The Things from the Flood art book absolutely was a continuation of the world introduced in Tales from the Loop, but picks up in the 90s after the Loop was decommissioned. That's made explicitly clear in the book.
The Electric State seems to be its own world despite the similarities in robots...
The "Forged in the Dark" wordmark, logo, and legal attribution that Scum & Villainy includes? Then again, as you said, I don't understand how those things work...
Reading the recipe all the way through once or twice to ensure I understand it, making sure I have all the required ingredients at hand (including utensils), and generally just making sure that the workspace is set up to begin the slaughter.