Suburban Almanac


 * For the almanac in Plants vs. Zombies 2, see Almanac (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

Suburban Almanac is a book containing data on all the plants the player owns and all the zombies that the player has encountered. It is obtained after beating Level 2-4 in Adventure Mode of the first time. Each time a new zombie appears in the seed choosing menu at the start of a level, a new card appears with the zombie name and picture but instead of a description, there is a message reading [ Not Encountered Yet].

Although important information like damage, recharge, and cost are shown for each plant and similar statistics are included for each zombie, some information is wrong or misleading and some is missing altogether. The flavor text for each entry is fairly humorous and may include jokes or references to other parts of the game, other games or other companies entirely.

It can be accessed from the Main Menu, in the plant selection screen by clicking on the Almanac button, in the pause menu, or on a specific zombie. Almanac entries for zombies and plants do not appear until they have been encountered.

Trivia

 * The name is likely a reference to the Suburban Book of the Dead, a novel by Robert Rankin.
 * The Suburban Almanac has an index, but it should be contents, since an index tells which page mentions a certain subject.
 * In the Pumpkin description, Renfield, a character from PopCap's Peggle is mentioned.
 * Only 48 seed packets can be seen in the Almanac so to access the Imitater's entry, the player must click the image in the top left corner of the plant section.
 * However, in the iOS and Android versions, the Imitater has its own seed packet.
 * The background for the card for the plants are colored like brown dirt, and the background for the card for the zombies is colored like blue stone, much like a gravestone texture.
 * The Sunflower's and the regular Zombie's outlines are seen in the background of the Almanac.
 * The background of each plant's animation in the Almanac varies according to the environment it can be used in, but all zombies have the same background, which is the grassy backdrop in the Day levels (with the exception of the Zombie Bobsled Team, which will be standing on a patch of ice created by a Zomboni).
 * There are four major differences between Nintendo DS Almanac and the Almanac of all other versions:
 * The seed packets are shown on the bottom screen while the entries are on the top screen. The length of some of the entries separates them into two pages.
 * The Almanac in the iPod touch, iPhone, Android, and Nintendo DS versions of Plants vs. Zombies are not large enough to show all types of zombies at once. Instead, a scroll bar, similar to what is shown on the mini-games, Puzzle Mode and Survival Mode menus, is used.
 * The Almanac is not accessible on the Nintendo DS version's pause menu.
 * In the main screen, the Almanac has only one word, Almanac, unlike the others, which have "The Suburban".
 * The plant in the index is the Sunflower, but the first plant is Peashooter.
 * Peashooter, Wall-nut, Puff-shroom, and Jalapeno are the only plants to be referenced to in another plant's entry.
 * Peashooter and Jalapeno are mentioned in Imitater almanac entry, Puff-shroom is mentioned in Fume-shroom's, and Wall-nut is mentioned in Tall-nut's.
 * More than half the plants in the online version appear different, such as Coffee Bean with wings.
 * Sometimes a bug can happen where if you saw Zombie Yeti and then closed the game, Zombie Yeti would appear as if you never saw him.