Hello! Please introduce yourself to our readers.  When did you first start playing the game, and what was it that made you stay and keep enjoying it over the years?

Hello, my name is BairogHaan, I have been playing BDO since the launch of BDO in 2016 and I fell in love with the atmosphere, visuals, and combat system of the game. Even after 10 years, I don't think there is any other MMORPG that can compete in those aspects with BDO. The neverending chase for gear, lifeskill level, and thrill of enhancing were the reasons for me staying. Though with the introduction of Sovereign and Kharazads, the thrill has lowered as the stakes are not as big as before. Another big reason for me still playing BDO is that I did start streaming it in 2018 and sharing my journey with the community made it more fun for me to play and progress!

Where did the name BairogHaan come from?

So the name BairogHaan consists of my nickname Bairog, which I made from my real-life name, and Haan. Haan, or as you might know it — Khan — is a Mongolian title, like Emperor. In my first guild, Harmony, my friends found out that I'm Mongolian, so they started jokingly calling me Khan, like in Genghis Khan, so it kinda stuck. Sadly, on Twitch my nickname Bairog was taken, so I just added Haan as it is written in Mongolian, just with English letters. Btw, it is Chingis Haan, not Gengis Khan — whoever translated his name to English needs to be fired (I wouldn't be Mongolian if I didn't bring this up 😂).

When did you decide to stream Black Desert full time?

Well, I started my streaming with BDO, and without BDO, it’s unlikely that I would have started streaming. But I have always approached streaming as a hobby. I'm still working a 9-to-5 job, so I don't worry about food money, as streaming income is very unstable. It would be amazing to live off only streaming, but only a few grow to that point.

Tell us about the 'On the Path to Full DEC' plan. I'm sure that goal has evolved over time, but how does it shape how you play the game?

Yeah, it evolved from the Path to Full PEN gear that I had for a long period of time, and I got my first full PEN gear set in 2021, but of course, new gear comes out, so you continue the journey! At the moment, I want to get full DEC, missing Sovereign mainhand and Edana armors. But because of the armors being time-gated, I'm taking a chill approach, just slowly building up silver and waiting until we get more stones! But to be able to click items to DEC requires a lot of silver, so I usually try to focus my gameplay around min-maxing the activities that I do for money. Of course, I don't do it all the time, but when I'm motivated, I do a lot of semi-afk lifeskills, active grinding, afk fishing, and other ways to get silver. When I'm not that motivated, I go around exploring the world and work on non-silver related goals, like treasure item hunting.

The feeling of 2 tap Double DEC. How did it feel and how did your community react?

I got boosted. It was a big relief to get this lucky after the last painful NOV that went on 152nd attempt! I think most people in chat were happy for me and a lot of people just like me not believing that it happened. But nothing can beat the first PEN Deboreka enhancing that I succeeded. The emotions during that click was through the roof! After 35 PEN accessory fails, one tapping the most expensive and rare accessory in the game... that was pure CINEMA. Nowadays enhancing is way less risky, you can’t downgrade, you don't lose items, so it ends up a bit less exciting.

You seem to dabble in all aspects of Black Desert. You have no problem grinding monsters or sailing around. Which content would you say has been your favorite?

Oh my favourite content is definitely gathering. It is very chill and relaxing. Probably it is still the most active time spent in BDO for me, even though I haven't gathered that much lately. Sadly, the lifeskilling motivation for me is all gone, and most of the lifeskills that I was interested in are Guru 50, and levels past that don't give anything. Devs talked about some rewards past Guru 50, but never implemented them.

Personally, I first heard of your name due to your helpful Google Sheets and other compiled data floating around. Have you always been interested in data and why did you decide to share it with other players, especially when resources and money can be hard to obtain?

Well, it all started because I'm lazy... what was the saying? Something about progress made by lazy men trying to find easier ways. Let me explain exactly how it went.

When gathering mastery was released, I was the first one to get the capped 2,000 mastery on EU/NA, so a lot of people would come to my stream and ask how much money I made, how much money they would make with a certain amount of mastery, what the best spots to gather are, and so on. So I started tracking data on resources that I got per hour, so I could answer people's questions accurately. Once I gathered a bunch of data on different spots, I had some answers on how much I made at 2,000 mastery. But people also wanted to know how much they would make with their mastery, and the amount of questions was so high that I decided to make a calculator and send people to it, where they could put in their numbers and it would tell them approximate income for different gathering spots. That spreadsheet inspired a lot of people back in the day to start creating spreadsheets for different lifeskills, and now there are so many useful lifeskill spreadsheets made by the community! I love it!

Later, I started making some enhancing spreadsheets — mainly for the same reason, with people asking what failstack to use at certain enhancing levels and I usually don't remember those kinds of numbers. So it was easier to make a spreadsheet and send people there.

Eventually, there were so many different spreadsheets and limitations to them that I decided to combine them and make a website instead — and that is how BDOWorkshop came to life. There, people can see popular enhancing items and play with numbers to see what failstacks to use and what the average cost is.

Incorporating physical exercise while you stream and play BDO. When did that come about?

Well, I'm not getting younger, sadly... And I have a very sedentary lifestyle, working in front of a PC, streaming, and playing games. I have never been a very athletic person, but you gotta do some physical activity, otherwise it is gonna negatively impact you later on in life.

So I got inspired by BiceptimusPrime's Fit Friday enhancing and started doing some exercises on stream. Plus, I'm currently streaming every day for a 60‑day challenge, and with a 9‑to‑5 work schedule, I don't really have free time, so doing it on stream sounded fun and motivating! Usually, at the end of the stream, I do one set of exercises until failure, and some additional ones during the stream if there are generous people subscribing.

What are you hoping to see at the Calpheon Ball?

I would love to see some rewards past Guru 50 lifeskill levels, so I have motivation to push lifeskill levels again, and maybe some new item that is as exciting to enhance as a PEN Deboreka back in the day. One that has high risk and high reward; I think not all gear should be like Sovereign/Kharazad enhancing!