These are fields of exploratory study with no pre-determined objectives. Because the real-world applications of your study are uncertain, obtaining financing is difficult.
Applied Research and Engineering, on the other hand, have a clear end objective since they employ pure science knowledge to transform a finding into an innovation. Many firms are ready to fund these ideas through grants, and if they are successful, they will be turned into a manufactured product.
So go for it if you enjoy the excitement of exploratory inquiry that can take you anywhere. There is a lot of uncertainty and there isn’t a lot of money. Choose Applied Research or Engineering if you are more comfortable with objectives and want to concentrate on more practical applications that are relevant to the actual world.