Time Ring

"As the name suggest, these bands allow one to move beyond the normal constraints of time...But there are distinct limitations. The rings take us to the future and then always bring us back." — Gowasu explaining how the Time Rings work to Zamasu in "He Who is of Saiyan Blood Trunks's Resolve"

Time Ring
時ときの指ゆび輪わ
Toki no Yubiwa
Debut	Dragon Ball Super Super Dragon Ball Heroes
Appears in	Anime: "A Message From the Future The Incursion of Goku Black!" Manga: "Future Trunks's Past"
Users	Supreme Kais Goku Black/Zamasu/Future Zamasu/Crimson-Masked Saiyan Shin Fused Zamasu
Color	&
Similar Techniques	Scroll of Eternity Time Machine Kai Kai

The Time Rings (時ときの指ゆび輪わ, Toki no Yubiwa) are accessories of the Supreme Kai which enable them to travel through time. They are normally used to observe future events in their main timeline.

Overview

Goku Black's Time Ring

The Time Rings have several special abilities, unlike the Time Machines created by Capsule Corporation, the Time Ring allows for "natural" time travel, and so does not create alternate timelines when used. Additionally, in the anime a wearer of a Time Ring will be granted acausality, and so even if their personal past were to be altered by someone or something - they would not be affected. As shown with the case of the original present Zamasu, as while the Zamasu from the altered main timeline was killed by Beerus due to Future Trunks altering the timeline, the original present Zamasu still continued to exist with his unaltered history thanks to his Time Ring.

It had been said that the Time Rings were used and only worn by the Supreme Kais who often used them to travel through time. Having a Potara earring is required in order for anyone to use the Time Ring, as explained by Gowasu. Despite this, they're only used in very rare occasions, and the last time it was used prior to the "Future" Trunks Saga was in Universe 10 400 years before Zamasu became a Supreme Kai apprentice.

Green time rings represent the creation of Alternate Timelines. Thus, the number of green rings indicate how many people have traveled into the past. A new ring is created whenever another person modifies the past. Initially, there are 4 green time rings and a silver one implying there are 4 or 5 timelines, depending on how the Time Ring works. If a silver ring is destroyed, the corresponding green ones will be too, making travelling to the corresponding timeline via Time Rings no longer possible, but other time-travelling methods still work. For example, after Future Zeno had erased everything within his timeline (including its time ring box containing its silver ring), Goku and Future Trunks were still able to return to pick him up.

Goku Black's Time Ring creating a portal

In the anime, the Time Ring is sensitive to disturbances in time that has been recently altered by an individual. Once the Time Ring is activated, a warp is created in the form of a dark portal, allowing the user to travel between past, present and/or future altered destinations for a short period of time, before the distortion in time and space returns to normal, pulling the user back to its original plane, sealing off that era of time.

According to Whis, the Time Rings are only used to travel to the future and then return to the present, however in the anime Goku Black was able to use it to follow Future Trunks into the past after he had just used his Time Machine.

Six Time Rings after Zamasu's death.

According to Beerus, if a god alters history, it will affect the future of a different timeline. Goku Black is the Zamasu of the same timeline in which he was killed by Beerus in the present, but because he was wearing the Time Ring in the anime, he was unaffected by changes in the past. Future Zamasu was the Zamasu of Future Trunks' timeline, so he was not affected by present-day Zamasu's death, with a new time ring being created as a result. In the manga, the erasure of a timeline's multiverse has also been shown to lead to that multiverse's time ring being destroyed, as is the case with Future Trunks' original timeline.

In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, as part of the Super Pack 4 DLC, Time Rings are shown to react to the presence of Time Patrollers who have travelled through time using a Time Scroll and is implied to be unable to travel to the Time Nest unless circumvented by following a Time Patroller back to it.

Time Travel Procedure

Gowasu and Zamasu travel 1000 years into the future via a Time Ring

As demonstrated by Gowasu and Zamasu, in order for one to time travel using a Time Ring, the one not wearing the ring must touch it with their fist, then both must say the number of years they wish to travel.

Alternatively, as demonstrated by Goku Black, when using a nearby distortion in time to time travel, the ring shimmers briefly before producing a thin beam of light that cleaves a portal in time (as though literally cutting through the space-time continuum) that can be used for travel (even to the past) until the distortion is corrected, at which point the wearer is forcibly returned to the era they just vacated.

Video Game Appearances

• Dragon Ball Heroes
• Dragon Ball Fusions
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
• Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle
• Dragon Ball FighterZ
• Dragon Ball Legends
• Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission
• Fortnite x Dragon Ball Super
• Dragon Ball: The Breakers
• Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

Trivia

• The ring possesses an infinity symbol almost identical to that of the Time Breakers' logo.
• Time Rings are one of two methods of Time Travel available to the Supreme Kai the other being the Time Scrolls used to record history (though Time Scroll can be used by almost anyone as long as they have access to the Time Vault which is normally reserved for Chronoa and select members of the Time Patrol, as they allow travel to any point in the official history of various timelines). It is implied that Supreme Kai like Old Kai can use them to travel through time if permitted by Chronoa herself.
  • In Universe 12, Agu has access to the very first Time Machine created in his Universe. However, it is unknown if he is permitted to use it. In the future timeline, the time machine itself fell into the hands of Goku Black and Future Zamasu when they killed him.
  • Additionally, Old Kai utilizes a Time Patrol sanctioned Time Machine (which are Time Distortion free) to access a Time Fragment during the Parallel Quest Tutorial in Xenoverse 2.
• Time Rings are the second form of Time Travel to be used by a main villain in the anime and manga the first being Cell's stolen Time Machine.
• Elder Kai's comments in Xenoverse 2 regarding the Time Rings used by Goku Black & Future Zamasu indicates that their misuse is considered a crime by the Time Patrol as while they cannot normally be used to travel back through time to alter the past, they are sensitive to time distortions and can be used to create Rifts in Time that allow a user like Goku Black, Future Zamasu, & Fused Zamasu to create the means to travel anywhere in spacetime thus bypassing their usual limitation of not being able to travel backwards unless they are returning from their present time's future.
  • Additionally, they can allow a user to follow Time Patrollers using a Time Scroll back to the Time Nest making their misuse a serious threat to the Time Patrol's operations and the official history of the Multiverse stored within the Time Vault.
• Due to her status as Supreme Kai of Time and her power over time and space, Chronoa doesn't necessarily require a Time Ring to travel through time. Additionally, she, and by extension the Time Patrol, has far superior methods of Time Travel, such as the Time Scrolls and time distortion-free Time Machines created by Time Patrol Trunks' Future Capsule Corporation, which were designed with her input and sanctioned by her (as Future Bulma's original design was flawed, resulting in it producing time distortions).