Pause

**Pause** is an activated item added in *The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth †*.

## Effects

* Stops all enemies including bosses until a fire button is pressed.
	+ This does not affect troll bombs.
	+ Touching frozen enemies will still damage Isaac.
	+ Co-op babies can fire without ending the effect.
	+ Stops Red Fire Places/ Purple Fire Places from shooting projectiles.
	+ Using  will not stop the effect.
	+ Bosses will resume their actions after 30 seconds have passed, while non-boss enemies (except Lil' Haunt) are still paused.
		- All enemies resume actions after 30 seconds
	+ The Forgotten's Soul will be able to extend far past the normal limits of the chain when activated while  The Soul is out.

## Notes

* New enemies generated during Pause being active will not be frozen and act normally. This applies for spawn-upon-death effects such as Attack Flies created by a Moter, or a Boss that stopped becoming frozen and began summoning enemies.
* Damage against paused multi-segmented bosses works unpredictably, most notably allowing you to damage Scolex on normally invulnerable parts.
	+ The health bars of multi-segmented bosses may not be updated properly, making it seem as if they died without running out of health.
* Reducing a boss to zero health whilst they are paused will initiate their death animation but they will not die until a fire button is pressed or the 30 second timer has lapsed.
* Pausing in the room before entering the minecart in the Mines causes the minecart to freeze, trapping the player inside of it until they exit to the main menu.

## Synergies

* /: Continues to damage enemies even while paused, allowing for insane amounts of damage.
* : Spawns green wisps on the middle ring. Wisps pause all enemies and enemy shots for 3 seconds when destroyed. This effect is not cancelled by shooting tears.
* Items that can be used without firing, such a Mom's knife and orbitals can do massive amounts of damage.
	+ Any item that does damage without firing + : Pause can be recharged while the effect is active, allowing for potentially infinite uptime.
* : Hitting pause stops all enemies from moving but Daddy Longlegs will continue his normal attack pattern, potentially clearing many rooms without any risk of damage unless spawn-on-death enemies are killed and Isaac has trouble avoiding them, forcing him to fire. This strategy is also time demanding so if going for Boss Rush etc. this synergy is detrimental.
* Tainted Jacob: Dark Esau will also be affected by Pause. With proper timing, this allows him to melt through endgame bosses with large amounts of armor-piercing damage by having Dark Esau sit on top of them.
* : The giant tear keeps dealing damage in stopped time, making it easy for boss kills.

## Interactions

* : No effect.
* : While the crosshair is out, immediately ends Pause's effect upon use. The player can cancel the use of Marked by pressing the "drop" key or button to then use Pause.
* Using the item in Greed Mode will freeze all enemies but will not pause the timer. New waves of enemies will continue to spawn even while the effect is active.

## Trivia

* This item is a reference to how a television channel can be paused with a TV remote.