Suburban Almanac

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For the almanac in Plants vs. Zombies 2, see Almanac.
The Suburban Almanac itself

The Suburban Almanac is a book containing data on all the plants the player owns and all the zombies that the player has encountered in Plants vs. Zombies. It is obtained after beating Level 2-4 in Adventure Mode for 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.

The Suburban Almanac’s index page

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 in the seed selection screen. Almanac entries for zombies and plants do not appear until they have been obtained or encountered.

Gallery

Suburban Almanacs

Almanac entries

Related achievements

Book Learner.png
Book Learner
Fill out the Suburban Almanac.
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Morticulturalist
Collect all 49 plants.
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New zombologist icon.png
Zombologist
Discover the Yeti Zombie.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language Name Description
United States of America English Suburban Almanac
China Simplified Chinese 大图鉴
联合植物学会图鉴 on book cover
郊区图鉴 in Tree of Wisdom quote
lit. "The Great Almanac"
lit. "United Plants Association Almanac" on book cover
lit. "Suburban Almanac" in Tree of Wisdom quote
Traditional Chinese 大圖鑒
聯合植物學會圖鑒 on book cover
lit. "The Great Almanac"
lit. "United Plants Association Almanac" on book cover
France French Almanach de banlieue
Germany German Vorstadt-Lexikon
Italy Italian Enciclopedia suburbana
Japan Japanese 田舎ぐらし図鑑
Spain Spanish Almanaque suburbano

Trivia

  • The humorous Almanac flavor texts are written by Stephen Notley, as confirmed by George Fan.
  • The name is likely a reference to the The Suburban Book of the Dead: Armageddon III: the Remake, 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 Pumpkin's description, Renfield, a character from PopCap's Peggle, is mentioned.
The Imitater is the small drawing in the upper-left corner.
  • Only 48 seed packets can be seen in the Almanac, so to access Imitater's entry, players have to click the image in the top left corner of the plant section like the Tree of Wisdom says (Once you buy the Imitater, try clicking the little drawing in the upper left corner of your Almanac to access the entry on that sucker).
    • However, in the iOS and Android versions, 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.
  • Sunflower's and 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).
  • With Cheat Engine, it is possible to view hidden entries for Explode-o-nut, Giant Wall-nut, Sprout, the Backwards Repeater, Giga-gargantuar, and the ZomBotany zombies.
    • In the Game of the Year version, there is also a hidden entry for the Zombatar.
    • Of all the things listed, only Backwards Repeater and the ZomBotany zombies have entries. Backwards Repeater will have the same description as the normal Repeater and the ZomBotany zombies will have the same entries as the regular Zombie. One would have to modify LawnStrings.txt to add more descriptions.
  • There are four major differences between the 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 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 Sunflower, even though the first plant you get 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's 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 differently than in the actual game, such as Coffee Bean with wings.
    • Also, Cabbage-pult and many upgrade plants are missing from the online Almanac.
  • Sometimes a bug can happen where if a player sees Zombie Yeti and then closes the game, Zombie Yeti would appear as if it was never seen.
  • In Plants vs. Zombies FREE, the Almanac can be accessed from the Adventure Mode level selection view, rather than the main page.