What's the best path choice: Explore, Catch or Battle?
‘Charged Embers’ is a version of the ‘Choose Your Path’ Timed Research quests which run during quiet weeks in Pokémon Go. Since this is a branching quest, you’ve got three paths to choose from — Explore, Catch or Battle — and your choice decides which additional bonus you’ll get access to. Don’t worry though, I’ve taken a look at the best ‘Choose Your Path’ choice down below.
It’s important to note that there have been reports of players getting access to a slightly different version of this quest. Both in the terms of available paths and how long they have to complete it. This guide is based off of the version I personally had access to and I’ll be keeping it updated if matters change.
Quest End Time: Friday 3rd July at 8pm (local time)
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‘Charged Embers Timed Research’ rewards and quests steps
‘Choose Your Path: Charged Embers Timed Research’ is only available for five days in Pokémon Go and gives you the chance to enjoy an additional bonus during this time frame. The bonuses on offer are each themed around a key mechanic of the game, with the choices being: Explore, Catch or Battle.
💡Lottie’s Pro Tip
I recommend picking either the Catch or Explore path. More details on why in the ‘Best path choice’ section.
Remember — just like with any branching quest, you can not change your choice after it’s made. Due to this, carefully consider the usefulness of each bonus before making your decision. To help you do so, I’ve divided this guide into sections covering each individual path, listing the bonuses as I go, before taking a look at what I consider to be the best Charged Embers path choice.
For now, let’s take a look at the quest’s first step:
‘Charged Embers Timed Research’ Step 1 of 2
- Claim reward — 500 Stardust
Reward: Five Poké Ball
The Forever Forward season is here, so it’s a good idea to know the June event schedule. Go Fest 2026: Global is just around the corner! There’s a lot to do in Pokémon Go outside of the current event! From the Go Battle League, Remote Trading, PokéStop Showcase, Routes and Max Battles. Don’t forget to catch rare Pokémon while you’re at it.
‘Explore (PokéStops)’ path for ‘Charged Embers Timed Research’
Choosing the Explore (PokéStops) path unlocks the 1/2 Egg Hatch Distance bonus and gives you access to following challenges. Remember — you can not change your choice after it’s been made.
‘Charged Embers Timed Research: Explore’ Step 2 of 2
- Explore 3km — Magmar encounter
- Spin 25 PokéStops or Gyms — Magmar encounter
- Hatch 2 Eggs — Magmar encounter
- Follow 2 Routes — Magmar encounter
- Explore 3km — Electabuzz encounter
- Spin 25 PokéStops or Gyms — Electabuzz encounter
- Hatch 2 Eggs — Electabuzz encounter
- Follow 2 Routes — Electabuzz encounter
Rewards: Three Golden Razz Berries and five Rare Candies.
‘Catch (XP)’ path for ‘Charged Embers Timed Research’
Selecting the Catch (XP) path will give you the additional Candy for catching Pokémon with Nice Throws or better bonus and the challenges down below. Don’t forget, you can’t change your path choice after it’s been made.
‘Charged Embers Timed Research: Catch’ Step 2 of 2
- Make 15 Nice Throws — Magmar encounter
- Make 15 Curveball Throws — Magmar encounter
- Make 3 Excellent Throws — Magmar encounter
- Make 15 Great Curveball Throws — Magmar encounter
- Make 15 Nice Throws — Electabuzz encounter
- Make 15 Curveball Throws — Electabuzz encounter
- Make 3 Excellent Throws — Electabuzz encounter
- Make 15 Great Curveball Throws — Electabuzz encounter
Rewards: Three Golden Razz Berries and five Rare Candies.
‘Battle (Raids)’ path for ‘Charged Embers Timed Research’
Finally, if you pick the Battle (Raids) path you’ll get the extra Mysterious Components from Team GO Rocket Grunts bonus. Yes, you’ll get the challenges down below too. As always, you can not change your raid choice after it’s been made.
‘Charged Embers Timed Research: Battle’ Step 2 of 2
- Win a raid — Magmar encounter
- Win 2 raids — Magmar encounter
- Defeat 8 Team Go Rocket Grunts — Magmar encounter
- Use 10 supereffective Charged Attacks — Magmar encounter
- Win a raid — Electabuzz encounter
- Win 2 raids — Electabuzz encounter
- Defeat 8 Team Go Rocket Grunts — Electabuzz encounter
- Use 10 supereffective Charged Attacks — Electabuzz encounter
Rewards: Three Golden Razz Berries and five Rare Candies.
Best path choice for ‘Charged Embers’: Explore, Catch or Battle?
In my opinion, Catch is the best path choice for ‘Charged Embers’. Though Explore is a very close second. I’ve based this decision around the amount of additional Candy you can roughly earn overall during the time the bonus is active.
The reason why the Catch path comes out on top is that it provides a boost to the main activity of Pokémon Go — catching Pokémon. As long as you’re making Nice Throws or better, you’ll get to enjoy that sweet extra Candy, which you can use to evolve and power-up your Pokémon.
Here’s the boosted XP rates for each type of throw:
- Nice Throw — 30 XP
- Great Throw — 150 XP
- Excellent Throw — 1,500 XP
- Nice Curveball — 60 XP
- Great Curveball — 180 XP
- Excellent Curveball — 1,530 XP
If you’re visiting a new location to go on holiday (lucky) or you’re planning on doing plenty of walking, and you have a backlog of Eggs in need of hatching, then I’d actually recommend taking the Explore bonus. This is because you’ll have the chance to make use of the 1/2 Egg Hatch Distance bonus and hatch more of your Eggs quickly as a result. To be exact, the distance needed to hatch your Eggs is cut in half, so you’ll be able to hatch double the Eggs you normally would.
Finally, I highly recommend not following the Battle path. On paper, the extra Mysterious Components from Team GO Rocket Grunts bonus sounds good but, in reality, you’re not going to benefit from it as much as the other Path’s available. Once you collect six Mysterious Components and get a Rocket Radar, you can’t actually receive any more Mysterious Components as long as the Rocket Radar is in your bag, limiting this Bonus. This could be viable if you want to spend some time back-to-back battling and collecting Stardust, but I’d argue your time is better spent hatching your most valuable Eggs or collecting Candy necessary for evolving your Pokémon.
Best of luck completing ‘Charged Embers’!
