Glowing Hour Glass

   

"Turn back time"

Item ID
5.100.422

Recharge Time

2 rooms

3 rooms

Item Pool

			Crane Game
			Shop
			Treasure Room

Collection Grid

(page 4, column 17, row 3)

(page 4, column 17, row 3)

(page 4, column 18, row 3)

For the item with a similar name, see The Hourglass.

Glowing Hour Glass is an activated item added in The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth.

Effect

• Upon usage, Isaac will be returned to the previous room and everything that happened in the current room will be undone.
  • Health, bombs, coins, keys, cards/runes/pills, items, and trinkets will be restored.
  • Certain consumables (such as the Joker) do not get restored.
  • Score and Time will reset, but about one second will be spent in unskippable animation after use.
  • Event counters will get restored (including Donation Machines, Greed Donation Machines, and Eden's Blessing).

Notes

• Does not return extra lives. (This seems to have been changed in Repentance. Resetting after dying on 1 red heart during to Dead Cat, will result in you respawning in the room you fought and died in, with the extra life intact.)
• Using a Joker and then the Glowing Hour Glass to return does not guarantee a Devil Room for every floor as the Joker card does not get refunded. The reason for this is that you immediately change rooms after the Joker card is used, as such reverting to before it was used is impossible.
• Does not return health lost entering or leaving a Curse Room, as the health was lost in the previous room.
• Does not return keys or health used to enter special rooms.
• Does not preserve the Devil Room or Angel Room door if used to return to the Boss Room.
• Does not turn a character back into another should they have been revived by Ankh, Lazarus' Rags, or Judas' Shadow.
  • Character changes are reverted by Glowing Hour Glass.
• Does not affect the chance for a portal to The Void to spawn (the portal will not spawn if it didn't spawn initially).

• Donations to the Donation Machine or Greed Machine are not reverted, and they can be reset into a working state once jammed.
  • Other counters not tied to your specific run, such as Slot Machines or Tinted Rocks destroyed, continue to accumulate, allowing easy unlocking of secrets such as the Counterfeit Penny, the D4, and Conquest if you have access to infinite uses of the Glowing Hour Glass (see below).
• With the Curse of the Blind, Glowing Hour Glass can be used to pick up or purchase an unknown item to see what it is, then decide whether or not to undo picking it up.
• Using the Glowing Hour Glass to prevent picking the Glowing Hour Glass up while previously having had an active item will return the active item and discharge it completely.
• No Damage Achievements are still available if the Glowing Hour Glass is used to reset damage.
• Isaac's temporary familiars (Blue Flies and Spiders) duplicate when using the Glowing Hour Glass.
  • If combined with The Battery or Sharp Plug while Blue Spiders are present, this combo can generate an infinite army of Blue Spiders.
• The Retro Vision Pill will continue to affect the game even after using the Glowing Hour Glass.
• Can be used to unlock multiple achievements tied to the killing of certain bosses such as Mom's Heart / It Lives.
• If there is a Lil' Battery in a Shop, the Glowing Hour Glass can be used infinitely, by entering the Shop without a charge and using the Lil' Battery to recharge and exit the shop. This is useful for duplicating temporary familiars or filling up the Donation Machine, among other uses.
• Using the Glowing Hour Glass right after beating Mom's Heart / It Lives / Ultra Greed allows you to get additional Eden tokens.
• If a new game is started and Eden begins with this item, using it in the first room will cause the game to crash.
• Using the Glowing Hour Glass after beating Mom's Heart in Mausoleum/Gehenna II will transport the player to the previous room without the Knife Pieces, but the door to Mom's Heart will also be closed. The following floor will be Womb/Utero/Scarred Womb and not Corpse.
• Using the Glowing Hour Glass after entering a new floor will teleport you back to the boss room of the previous floor.
• Bethany's soul heart container does not get reset upon activating this item.
• Does preserve chance 100% angel room chance if used after entering the first devil room
• If used during the Beast fight will teleport Isaac to the center room and have no further effect
• May be helpful for finding planetariums, as it lets you effectively skip item rooms while also seeing if what's inside them is worth taking (Confirmation needed)
  

Synergies

• ? Card: Allows for infinite usage as the ? Card gets refunded upon usage.
  • The ? Card doesn't get refunded upon usage.
• 48 Hour Energy pill: Allows for infinite usage as the pill gets refunded upon use.
• 9 Volt: Clearing any room is enough to instantly recharge the hourglass, allowing infinite tries for best outcome.
• The Battery: When the item is double charged and used it will also refund the used extra charge bar, making it possible to use it endlessly.
• Bum Friend: Using the Glowing Hour Glass after the Bum Friend has picked up coins but before it has spawned pickups will restore the coins in the room but will still cause the Bum Friend to drop pickups. This can be used to repeatedly generate pickups from the same set of coins.
• Curse of the Tower: If used quickly after taking damage, Troll bombs will spawn in the previous room. If you have the Safety Scissors, these can be harvested as normal.
• Dark Bum: Using the Glowing Hour Glass after the Dark Bum has picked up hearts but before it has spawned Soul Hearts will restore the hearts in the room but will still cause the Dark Bum to drop Soul Hearts. This can be used to repeatedly generate Soul Hearts from the same set of hearts.
• Habit: Allows rooms to be repeated infinitely as long as Isaac has enough health to take two hits, which are refunded on use.
  • Requires Isaac to have enough health to take three hits.
• More Options: If used after entering the Treasure Room for the first time, upon reentering the room, one item will have changed places and another will be new, effectively making More Options a choice of 3 items instead of 2. If used a second time, the items change back.
• Sharp Plug: Allows for infinite usage as long as you have more than 2 full hearts as the hearts used to charge will be refunded upon use.

Interactions

• Car Battery: No Effect.
• Void: It is impossible to absorb a Glowing Hour Glass pedestal without using the item and preventing it from having been absorbed.

Seeds

PC NDJQ D4GT (First floor Treasure Room)

PC SRVZ MGKQ (First floor Shop, quarter in Treasure Room)

PC Y1WR PKCD (Eden spawn)

PC PFTJ B87Y (Second floor Shop for 7 cents)

PC 36WC YDYT (First floor Treasure Room)

XboxOne 07C6 H920 (Second floor Treasure Room)

PS4 3NBT BZ0W (Flooded Caves II Shop)

Switch YBW1 J3E0 (Eden Spawn)