A method for compressing a gas processing unit and a multi-stage piston compressor

The invention relates to a method for compressing a gas by means of a multi-stage piston compressor (100), wherein when an input pressure of a first compression stage (110) exceeds a threshold value, the gas is at least partially, in particular completely, branched off before the first compression stage (110) and a directly to the first compression stage following (110) the second compression stage (120) is supplied, and a computing unit for its implementation and such a multi-stage piston compressor (100).