Look, saving smart is absolutely crucial in this Zone (and trust me, I've learned this the hard way). Start by making it a habit to save when you're in good shape - full health, decent ammo, that kind of thing. This gives you a solid foundation to fall back on because nothing's worse than loading into a save where you're already in trouble. Take a moment to save before stepping into new areas or anomaly fields, since these places often have nasty surprises waiting (those invisible anomalies are particularly sneaky).

After any major loot finds or artifact grabs, get that save in immediately because the Zone has a way of taking things back when you least expect it. Your save files will be tucked away in either the Steam folder at C:\Users[USER]\AppData\Local\Stalker2\Saved\Steam\SaveGames, or if you're on Game Pass, look in C:\Users[USER]\AppData\Local\Packages\GSCGameWorld... (interesting tidbit - the game actually creates separate directories for different platforms to keep things organized).

Here's something that might save your life - rotate between at least 3 different save slots instead of always overwriting the same one. This happens to be extra important because save corruption isn't uncommon, especially after crashes or sudden exits. While quicksaves are tempting with F5 or the Y-button, they shouldn't be your only backup plan. Think of manual saves as your insurance policy against the Zone's many unpredictable moments (and believe me, there will be plenty of those).